Sending and deliverability

What it does and when to use it

Whether an email lands in the inbox or in spam depends mostly on who sends it and how. Azimea sends your emails from your own domain, signed so mail servers can trust it, keeps sending within a daily cap that grows as your figures stay healthy, and stops writing to addresses that bounce or complain so they do not drag the rest of your list down. Use this page when you set up sending, when emails go to spam, or when an email did not arrive.

How it works

Your sending domain

Your emails go out from an address on a domain you own (shop@yourshop.com). To prove it is yours, you add a few DNS records with your DNS provider:

Record	What it does	Needed
SPF	Says who is allowed to send on your behalf	Yes
DKIM	The signature that proves the email is really yours	Yes
DMARC	Tells mail servers what to do with forged emails	Recommended

When SPF and DKIM are found, the domain is Verified. Azimea checks the records again regularly; if a record disappears, you see it on the domain.

Status or reason	What it means	What you do
`Pending`	Added, but not all its DNS records are published yet. The dashboard shows it as "Being verified".	Publish the records shown at your DNS provider, then press Check again.
`Verified`	All its records are in place: you can send from it.	Nothing; keep the records published.
`Failed`	Verification failed for good. The dashboard shows it as "Stopped".	Check the records against the ones shown, then remove and add the domain again, or contact support.

Your senders

A sender is a from address and name (“Maria’s Shop” <hello@yourshop.com>), optionally with a reply-to address. Every sender must be on one of your verified domains. You keep a list of them, mark one as the default, and choose one on each campaign and on each flow’s email step. How many you can keep depends on your plan.

The daily cap

Each company has a number of emails it may send per day. The cap rises on its own as long as your figures look good (few bounces, few spam complaints); it reflects how you send, not what you pay. Emails over today’s cap are not lost: they wait and go out the next day. If the figures turn bad, the cap stops rising, and in serious cases sending stops until your list is cleaned up; prepared emails wait in the queue and go out once it restarts.

Addresses that no longer receive

Azimea stops writing to an address on its own when it bounces permanently, when the person marks an email as spam, or when they unsubscribe. These addresses are listed in Settings › Sending status. Only a bounced address can be put back, and only once you are sure the problem is fixed; an unsubscribe or a complaint is the person’s decision and cannot be undone by the store.

The sending gate

Before an email is queued, Azimea checks the person’s consent against the kind of message. If it does not allow it, the email is stopped and the reason kept. See Consent and GDPR.

Testing without reaching anyone

A sandbox is a copy of your company where flows, campaigns and the API work as usual but emails stay inside it and never reach your contacts. To see an email as a customer would, add test addresses to the sandbox (your own Gmail or Outlook): each one receives a confirmation link and counts only once it is confirmed.

What each status means and what to do

Email statuses

Status or reason	What it means	What you do
`Queued`	Accepted by Azimea and waiting its turn to go out.	Nothing.
`Sent`	The sending server took it from Azimea.	Nothing: Delivered or Bounced follows.
`Failed`	It could not be sent and Azimea is not retrying; the reason is written on the message.	Read the reason on the message; contact support if it repeats.
`Suppressed`	Stopped before sending by the sending gate; the reason is kept on the message.	See "Why an email was not sent" for the reason and what to do.
`Delivered`	The recipient's mail server received it.	Nothing.
`Bounced`	The recipient's mail server refused it after it was sent.	A permanent refusal stops future emails to that address; see the contact's status.
`HandingOff`	Being handed to the sending server right now.	Nothing: it moves on within seconds.
`Accepted`	Azimea's sending server confirmed it holds the email in its queue.	Nothing: Delivered or Bounced follows.
`Unknown`	It left Azimea, but no confirmation came back in the expected time.	Nothing: a late confirmation still moves it to its real status.

Why an email was stopped

Status or reason	What it means	What you do
`sending.gate_bounced`	The person's address does not work any more.	Nothing: the address is no longer used.
`sending.gate_complained`	The person marked one of your emails as spam.	Nothing: they are never written to again.
`sending.gate_no_basis`	The person has not subscribed and is not an existing customer, so marketing may not reach them.	Expected for people who only typed their address at checkout. To reach them, ask for consent; or make a message about their own order a service email.
`sending.gate_not_declared`	You have not yet declared how your shop collects consent, so no marketing goes out, even to subscribers.	Settings › Consent: choose your method and declare it.
`sending.gate_soft_opt_in_off`	The person is an existing customer, but your shop uses a consent checkbox, not a notice at checkout, so buying alone does not allow marketing.	Expected with a checkbox: only those who ticked it receive marketing. Switch to notice at checkout only if your checkout really shows that notice.
`sending.gate_topic_opted_out`	The person turned off the topic this email belongs to; they still receive your other topics.	Nothing: respect their choice.
`sending.gate_unsubscribed`	The person unsubscribed from your marketing emails.	Nothing: they said no. Service emails still reach them.

Events involved

Sending produces its own events about each email (delivered, opened, clicked, bounced, complained, unsubscribed). They show on the contact’s timeline, feed reports and segments (Last email opened, Last link clicked), and can be sent to your systems through webhooks. Opens and clicks made by machines (mail privacy features, link scanners) are told apart from people’s and never counted as a person’s.

Set it up in the dashboard

Settings › Sending domains › Add domain: type your domain (usually your shop’s).
Add each record shown (type, name, value) with your DNS provider, then Check again until the domain is Verified.
Settings › Sending status: add your senders on that domain and mark the default.
On each campaign and flow email step, choose the sender.
Watch Settings › Sending status: today’s cap, what was sent, how the last days look (bounces, spam complaints) and the addresses that no longer receive.

Do it from your code

POST /sending/emails sends a transactional email from your product; webhooks tell your systems what happened to each email. See what you can build today.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
The domain stays “Being verified”	A required record is missing or has a different value; the domain page shows what is in DNS now.	Correct the record with your DNS provider and Check again.
A sender cannot be saved	Its address is not on a verified domain of yours, or your plan’s sender limit is reached.	Verify the domain first; or remove a sender you no longer use.
An email shows `Suppressed`	The sending gate stopped it.	See why an email was not sent.
Emails arrive late	Today’s cap was reached; the rest goes out the next day.	Expected; the cap rises as your figures stay healthy.
Emails land in spam	Missing DMARC, a sudden large send to an old list, or many complaints.	Add DMARC, send to people who engaged recently, keep your list clean.