Why Emails Go to Spam

Written by Erik Wantland

Last published at: December 9th, 2020

Emails usually go to spam due to the recipient's specific email account and settings/security they have configured to detect junk/spam email. To resolve this, the recipient needs to configure their email's settings/security so that messages from Follow Up Boss aren't marked as Junk/Spam.

To whitelist an email address in Gmail, sign in to your account at Gmail.com and do the following:

  1. Add the address to your contacts
  2. Add the email address that is sending you email (eg support@onlinegroups.net) to your Gmail Contacts. Google will usually deliver email from addresses that are in your Contacts.
  3. Mark messages as ‘Not spam’
  4. If Gmail has marked emails you wish to whitelist as spam, tell Gmail the emails are not spam:
  • In Gmail, navigate to the spam folder.
  • Search for emails containing the domain you wish to whitelist (eg onlinegroups.net).
  • Select all the emails shown.
  • Click More and then Not spam.
  • Create a filter for the address
  • Create a filter to tell Google to whitelist email from a domain or online group:
    • Click the cog icon in the top-right corner, and then Settings
    • Click on Filters and then Create a new filter
    • Either
      • enter the domain of the email you want to whitelist in the From field or
      • enter the email address of the online group you want to whitelist in the To field
    • Click Create filter with this search
    • In the box headed When a message arrives that matches this search select Never send it to spam
    • Click the Create filter button

    gmail_from_domain_cropped.png

    To whitelist all email from a domain, enter the domain in the From field

    gmail_to_list_cropped.png

    To whitelist an online group, enter the group email address in the To field

    Tips:

    • Do not enter email addresses in both the From and To fields as Gmail will only filter in emails that meet both criteria
    • In both the From and To fields, you can enter either a specific email address or an entire domain, such as "followupboss.com"
    • To enter multiple domains in each field, separate them with OR as in “onlinegroups.net OR groups.yahoo.com”

    How to whitelist an email address with Office 365

    • Click on the gear icon in the top right corner.
    • Scroll the gear panel down to the bottom and select Mail under the Your app settings
    • On the left hand side, select Mail > Accounts > Block or Allow
    • Select Automatically filter junk email
    • Under Safe Senders and Recipients, enter the sender's email address and click the + button.
    • Click Save