# Sender reputation

Sender reputation is the trust mailbox providers give a sending domain and IP address, based on how its past email was received: spam complaints, bounces, spam trap hits, authentication and engagement. It largely decides whether your email reaches the inbox, the spam folder or nowhere.

Canonical page: https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/sender-reputation. Updated 2026-10-15.

## What affects it

Mailbox providers like Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo score every sender from the evidence of its past mail:

| Signal | Helps your reputation | Hurts your reputation |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Spam complaints | Few or none | People marking your mail as spam |
| Bounces | Addresses that exist | Many addresses that don't |
| [Spam traps](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/spam-trap) | None on your list | Any hit, especially pristine traps |
| Authentication | SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up and passing | Missing or failing records |
| Engagement | Opens, replies, mail moved out of spam | Mail ignored or deleted unread |
| Sending pattern | Regular, predictable volume | A sudden huge send after months of silence |

Complaints weigh the most, because they are a person telling the provider directly that they didn't want your email. Gmail and Yahoo require bulk senders to keep complaints low, and Google asks for a spam rate under 0.3%.

## Domain and IP reputation

Providers keep a reputation for the IP addresses that send your mail and for the domain it comes from. IP reputation belongs to whichever service sends your email, and on a shared service it is shared with other senders. Domain reputation belongs to you and follows you between services, which is why it now carries most of the weight. Sending your marketing mail from a subdomain, such as mail.yourcompany.com, means a bad send can't drag down the email your team sends every day.

## Why a waitlist puts it at risk

A waitlist often goes quiet between signup and launch, then sends one large email to everyone at once. By then some addresses no longer work, some people have forgotten signing up and click "spam", and the send is the biggest the domain has ever made. Each of those is a signal from the table above, all on the same day. Good [email deliverability](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/email-deliverability) on launch day starts weeks earlier.

## Protecting it

- **Mail only confirmed people.** [Double opt-in](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/double-opt-in) keeps fake addresses, typos and traps off your list.
- **Stay in touch.** Occasional updates keep your name familiar, so the launch email is expected.
- **Remove bounces and honor unsubscribes at once.**
- **Make unsubscribing easy.** A hidden unsubscribe link turns people who wanted out into complaints.
- **Never buy or scrape a list.**
- **Release very large sends in batches** and watch bounce and complaint rates as they go.

## Sender reputation in LaunchList

You can send from your own subdomain, connected with three CNAME records, so your marketing mail builds its own reputation and never touches your team's everyday inbox. Every email is authenticated with SPF, DKIM and DMARC and carries one-click unsubscribe.

Each send protects that reputation for you: addresses that can't receive mail and throwaway inboxes are left out, and anyone who unsubscribed, bounced or marked an earlier email as spam is skipped at the moment it sends. If too much of an audience looks undeliverable, the broadcast is held. You can release a broadcast in batches over hours or days, and it pauses itself if too many bounce or complain. Each broadcast shows how many were sent, delivered, bounced and unsubscribed, and whether those rates are healthy. More on sending in [email](https://getlaunchlist.com/features/email).

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I check my sender reputation?

Google Postmaster Tools shows how Gmail sees your domain, including spam complaint rate and authentication results, and Microsoft's SNDS does something similar for IP addresses sending to Outlook. The simplest early signal is in your own sending tool: watch bounce and complaint rates on every send.

### Is sender reputation tied to my domain or my IP address?

Both, but domain reputation now carries most of the weight, because it follows you whichever service sends your mail. That is why authenticating mail as your own domain matters, and why many founders send marketing mail from a subdomain.

### Can one bad send ruin my sender reputation?

One send to a large, old or unconfirmed list can do real damage: a burst of bounces and complaints is exactly what providers look for. Reputation recovers with time and clean sending, but slowly, so it is much cheaper to protect than to repair.

### How do I protect my sender reputation for a launch?

Mail only people who confirmed they wanted to hear from you, send updates before launch so they remember you, remove addresses that bounce, make unsubscribing easy, and keep your launch email honest and expected.

## Related terms

- [Email deliverability](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/email-deliverability.md)
- [Spam trap](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/spam-trap.md)
- [Double opt-in](https://getlaunchlist.com/glossary/double-opt-in.md)