Inbox Placement

Delivered isn't the same
as in the inbox.

A clean list gets you to the door. Placement decides whether you walk through it. Seed-test across Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and Apple Mail to see Inbox, Promotions or Spam per provider — with full SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks and the exact record to fix.

1 in 6
legit emails miss the inbox
4+
mailbox providers tested
3
auth records checked
98.9%
verification accuracy
Deliverability grade

One number that's honest.

Every seed test rolls up into a single grade — measured from real deliveries, not modeled. Below it, the breakdown that earns it: per-provider placement, auth, and the one fix that moves it most.

  • Inbox — Primary tab, full reach
  • Promotions — landed, but tabbed away
  • Spam — invisible, reputation at risk
B84% inbox
acme.io · “June Promo” · 4 providers
Seed testing

See exactly where you land.

Send your real campaign to our monitored seed inboxes and we read the placement back per provider — Inbox, Promotions, or Spam. No guessing, no modeling. The actual result.

  • Per-provider breakdown. Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and Apple Mail — including the Promotions tab.
  • The ‘why’, not just the score. We name the spam triggers and the broken record dragging you down.
  • Measured, never modeled. Real deliveries to real seeds — we show our work.
seed test · “June Promo”
Overall placement⚠ 84% inbox
Gmail91% · INBOX
Outlook72% · PROMOTIONS
Yahoo88% · INBOX
Apple Mail96% · INBOX
Why Outlook tabbed you: SmartScreen flagged 3 spammy phrases and your DMARC is p=none. Fix both to recover ~18% reach.
Authentication

SPF, DKIM & DMARC, decoded.

The records that decide your fate are invisible until they fail. We check all three plus alignment and reverse-DNS, then tell you in plain English what to change — and hand you the exact record.

  • Pass / warn / fail at a glance. No DNS expertise required.
  • Copy-paste fixes. We give you the literal record, not a lecture.
  • Alignment & rDNS too. The subtle misconfigs most tools miss.
auth check · acme.io
SPFv=spf1 include:_spf.elc.io ~allpass
DKIMselector1 · 2048-bit · alignedpass
DMARCp=none → recommend p=quarantinewarn
rDNS / PTRmail.acme.io → 1 mismatchfail
Sender reputation

Guidance you can act on.

Placement is a symptom; reputation is the cause. We connect the two — so you fix the root problem, not just today's bad send.

Reputation, scored — not guessed

Authentication, complaint and bounce signals fold into one sender-health read, with the single thing to fix first surfaced at the top. No 40-metric dashboard to decode — the verdict, then the lever.

List quality is reputation

Spam-traps and dead addresses are what torch your sender score. Verify and clean first — placement follows.

Warm-up & cadence advice

Sending too much too fast on a cold domain? We flag it and recommend a ramp providers actually trust.

How it works

From blind send to certain.

1 · Send to seeds

Add our seed list to your campaign and hit send like any other broadcast.

2 · Read placement

We detect Inbox, Promotions or Spam for every provider in seconds.

3 · Check auth

SPF, DKIM, DMARC, alignment and rDNS — graded, with fixes.

4 · Fix & resend with confidence

Apply the plain-English fixes, re-test, and watch your inbox rate climb. Pair it with verification and automated cleaning to keep it there — credits never expire.

For developers

Placement, programmatically.

Read inbox rates and auth status straight from the API and gate your sends on real placement data. One request, structured JSON back.

bash
# Inbox-placement API — private beta (request access).
# Run placement tests in the dashboard today; API access on request.
curl https://platform.emaillistchecker.io/api/v1/inbox-placement \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ELC_API_KEY" \
  -d test_id=june-promo

{
  "overall_inbox_rate": 0.84,
  "providers": {
    "gmail":      { "inbox": 0.91, "spam": 0.02 },
    "outlook":    { "inbox": 0.72, "promotions": 0.26 },
    "yahoo":      { "inbox": 0.88, "spam": 0.04 },
    "apple_mail": { "inbox": 0.96, "spam": 0.00 }
  },
  "auth": { "spf": "pass", "dkim": "pass", "dmarc": "p=none" },
  "advice": "Tighten DMARC to quarantine; remove 3 spam-trigger phrases."
}
Senders who stopped guessing

They send on certainty now.

We thought we had a 99% inbox rate. The seed test showed Outlook was tabbing two-thirds of our sends to Promotions. Fixed the DMARC, recovered the reach in a week.

Tomas BergGrowth, B2B SaaS

The auth check is the clearest I've used. It didn't just say 'DMARC fail' — it handed me the exact record to paste. Saved our deliverability engineer a full afternoon.

Renata AlvarezEmail Operations

Knowing inbox vs spam per provider before a big launch changed how we send. We no longer fly blind on send day.

Kwame AsanteCRM Director, Retail
Questions

Good to know.

We give you a list of monitored seed inboxes across the major providers. You send your real campaign to them, and we read exactly where each copy landed — Inbox, Promotions/Updates tab, or Spam — then break it down by provider.

Know where you land — before you send.

Run a seed test, check your auth records, and fix what's tabbing you to spam. Start free — no credit card.