In this guide 6 sections
Most Brevo mail lands in spam because the sender domain is not authenticated or the From address is a free mailbox. Check the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records first, then the sender address, then whether receipts and newsletters share one stream. Bounces and an unread reply-to inbox finish the list.
Start with the authenticated sending domain
Open the Senders, Domains and Dedicated IPs page in your Brevo account and look at the status beside your domain. A domain that shows as unauthenticated is the commonest cause of spam placement. Mailbox providers distrust unsigned mail. They are right to.
Authentication lives in your DNS zone, not in Brevo. Brevo hands you a DKIM key as a TXT record, plus a code to verify ownership. Someone with access to the registrar or Cloudflare must paste them in exactly. One stray space breaks the signature. Nothing warns you.
Check the SPF record too. A domain may hold only one SPF line, so a second include added by a newsletter tool or CRM makes both fail.
- Brevo domain page shows authenticated
- DKIM TXT record published and matching
- One SPF record only, with Brevo included
- DMARC record present, starting at monitor only
- Domain code for Brevo verification still in place
Stop sending from a free mailbox address
A From address ending in gmail.com or outlook.com cannot be signed by Brevo on your behalf. Gmail and Yahoo publish DMARC policies for those domains, so a message claiming to be from them but sent by Brevo is rejected or filed as junk.
Create a sender on a domain you own, such as orders at your company domain. Add it in Brevo, confirm the verification mail and send a test to a Gmail and an Outlook account you control. Open the message, choose show original and read the three lines for SPF, DKIM and DMARC. All three should say pass.
Keep the display name steady. A sender that changes name every campaign looks like a stranger each time.
Separate transactional mail from campaigns
Password resets, invoices and delivery notices should not share a sending identity with a monthly promotion. When a promotion draws complaints, the reputation damage reaches the reset email a customer is waiting for.
Use a subdomain for each stream. Send marketing from news at one subdomain and transactional mail from a second. Authenticate both in DNS. Brevo lets you tie each stream to its own sender, and the reputation is then tracked per subdomain.
Warm up new senders gently. A brand new subdomain that suddenly mails a whole contact list in a single hour looks like a hijacked account.
- Marketing sends from its own subdomain
- Receipts and resets send from another
- Each subdomain carries its own DKIM key
- First campaign goes to your most engaged contacts only
Watch the bounces and complaints you have been ignoring
Open the Brevo statistics for your last three campaigns. Look at hard bounces, blocked addresses and spam complaints. A list full of dead addresses tells mailbox providers you do not clean your data.
Brevo suppresses hard bounces on its own. It cannot fix the cause. Look for an old import from a trade show sheet or a form with no address check. Add a double opt-in step to the signup form and remove contacts who have not opened anything in a long stretch.
Look for a pattern by provider. If only Outlook addresses are blocked, read the rejection text in the logs. Microsoft usually names the reason.
Give replies somewhere to go
A no-reply address counts against you. Gmail watches whether people write back. Set the reply-to field to a real inbox that someone reads each morning.
Check the unsubscribe link too. Brevo adds one to campaigns, but hand-built transactional templates sometimes lose the footer; A hidden unsubscribe link pushes readers toward the spam button, which counts far worse.
Finish by sending the same message to five different mailboxes and logging where each one lands; repeat after every DNS change so you can see which fix worked.
Brevo deliverability checklist
Printable sheet, four columns: check, where to look, expected result, status; rows cover domain status, DKIM and SPF records, DMARC policy, sender address and subdomain split. More rows hold bounce and complaint counts for three campaigns, the reply-to owner and a five-mailbox placement test.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Do I need a DMARC record for Brevo?
Brevo can send without one, but Gmail and Yahoo now expect it from bulk senders. Start with a monitor-only policy, read the reports for a few weeks, then tighten it.
Why do my Brevo emails reach Outlook but not Gmail?
Each provider scores reputation on its own. Gmail weighs engagement and complaints heavily, so a low open rate or a missing unsubscribe link can sink mail there while Outlook accepts it.
Should I buy a dedicated IP in Brevo?
Only if you send steady, large volume. A dedicated IP has no history, so a small sender gains little and must warm it up carefully. Fix authentication and list quality first.
How long after a DNS fix will mail stop going to spam?
Authentication starts passing once the record propagates, usually within hours. Reputation recovers more slowly, over several sends to engaged contacts, so judge the result over a couple of weeks.