About: Email Content Quality Score

Every email template includes a built-in quality score that analyzes your content and highlights potential deliverability issues before you send. This scoring system helps you identify common problems that might trigger spam filters or reduce engagement.

Why This Matters

Email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo use sophisticated filters to evaluate incoming messages. Emails that exhibit certain patterns, such as too many links, vague subject lines, or poor text-to-image ratios, are more likely to land in spam folders or be blocked entirely.

The Email Content Quality Score gives you a preview of how your email might be perceived, along with specific suggestions for improvement. Think of it as a pre-flight checklist that catches issues while you can still fix them.

Where to Find Your Score

The score appears at the top of any email template page, displayed as a colored badge next to "Email Content Quality Score." The score updates after you save changes to your template.

To view the detailed breakdown, click on the score badge. This opens an Educational Guide panel showing your overall score and individual category scores, along with specific issues and improvement tips.

Understanding the Overall Score

Your email receives a score from 1 to 100 based on analysis across four categories. The score falls into one of four levels:

The Four Scoring Categories

Each email is evaluated across four distinct categories, each with its own score from 1 to 100.

Subject Line evaluates whether your subject line follows best practices for length, clarity, and engagement. Short or vague subject lines can appear spammy to recipients and email providers alike.

Body Content analyzes the structure and composition of your email, including text-to-image ratio, link density, overall length, and formatting consistency. Emails that are too short, contain too many links, or rely heavily on images often trigger spam filters.

Technical checks behind-the-scenes formatting elements that affect how email clients render and process your message.

Security scans for suspicious links or patterns that might indicate phishing or other security concerns.

Common Issues and How to Fix Them

The scoring system identifies specific issues and provides tips for each. Here are the most common ones:

Subject line too short. Aim for 30–50 characters. Subject lines that are too brief appear vague or spammy. Instead of "Hi" or "Update," try "Your March newsletter is here" or "3 tips for better follow-up."

High link density. Too many links relative to your word count raises red flags. If you have 10 links in a 100-word email, consider removing non-essential links or adding more explanatory text around them.

Short email with links. Brief emails packed with links appear suspicious. Add context and value around your links rather than sending a message that's mostly clickable URLs.

Large image with limited text. Emails that are mostly images with little text often get filtered. Balance your design with meaningful text content. A good rule of thumb is to have enough text that your message makes sense even if images don't load.

Font size variety. Using too many different font sizes can make your email look unprofessional and harder to read. Stick to two or three sizes: one for headings, one for body text, and optionally one for captions or fine print.

Important Limitations

The Email Content Quality Score is a helpful guide, not a guarantee. A high score improves your chances of reaching the inbox, but it cannot account for factors outside your email's content, such as your sender reputation, recipient engagement history, or individual email provider rules.

Similarly, a lower score doesn't mean your email will definitely be blocked. Some legitimate emails, like those with multiple resource links or image-heavy designs, may score lower while still delivering successfully.

Use the score as one tool among many for improving your email marketing, not as the final word on whether to send.

Questions and Answers

Q: Does a perfect score guarantee my email will be delivered?

A: No. The score evaluates your content against common best practices, but delivery depends on many factors including your sender reputation, authentication settings, and recipient behavior. A high score improves your odds but cannot guarantee inbox placement.

Q: Should I delay sending until I reach 90 or above?

A: Not necessarily. Scores in the "Good" range (80–89) indicate solid emails with only minor improvements suggested. Focus on addressing any red flags in the Body Content or Security categories, but don't let a score of 85 stop you from sending an otherwise well-crafted message.

Q: Why did my score change after I saved?

A: The score recalculates each time you save your template. If you added content, links, or images, the new analysis reflects those changes.

Q: Can I see scores for emails I've already sent?

A: The score appears on the email template page. If you used a template for a past send, you can open that template to view its current score. Keep in mind that if you've edited the template since sending, the score reflects the current version.

Q: What if I need to include many links in my email?

A: Some emails legitimately require multiple links, such as resource roundups or navigation-heavy newsletters. In these cases, add more contextual text around your links to improve the text-to-link ratio. The goal is balance, not elimination.

Q: Does the Technical score check my authentication settings like SPF and DKIM?

A: No. The Technical category evaluates formatting within the email itself. Your domain authentication settings are separate and can be managed in your account's email configuration settings.

Q: Why does my image-heavy email score lower?

A: Email providers are suspicious of messages that are mostly images because spammers often use images to hide text from filters. Add meaningful text content to balance your design. Your message should still make sense if images fail to load.

Guide Type: Reference Guide

Estimated Time: 8 minutes