Email deliverability is a pain. If you’re running B2B sales, nothing kills momentum like your carefully crafted emails winding up in spam, or worse, never being seen at all. Tools like Folderly promise to help by giving you “email health reports.” But what does that actually mean? How do you set them up, and once you’ve got a report, how do you make sense of it without falling for dashboard theater? This guide is for sales leaders, managers, or the unlucky soul tasked with “fixing the email problem” for your B2B team.
Let’s keep it simple, practical, and honest—so you can spend less time worrying about deliverability and more time closing deals.
1. Why B2B Sales Teams Need Email Health Reports
Before you dive into another platform, let’s get real: most “deliverability” problems aren’t solved with dashboards alone. But if you’re sending outbound at scale (even just a few hundred emails a week), you do need to know:
- Are your emails even reaching inboxes?
- Are you on blacklists?
- Are your authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) correct?
- Is your sending behavior raising red flags?
A good email health report tells you if you’re in trouble before you see replies dry up. Folderly’s reports claim to do this, but don’t expect magic. You still need to act on what you see.
2. Setting Up Folderly for Email Health Reporting
Assuming you already have a Folderly account and access to your sending domains, here’s how to get started.
Step 1: Connect Your Mailboxes
- Log in to Folderly.
- Go to “Mailboxes” and click “Add Mailbox.”
- Choose your email provider (Google, Microsoft, SMTP, etc.).
- Follow the prompts to connect the mailbox you want to monitor.
Pro tip: Start with just one active sending mailbox to avoid noise. Don’t connect your CEO’s inbox or anything you don’t actually use for outbound.
Step 2: Set Up Sending Domains
- In Folderly, go to the “Domains” section.
- Add all your domains used for outbound, including any alias or subdomains.
- Folderly will prompt you to verify domain ownership—usually a DNS record.
What matters: Make sure the DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) show as “verified” in Folderly. If they’re not, your health scores will be worthless.
Step 3: Enable Health Checks
- Folderly can run automated health checks on your connected mailboxes.
- Turn on the health check feature for the mailboxes you care about.
- Set the frequency (daily or weekly). Daily is usually fine unless you’re troubleshooting a big issue.
Heads up: Don’t enable health checks for every mailbox. Focus on the ones sending cold outbound. Too many checks = more email noise, less signal.
Step 4: Configure Spam Testing (Optional, but Useful)
- Folderly can send test emails to a network of “seed” inboxes to see where your emails land (inbox, spam, promotions).
- Set up a basic test campaign, ideally mimicking your real outbound content.
- Schedule it to run on a regular basis.
Step 5: Set Notification Preferences
- You can get alerts if your health score drops or if something critical changes (like a domain getting blacklisted).
- Don’t go overboard. Start with weekly summaries and escalate to real-time only if you’re actively fighting a deliverability fire.
3. Reading (and Not Overreacting to) Folderly’s Email Health Reports
Once Folderly is running, you’ll start seeing “health scores” and a bunch of colored charts. Here’s what actually matters—and what’s just noise.
Key Metrics to Focus On
a. Spam Placement Rate
- Shows the percentage of your test emails that landed in spam folders.
- If this is above 10-15%, you have a problem. Below that, it’s not perfect, but not a crisis.
b. Authentication Status
- Confirms if SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are set up and working.
- Any “fail” here is urgent. No deliverability tool can save you if these are broken.
c. Blacklist Status
- Tells you if your sending IP or domain appears on major blacklists.
- Ignore obscure lists. Focus on big ones: Spamhaus, Barracuda, SORBS.
- If listed, don’t panic—sometimes it’s a false positive. But investigate.
d. Sending Reputation
- Folderly aggregates data (like complaint rates, bounce rates, engagement) to estimate your “reputation.”
- This is useful, but don’t treat it as gospel. It’s a directional indicator, not a magic number.
e. Spam Trigger Analysis
- Folderly flags email content or sending patterns likely to trigger spam filters.
- Common culprits: too many links, spammy phrases, weird formatting, sending to purchased lists.
What to ignore: Fancy graphs about “engagement” if you’re not doing high-volume campaigns. Also, don’t lose sleep over minor dips in your health score—look for trends, not daily blips.
4. Interpreting Your Report: What’s a Real Problem?
It’s easy to get freaked out by a single red flag. Here’s how to tell what’s worth fixing.
Red Flags (Fix ASAP)
- Authentication failure: SPF, DKIM, or DMARC is missing or failing.
- Sudden spike in spam placement: If >20% of seeds see your emails as spam, stop sending and investigate.
- You’re blacklisted on a major list: Act fast, especially if it’s Spamhaus or Barracuda.
Yellow Flags (Monitor)
- Minor increases in spam placement: Watch for trends over a week or more.
- Small blacklists: Many lists are obscure or outdated. Don’t waste hours on these.
- Mild dips in reputation score: Could be noise, but worth keeping an eye on.
Green Flags (Don’t Sweat It)
- Everything shows as “pass” and spam placement <10%.
- No new blacklists, and reputation is stable.
If you’re in the green, don’t get sucked into “optimizing” for a perfect score. It’s not worth the time.
5. Taking Action: What to Do When You Spot Issues
A health report is only useful if you act on it. Here’s what to do for the most common problems.
a. Authentication Failures
- Double-check your DNS records for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
- Use Folderly’s troubleshooting guides or free tools like MXToolbox.
- If you’re not technical, get your IT or domain admin involved.
b. Spam Placement Jumps
- Pause high-volume sending. Don’t keep blasting and hope it fixes itself.
- Review your recent email content—did you change templates, add lots of links, or use aggressive language?
- Warm up new domains slowly. Sudden spikes in volume are a red flag for inbox providers.
c. Blacklist Hits
- Identify which blacklist you’re on.
- Follow Folderly’s linked instructions for delisting, or go directly to the blacklist operator’s site.
- Clean up your sending list. Remove bounced addresses and disengaged contacts.
d. Reputation Drops
- Lower your daily sending volume for a few days.
- Focus on sending to your most engaged, recently-active contacts.
- Avoid buying lists or scraping emails—this will tank your reputation fast.
e. Content Issues
- Edit templates to remove spammy words (think “guaranteed,” “free,” or excessive exclamation marks).
- Limit the number of links and attachments.
- Make sure your signature and branding look like a real person, not a robot.
6. What Folderly Does Well (and Where It Falls Short)
Let’s be honest: Folderly is pretty good at aggregating the basics—auth checks, spam tests, and blacklist monitoring. The UI is clean, and their notifications are helpful if you’re managing several outbound mailboxes.
But it’s not a silver bullet. It can’t:
- Fix DNS records for you.
- Tell you exactly why a real prospect marked you as spam.
- Guarantee deliverability—no tool can, if you’re sending terrible or irrelevant emails.
Don’t get addicted to dashboards. Use Folderly to catch real issues early, then focus on sending relevant, respectful outreach. No amount of “health” will save you if you’re sending junk.
7. Pro Tips for B2B Sales Teams Using Folderly
- Set a weekly “email health review.” 10 minutes is enough if you’re not firefighting.
- Don’t chase perfect scores. Inbox providers change rules all the time.
- Educate your team. If someone starts blasting new lists, everyone’s reputation takes a hit.
- Document what you fix. This helps when something breaks again (and it will).
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
Email deliverability isn’t glamorous, but it’s not rocket science either. Use Folderly’s reports to catch real problems, fix what matters, and get back to selling. Don’t overthink it. The best teams keep things simple, learn from what goes wrong, and adjust as they go.
You don’t need a PhD in spam filters—just a little discipline, a good tool, and the willingness to ignore the noise.