Understanding why some preview emails go to spam

You will learn

Learn about some potential reasons why you may see Klaviyo preview emails land in your spam folder.

Preview email limits

To help prevent abuse, Klaviyo limits how many preview emails you can send per billing cycle. Reaching this limit stops additional preview sends; it does not move delivered emails to spam. Learn about preview emails and limits.

If you have reached your preview email sending limit, you can still review your email on screen in the template editor. You can also create a list containing only yourself and other internal reviewers and send them a campaign. A campaign sent to this list is a live send and counts toward your regular email sending allowance. Check that the campaign targets only your internal list before sending.

Test email content

When sending preview emails, make sure that your test content looks as much like your real campaign as possible. If you use filler words or filler content, this may trigger the email client’s spam filter. You can use a third-party service like Litmus to check for potential spam-filter issues. Passing these tests does not guarantee that your email will reach every recipient’s inbox.

Preview emails and Gmail spam filters

Gmail adjusts which emails get caught by its spam filters on a user-by-user basis. This means that Gmail is always learning based on your specific email address and how you interact with these emails.

If you send frequent preview emails to yourself but don't open or click them, it's possible that your previews will start going to your spam folder. Engage with legitimate preview emails by opening and clicking them. To move a legitimate preview out of Spam in Gmail on a computer, select the email in your Spam folder and click Not spam. The Primary and Promotions tabs are both part of your inbox.

Sender address and authentication

If Google manages your business’s email address, a preview sent to your own address can still land in spam when that address is also used as the sender or reply-to address. Klaviyo sends the preview through its sending infrastructure. Read the warning at the top of the message in Gmail’s Spam folder to understand why it was flagged. Gmail may mark messages as spam when it cannot authenticate the sender.

If Gmail’s warning identifies a sender authentication problem, ask your email administrator to check your sending domain’s authentication. You can also review the email on screen without sending it, as described below.

Corporate spam filters and firewalls

Corporate spam filters and firewalls can be strict if you send multiple test emails (or many emails in general) to multiple people at your company. If you think these controls are blocking your previews, ask your IT or email administrator to check the spam-filter and firewall settings for blocks on Klaviyo emails.

Review your email in the template editor

Use the template editor to review an email on screen or send a preview email. A preview sent from a saved template uses your account’s contact email address as the sender. A preview sent from a campaign or flow uses that message’s sender settings. Sending from the template editor does not bypass the recipient’s spam filters.

To review the email without sending it:

1. Open the email you want to review in the template editor.
2. Click Preview in the editor header.
3. Select a profile with the data used in your email, or select a relevant event for an event-based flow to check its event-based content.
4. Review the rendered content. Click Done to return to the editor.

Additional resources