Review Request Email Deliverability Best Practices

Goals and Outcomes

Strong email deliverability is essential for collecting valuable customer reviews. This guide outlines best practices to help ensure your review request emails reach your customers’ inboxes. By following these recommendations, you can boost engagement, protect your sender reputation, and increase the effectiveness of your review requests.

In this article, you’ll learn how to optimize your Yotpo settings and email strategy to avoid common deliverability issues and drive better results.

Review Request Deliverability Overview

In Yotpo, you can monitor the deliverability of your review request emails in the Emails Dashboard. You can check what percent of emails were not successfully delivered in the email performance drill-down, under Failed.

A healthy deliverability rate is typically above 85%. If your rate falls below this benchmark, it could indicate technical issues or opportunities to improve your email setup and strategy. To help ensure your review requests reach your customers, we recommend following best practices in two key areas:

• Inside the Yotpo admin settings: Optimize your sender settings and configurations.

• General email best practices: Strengthen your overall email strategy to improve deliverability.

Inside the Yotpo Admin

1. Use a Verified “From” Email Address

If you leave the “From email” field empty (Yotpo Admin > Settings > Email Settings), Yotpo will send emails from reviews@yotpo.com by default. To use your own branded email, add a new sender address and authenticate your domain in Yotpo.

What is domain authentication, and why is it important?

Domain authentication allows Yotpo to send emails on your behalf by verifying that your brand has authorized it. Even if you use multiple email tools, each one must be individually authenticated. To complete domain authentication, you’ll need to add the following to your domain’s DNS settings:

• CNAME Records: CNAME records verify domain ownership and help route email traffic correctly. The CNAME you authenticate must match the domain in the “From email” settings in Yotpo.

• DMARC Protocol: DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is a security protocol that helps prevent unauthorized use of your domain. It also improves email deliverability by validating your sender identity.

Important

DMARC is now a required part of domain authentication to meet new sender requirements from Google and Yahoo. DMARC helps protect against unauthorized email use and improves deliverability. We provide guided support to help you set up a valid DMARC record.

To authenticate your domain, contact Yotpo Reviews Support or your Customer Success Manager for the necessary CNAME records that you need to add to your domain management system.

• Why it matters – Authentication ensures Yotpo’s email provider (SendGrid) has permission to send emails from your domain.

• Potential issues – If the domain isn't authenticated, the mismatch between Yotpo’s IP (which is the actual sender) and your domain can trigger spam filters and fail SPF checks. This can significantly reduce deliverability rates and open rates, preventing your review requests from reaching customers’ inboxes.

2. Include an “Unsubscribe” Button

While it may be possible to remove the unsubscribe link from your review request emails, we strongly advise against it. Not only does this increase the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam, but it also violates email compliance laws.

• Why it matters – Unsubscribe buttons are related to send-to-spam triggers and are critical for email compliance and deliverability.

• Potential issues – Emails without an unsubscribe option are more likely to be filtered into spam folders.

General Email Deliverability Best Practices

Even when everything is set up correctly in Yotpo, there are several external factors that can affect your email deliverability. Here are some common ones:

1. Low Open Rates

Email providers monitor engagement metrics, including how many emails are opened or deleted without being read. Poor engagement can lower your sender reputation. The more engaged your customers are with the review request emails you’re sending, the more likely it is for your future emails to reach their inboxes.

• Why it matters – Open rates are a factor in spam filtering algorithms.

• Potential issues – Consistent low engagement may cause your emails to be routed to spam.

Note

Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) can trigger false-positive opens by preloading email content before a user actually views it. This can artificially inflate open rates, making them less reliable for measuring engagement. Apple’s MPP affects users who use the Apple Mail app and have opted in to protect their Mail activity.

Tip

• Optimize your subject line to make it stand out and avoid spammy language.

• Send emails at optimal times to improve open rates.

For more tips, check our blog.

2. Lack of Brand Recognition

If a customer received a review request email and does not recognize the sender, they are more likely to mark it as spam. Email providers track the number of times emails from a specific address are marked as spam. Once they exceed a certain threshold, future emails can skip the inbox and go directly to the spam folder.

• Why it matters – A recognizable brand builds trust and encourages interaction and open rates.

• Potential issues – If too many recipients manually mark your emails as spam, your future emails could bypass the inbox altogether.

Tip

• Brand your emails consistently – use your store’s logo, fonts, and colors.

• Use a familiar and relevant “From” name that your customers will recognize.

3. Spam Trigger Words in the Subject or Body of the Email

Using certain words in your review request emails’ subject lines and even in the email content can automatically mark them as spam. Words like “Win,” “Click here,” “Earn $$$,” or “This is not spam” are often flagged by spam filters.

• Why it matters – The language you use in your email directly impacts how filters interpret your intent. Spam trigger words are proven to influence email deliverability.

• Potential issues – Spam filters may block or divert your email if trigger words are detected.

Tip

Use such words sparingly and only in natural, relevant context. Think like your customers, would this subject line feel spammy to them?

4. Poor Quality or Phishing-Like Content

Spam filters also check for content quality. Emails that contain grammar or spelling issues, or that look like phishing attempts, are likely to be flagged.

• Why it matters – Review request emails with content issues (e.g., spelling, punctuation) can be flagged as phishing emails. Clean, professional emails build trust and avoid suspicion.

• Potential issues – Emails may be flagged as phishing and sent to spam.

Tip

To avoid this, make sure to:

• Proofread emails carefully.

• Avoid excessive punctuation, all caps, or multiple exclamation marks.

5. Using Redirect or Shortened URLs

Certain URLs you use in the email content, such as redirects or shortened links, are commonly associated with spam.

• Why it matters – Redirects can hide the final destination of a link, which is a red flag for spam filters.

• Potential issues – Emails using redirected links may be blocked or filtered.

Tip

• Use full, descriptive URLs instead of shortened or redirected links, such as Yotpo.

• Consider testing your emails using deliverability tools or spam checkers.

By following these best practices, you can improve the likelihood that your review request emails will reach your customers and encourage them to engage with your content.