Deliverability Review and Fix
Email deliverability audit and fix. Found, fixed and checked in one engagement.
Our email deliverability audit finds what is stopping your email reaching the inbox, then fixes it with your team. You get a written report within 3 to 5 business days, then 45 days of hands-on fixes. Known cost, known timeline, one invoice.
From £3,950 + VAT, including 45 days of implementation support, agreed before we start.
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- Senior consultants, run by a former SendGrid and Twilio leader
- For teams whose revenue depends on email arriving
Trusted by teams whose revenue depends on email arriving
What it is
What is an email deliverability audit?
An email deliverability audit is an investigation into why your email is not reaching the inbox, or why it might soon stop. It checks the three things mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook judge you on: the technical setup that proves your email really comes from you, the reputation they hold about your domain, and the sending behaviour that builds or damages that reputation.
Most deliverability audits end with a list of findings and a quote for the fix. Ours is the Deliverability Review and Fix. The audit and the fix are one engagement, run by a senior consultant who does the work with your team.
At a glance
- Report
- 3 to 5 business days after access
- Fixes
- Across 45 days, in order of impact
- Working sessions
- Weekly, 45 to 60 minutes
- Scope
- Up to three domains or platforms
- Price
- From £3,950 + VAT
Warning signs
Signs you need an email deliverability audit
Deliverability problems rarely announce themselves. If you’re asking why your emails are going to spam, these are the signs to look for.
Open and click rates sliding
A slow decline over several weeks, with no change to your content or audience.
Sign-up and password emails going missing
New users never get the verification or welcome email, so they never get started.
Email revenue dropping
Send volumes look steady, but the revenue credited to email keeps slipping.
Fine at Gmail, spam at Outlook
Or the other way round. One provider has a problem with you that the others don’t.
A recent change
A new email platform, a new sending domain, a big list import or a jump in volume.
A warning you can see
A blocklisting, a spike in bounces or complaints, or a warning from your email platform.
If two or more of these sound familiar, an email deliverability audit is worth doing now rather than later. Not sure yet? Run the free health check for a quick technical read first.
Why it matters
What happens when deliverability problems go unspotted
Every email that lands in spam instead of the inbox is revenue your business has already earned but never received. A customer signed up, made a purchase or asked a question, and your business already did the work to earn that message a place in their inbox. When it lands in spam, or never arrives, that work is wasted and the revenue attached to it disappears quietly, with no error message and no alert on a dashboard.
For most businesses, the scale of this stays invisible until someone goes looking. A welcome email that never arrives means a new sign-up who never activates. A password reset stuck in spam means a support ticket instead of a self-service fix. A shipping confirmation buried in the wrong place means a customer who calls to ask where their order is. None of this shows up as one dramatic failure. It shows up as a slow drift in the numbers that most teams put down to the product or the marketing, when the real cause sits in the sending setup underneath.
Problems also compound. Mailbox providers judge you on how you have been sending recently, so a reputation that slides for three months takes longer to rebuild than it took to lose. The earlier an audit finds the cause, the cheaper the fix.
Why we work differently
The problem with most deliverability audits
An audit that ends in a report is only half a service. You get a document telling you what’s wrong, then a second conversation to scope the fix, then a second sign-off to get it approved. Weeks pass, and the problems the report found are still costing you inbox placement while everyone waits.
A typical deliverability audit
- A report, then a separate quote for the fix
- Checks whether records exist, not whether they work
- Stops at the technical layer
- Nothing changes until a second project is signed off
Deliverability Review and Fix
- The audit and the fix in one engagement and one invoice
- Checks that authentication is aligned and actually protecting your sending
- Covers reputation, sending behaviour, list quality and lifecycle design
- Fixes start straight after the report, in a weekly working session
The investigation
What our email deliverability audit investigates
A full email deliverability audit has to cover more ground than any single tool can reach. Ours investigates three layers, because a problem in one is often caused by something happening in another.
Layer one
Authentication and infrastructure
- SPF, DKIM, DMARC and BIMI, checked for alignment rather than just existence
- Every platform sending as you, including the ones nobody remembers setting up
- Sending domain and IP setup and history
- One-click unsubscribe and the other sender rules Gmail and Yahoo now enforce
Layer two
Sender reputation and sending behaviour
- Domain and IP sender reputation, from Google Postmaster Tools, Microsoft SNDS and Yahoo Sender Hub
- Sending behaviour, cadence and volume patterns over time
- List quality, suppression logic and bounce handling
- Status across the blocklists that matter
Layer three
Engagement and lifecycle design
- Engagement patterns and segmentation health
- Lifecycle trigger design across real customer journeys
- How your marketing, transactional and lifecycle streams affect each other, rather than each being reviewed on its own
Findings across all three layers are prioritised by the impact they are having on inbox placement and revenue, not by how easy they are to fix. For more detail, read what we check and why.
The engagement
How the audit and fix work, from report to day 45
Within 3 to 5 business days of access
1. Report
The investigation, a written report in plain English and an agreed plan, with scope and price confirmed.
Through to day 45
2. Fix
Quick fixes made in order of impact through a weekly 45 to 60 minute working session, with direct email access to your consultant in between.
Day 45
3. Close
The seed test is repeated, you get a summary of what changed, and any longer-term work is set out as a clear, prioritised plan.
What you get
- A written report and agreed plan within 3 to 5 business days of access, explained in plain English rather than left as a score
- Quick fixes across 45 days: authentication corrections, infrastructure changes, list hygiene, suppression work and configuration changes
- A weekly working session that brings product, marketing and IT into the same conversation where needed
- Direct email access to your consultant throughout, not a ticketing queue
- A seed test at the start and at close, read alongside Postmaster, SNDS and bounce data, because one seed test is a data point, not proof
- A prioritised plan for longer-term work, such as list rebuilding, a change of sending architecture or a phased DMARC rollout
The report is yours to keep. Hand it to your own team, pass it to another supplier, or carry the longer-term plan into Managed Deliverability.
Pricing
What an email deliverability audit costs
Covers up to three sending domains or platforms, and includes the 45 days of implementation support. Each additional domain or platform is £979. Larger estates are scoped and the figure confirmed in writing before work begins, so the cost is settled before the findings land.
After the audit
Keep it fixed with Managed Deliverability
Problems come back as lists age, platforms change and mailbox providers update their rules. Managed Deliverability protects your email every day and carries the longer-term plan forward, with one agreed strategic improvement each month. Clients coming from a Review and Fix start the monthly work straight away.
How Managed Deliverability worksUK and Europe
Built for UK senders
Most audits available to UK businesses are either automated tool reports with no human judgement behind them, or US-built services designed for US inbox behaviour and US working hours. We’re UK-based, work UK hours, and understand the parts that don’t translate from a generic playbook: UK GDPR as it applies to your list, the weight Microsoft 365 carries in UK business inboxes, and Consumer Duty where it applies to regulated senders.
Fit
Who this is for
Growth-stage SaaS, ecommerce and fintech teams in the UK and Europe, where email is how customers activate, buy or stay. That means SaaS platforms where a welcome or verification email decides whether a trial converts, ecommerce and subscription businesses where a receipt or shipping update lands at the moment a customer is most likely to buy again, and fintechs where a failed transactional email carries Consumer Duty risk as well as a commercial one.
What clients say
“He helped uncover issues with our email deliverability and was incredibly thorough from start to finish. … Couldn't recommend him more highly.”
“We discovered our emails were landing in spam for a large portion of users. Fixed within weeks.”
“James quickly identified the issue, came up with the solution and solved the problem. He's very knowledgeable and approachable.”
“I would recommend Digistrat to anyone dealing with deliverability issues or looking to upskill their team. James went above and beyond to make sure I understood every finding and what steps were needed to fix them.”
Not sure yet?
Still working out if this is the right fit?
If you want to understand exactly what an audit like this looks at before you commit, read what we check and why. If you’re not yet sure you have a problem at all, the 90-minute advisory session is £250 + VAT. It’s for one question or one decision. If you already know email is missing the inbox, the audit is the right step.
Common questions
FAQs about the email deliverability audit
How is a deliverability audit different from a free online checker?
Free tools check specific technical records and return a pass or fail. That’s a useful starting point but a narrow one. Our audit looks at what those records mean in the context of how you actually send, then investigates sender reputation, sending behaviour, list quality and lifecycle design, the layers a free tool can’t reach, and turns the findings into fixes rather than a score.
How long does an email deliverability audit take?
You get the written report within 3 to 5 business days of us receiving access and information. The fixes then run across a 45-day window with a weekly working session, and the engagement closes with a repeat seed test at day 45.
How much does an email deliverability audit cost?
From £3,950 + VAT for up to three sending domains or platforms, including 45 days of implementation support. Each additional domain or platform is £979. Larger estates are scoped individually and confirmed in writing before we start.
Do you just hand over a report, or do you fix things too?
We fix things. The audit and the fix are the same engagement. Quick fixes are made across the 45-day window that follows the report, and anything longer-term is set out clearly so you can action it yourselves or carry it into Managed Deliverability.
What access do you need to run the audit?
Read-only access to your email platform helps a lot, because it lets us review sending patterns, suppression logic and configuration that aren’t visible from outside. For DNS, we give your team the exact changes to make rather than holding your credentials. We confirm exactly what we need before the engagement begins and work with whatever level of access you’re comfortable with.
Will the audit stop my emails going to spam straight away?
Some fixes, like correcting authentication, take effect as soon as they’re live. Reputation takes longer, because mailbox providers rebuild trust as they see better sending over the following weeks. The report is clear about which problems fall into which group, so you know what to expect and when.
How reliable is seed testing on its own?
Useful, but not conclusive. A seed test shows where a message landed for a small set of test addresses at one moment in time. We run one at the start of the audit and again at close, and read it alongside authentication status, reputation trends and real engagement data rather than treating one clean result as proof the work is done.
How often should you run an email deliverability audit?
After any significant change, such as a new email platform, a new sending domain, a large list import or a big jump in volume, and at least once a year otherwise. Managed Deliverability clients get a full deliverability audit twice a year as part of the service.
What happens after the 45-day window?
Anything that depends on longer-term work, such as list rebuilding, a change of sending architecture or a phased authentication rollout, is set out in the report with a clear plan. You can action it with your own team, bring in another supplier, or continue with us through Managed Deliverability.
Find out whether a deliverability audit is the right next step
We run checks on your domains before we speak, so in 15 minutes you get a straight answer on whether an audit is worth doing. The Review and Fix is from £3,950 + VAT, including 45 days of implementation support.
Not ready to talk yet? Run the free health check