Troubleshoot email delivery issues

Who can use this: Tech admin, Business admin

Available on: Gong Engage

When Gong Engage emails don't arrive, bounce, or behave in a way you didn't expect, the cause is usually in your company's email setup or in one of a few Engage settings. Find the section that matches what you're seeing.

Emails aren't arriving or are going to spam

Gong reports whether an email was sent, not where it landed. "Delivered" in Gong means the connected mailbox accepted the message, and the recipient's mail server then decides where to place it based on the sending domain's reputation, authentication, content, and filters.

Start with authentication, then check the rest:

• Email authentication: Ask your IT team to check that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are configured correctly on the sending domain. These records live in your Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 tenant, not in Gong.

• Domain reputation: Check Google Postmaster Tools for your domain's spam rate and reputation. A spam rate above 0.10% is a risk, and a sustained rate above 0.30% causes widespread filtering.

• Blocklists: Check whether your sending domain or IP address is on a public blocklist. If it is, ask the blocklist provider to delist it.

• Email content: Words and phrases associated with spam, such as "FREE", "75% OFF", or "ACT NOW", can trigger filters even when authentication is clean.

• Sending volume: Sending to a large list too quickly can damage your domain's reputation. A new or recently reactivated sending domain may need a warm-up period of about 30 days. Learn more about email deliverability in Engage.

Emails are bouncing

A bounce means the recipient's mail server rejected the email. The bounce reason tells you whether the problem is a bad address, a full mailbox, a rejection of your whole domain, or a policy block.

• Bounce reason: Gong records why each email bounced, for example an invalid address, a full mailbox, or a security policy block. Learn more about troubleshooting email sending in Engage.

• Many bounces from one domain: If emails to many contacts at the same company bounce, that company's mail server may be blocking your sending domain or IP address rather than rejecting individual addresses. Ask your IT team to investigate with that domain's administrator, or to compare the full message headers of a direct email and a Gong-sent email.

• Invalid addresses: When a flow email bounces because the address is invalid, Engage marks the address as invalid and creates a to-do for the rep to resend to a different address. No other action is needed in Gong.

Email tracking isn't working

If opens or clicks aren't being recorded, or the tracking settings seem to be missing or changed, check the following:

• Tracking is turned off in a compliance policy: Tracking is set per policy and may be set to Not allowed. Check the default policy and any custom policies that cover the affected contacts. Learn more about configuring compliance settings.

• The Gong Outlook add-in wasn't installed by an admin: Email tracking in Outlook requires an admin to install the Gong Outlook add-in for the whole company. Individual installs don't turn on tracking.

• The tracking settings seem to be missing: Email tracking is set in compliance policies. If you can't find the tracking settings there, contact Gong Support with the name of the compliance policy you checked.

• Opens or clicks look too high: Security tools, spam filters, and forwarded emails can register opens and clicks that the recipient didn't make. This is expected. Learn more about how email tracking works.

A sending limit warning is unexpected

Reps see a warning on the To-dos page and in the email composer when they're close to a limit or have reached one. The warning says which limit applies.

• Company limit reached before a rep's own limit: The company-wide limit counts the whole team's flow emails, so it can be reached even when one rep has sent few emails.

• Auto email snoozed: When a limit is reached, Gong snoozes auto emails and sends them on the next available business day at 8:00 AM in the rep's time zone. This is expected.

• Lower maximum than expected: Each limit has a maximum that's built into Gong and is the same for every company. If you need a higher maximum, contact your Gong account team. Learn more about setting up email sending limits.

An opt-out footer appears unexpectedly

If a footer appears on emails where you didn't expect one, check the Opt-out footers for emails setting and the flow's ruleset. A ruleset can add a footer even when the setting is Optional, and it can't remove one the setting requires. Learn more about setting up email opt-out paths.

Frequently asked questions