Customers not getting your emails is a common problem for Southwest Michigan contractors and service businesses. The usual reason: your domain isn't authenticated, so the receiving mail server sends your message to spam or rejects it outright. Gmail and Microsoft both tightened their sender requirements in the last two years, Google in February 2024 and Microsoft in May 2025. If your email worked fine before and started misfiring after, check authentication first.
Here is what is happening and how to fix it.
Want to see your own domain's status before you read further? Run the free email security check. It reads your public DMARC, SPF, and MX records in seconds, in your browser.
Why aren't my customers getting my emails?
Most of the time, the answer is missing or broken email authentication.
Your email looks real to you. To Gmail or Outlook on the other end, it is an unsigned message from a domain with no authentication records telling the server it is legitimate. Without SPF (which defines who is allowed to send as you), DKIM (which cryptographically signs each outbound message), and DMARC (which tells the server what to do when authentication fails), the receiving server either quietly routes your email to spam or rejects it outright. The customer never sees it. You never know.
Other causes worth ruling out: your email address looks like spam (all-caps subject, lots of links, a PDF attachment on a cold message), you are sending from a shared IP with a bad reputation, or the customer's company runs aggressive inbound filtering. But authentication gaps cause the overwhelming majority of "they never got it" problems today.
Did Gmail or Outlook change their rules recently?
Yes, and the changes were significant enough to catch a lot of legitimate businesses off guard.
Google's official sender requirements took effect February 1, 2024. Every sender needs SPF or DKIM. Anyone sending 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail also needs DMARC. Mail that fails can be marked as spam or rejected.
In May 2025, Microsoft started rejecting unauthenticated mail from domains that send 5,000 or more messages a day to Outlook and Hotmail addresses. If you have ever received a delivery failure that includes the code "550 5.7.515," that is Microsoft rejecting your email because your domain failed DMARC or SPF alignment. The customer's inbox received nothing and you got a non-delivery report.
If your outbound email was working and then started failing after one of those dates, authentication is the first thing to check.
How do I know if my emails are landing in spam?
The fastest check is a free DNS audit.
Go to MXToolbox Email Health and enter your domain name. It runs in about 30 seconds and shows you exactly which authentication records are missing, broken, or misconfigured. No account required.
You can also ask a customer who says they did not receive your email to search their spam folder directly. If they find your messages there, you have a deliverability problem that authentication fixes. If they find nothing, you may have a hard bounce, meaning the message was rejected before delivery. The code in the bounce tells you why, and our guide to email rejection error codes explains each one.
For a Southwest Michigan business, the Parallax DMARC audit service runs the same DNS check and walks you through what needs to be fixed and in what order.
What is DMARC and why does it affect whether my emails arrive?
DMARC is a DNS record that tells receiving mail servers what to do when an email from your domain fails authentication checks. Without it, the server decides on its own. That decision increasingly goes against you.
The gap is bigger than most business owners expect. A Parallax Intelligence DNS check of 1,527 Southwest Michigan businesses found that 79.2% of the 847 that email from their own domain have no DMARC enforcement. About 79 in 100 have no policy that tells Gmail or Outlook to block a fake message sent from their domain. The full breakdown is in the Southwest Michigan Email Security Report.
Setting DMARC up is not complicated. It is a single DNS TXT record. Our SPF, DKIM, and DMARC explainer covers what each record does and why you need all three. What matters is the order: SPF first, then DKIM, then DMARC starting at "p=none" so you can see the reports before enforcing anything. The how to stop quotes going to spam guide covers each DNS step in plain language if you want to do it yourself.
Could someone be impersonating my business email?
Yes, and that is exactly what an unenforced domain enables.
If your domain has no DMARC enforcement, anyone can send an email that appears to come from your address. Your customers may receive fake invoices, phishing messages, or scam quotes that look like they came from your business. According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center 2025 Annual Report, business email compromise caused over $3 billion in reported losses in the United States in 2025, making it the second most financially damaging cybercrime category tracked by the FBI.
Small businesses are not too small to be targeted. A fake invoice from what looks like a known local contractor is a common pattern. The same fix that restores your deliverability also closes the spoofing window.
How do I fix it and how long does it take?
The fix is a sequence. It takes most businesses with a single email provider under an hour if DNS access is straightforward.
Start with SPF. Add or update the TXT record that lists the servers authorized to send email as your domain. If you use Google Workspace, the value is "v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all." Microsoft 365 uses "v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all." If you use another service, they document the exact value. If you are still deciding between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, that choice determines which SPF values go here.
Next, enable DKIM. For Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, DKIM signing is configured in the admin console. They provide the public key to paste into a DNS record. Once the DNS propagates, outbound email is signed. If you use Microsoft 365 specifically, the DMARC setup guide for Microsoft 365 covers the M365 admin center steps in detail.
Then add DMARC, starting at "p=none" with a reporting address. This lets you see who is sending as your domain without disrupting existing delivery. After a few weeks of clean reports, step up to "p=quarantine" or "p=reject" to actively enforce the policy.
If you send from multiple services such as a CRM, billing software, and a contact form, each one needs an SPF include, and each needs DKIM configured separately. That is where most small businesses hit friction.
If you run a service business in Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, or anywhere in Southwest Michigan and you would rather have this handled than do it yourself, Parallax's DMARC audit service covers the full setup, testing, and a follow-up report confirming enforcement is working. Reach out at (269) 460-1772 or through the contact form.