For cold email users, getting emails to land in the primary inbox is becoming increasingly difficult.
If your deliverability is weak, your emails often end up in the spam or promotions folder, which drastically reduces engagement and the success of your outreach. Over time, this also damages your sender's reputation.
With today’s privacy-focused email environment—where open tracking is becoming unreliable (due to features like Apple Mail Privacy Protection and Gmail's pixel tracking warnings)—it’s more important than ever to have a reliable way to verify inbox placement.
Without open tracking, placement testing becomes the only dependable method to know whether your emails are actually reaching the inbox.
Let's see how you can use Inbox radar to know about your Inbox Placement.
What is Inbox Radar?
Inbox Radar is a powerful email deliverability testing tool built to help you monitor and improve inbox placement across major email service providers like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Zoho, and more.
It allows you to:
Run automated recurring tests, manual one-time tests and external tests.
Identify whether emails are landing in Inbox, Spam, Tabs, or Undelivered
Analyze email content, authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), IP/domain health, and spam triggers
Get actionable insights with each test, plus a shareable report link, no login required
Types of Tests in Inbox Radar
Inbox Radar supports three types of testing methods to suit different user needs:
Recurring Tests
Auto-runs inbox placement tests on the selected step of the email sequence at your chosen interval of time.
Ideal for users running ongoing email sequences
Automatically test specific steps in your sequence at predefined intervals (e.g., every 2 days at 9 AM)
Monitor long-term placement trends and set alerts if inbox rates drop below a set threshold.
Manual Tests
Manually runs a one-time inbox placement test on a selected step of the email sequence created in Saleshandy.
Perfect for one-time checks or new campaigns
Choose a specific email account and step from your Saleshandy sequence.
Useful before launching a new sequence or after making copy changes.
External Tests
Check inbox placement for emails sent from your mailbox using an external template or set up outside Saleshandy.
How to Create a Test with Inbox Radar
Step 1: Go to Inbox Radar
From the Saleshandy dashboard, click on the Inbox Radar section in the left-hand panel.
You will be directed to the Inbox radar tab. From here, click on the Create Test button in the Top right corner.
Step 2: Choose Test Type
You can select Manual, Recurring, or External test based on your needs.
Step 3: Configure Your Test
Once you choose the type of test, here are a few things to configure
Test schedule
This is only available for recurring tests. You can choose the days and time when your inbox tests should automatically run. You canChoose when you want to repeat the test. It can be Daily, every weekday, Monthly on the Fourth Friday, Weekly on Friday, or you can also customize it according to your requirements.
Choose the Start time, which is the time at which the test will begin.
Then, select the Time Zone in which you want your test to start.
Delivery settings
Delivery settings are available in both Recurring and Manual tests, but not in the External test.
Here you can choose the Email delivery mode, where you decide how emails are sent in your sequence. You can choose between the two options that are:
All at once - This is very risky, do this only if your ESP allows sending bulk emails.
One by one - It will mimic real human-like email sending and is highly recommended.
Once you have set up the email delivery mode, you can then configure the time interval between two emails. We highly recommend a duration of 60–190 seconds for optimal results.
Sequence Step and Variant
Next, select the sequence step and variant for which you want to conduct the test, and verify the inbox placement.
In the email sequence dropdown, you can select from your current sequence, then choose the sequence step and its variant. This helps you conduct an exact placement test, even for multiple variants in any step of any sequence.
You can also view the email of that particular step and variant by clicking on the 'View Email' button here:
ESP settings
From ESP settings, you can pick which email service providers will act as recipients for Inbox placement testing. You can choose multiple email providers.
For example, If you choose Gmail, 19 emails will be your recipients, and the email will be sent to all 19 emails for testing. If you choose 2 email accounts, then emails will be sent in multiples of 2, like 19*2.
Sender Email Accounts
In the Sender Email Accounts section, you can choose or add an account to send your test from.
Trigger and notify
For Recurring and Manual, the configuration settings are the same, except for the schedule and trigger and notify sections. However, for External, the settings will be different.
You can set a trigger to pause sending and receiving notifications when your inbox placement drops below your chosen limit.
When the inbox placement rates drop to a chosen level, you can select to pause the email account or the entire sequence.
This is a premium feature available in the Pro plan.
Step 4: Launch Your Test
Once all the settings are configured for recurring and manual just click on launch the test.
Inbox Radar will send the test emails to seed accounts.
Once done, a detailed test report will be generated automatically.
External Test
This test checks the inbox placement for emails sent from your mailbox using an external template or set up outside Saleshandy.
This is how an external test works:
1. Compose & Insert Test ID
In your mailbox, compose the email and paste the Test ID from Saleshandy into the body.
2. Add Seed Recipients
Copy the seed email list from Saleshandy and add it to the recipient field.
3. Send & Launch the Test
Send the email, then click “Launch Test” (within 10 mins) in Saleshandy to start tracking.
Test Insights You’ll Receive
Once you launch the test every Inbox Radar test generates a comprehensive report like this, including:
Inbox Placement Score Checks where your emails land (Inbox, Spam or Other tabs) across major email providers. It gives you a breakdown of:
Inbox %
Spam %Other %
Undelivered %
SPF, DKIM, DMARC authentication checks and IP & Domain Reputation (Blacklist status, delisting suggestions)
This informs you about the technical authentication status of your email accounts and whether your domain or IP address is blacklisted anywhere.
You can click on any parameter to get a more detailed insight.
SpamAssassin Score to identify spam triggers
SpamAssassin performs multiple tests on different parts of your email, including the header, body, raw body, URLs, and more.
Different colors and scores in the test results indicate different results.
Negative score - Extremely safe, Blue color means your email has no spam signals. Excellent for outreach.0.2-0 - Safe, green, your email is safe to send. Very low chance of being flagged.
2.1-5 - Warning, orange, your email might get flagged. Make improvements before sending.
Above 5 - Spam risk, red, high chance of landing in spam. Review and fix before sending.
Clicking on the Extermerly safe/Safe/Warning/Spam risk tag will open a more detailed report.
ESP-wise delivery analysis
This shows you where your emails are being delivered for different ESPs and sender accounts.
Key summary to improve your copy and deliverability.
Key summary tells you about spammy words, weak content indicators, and other parameters.
Shareable link to the full report (no login required)
CSV export of the test results (for internal use)
Inbox Radar takes the guesswork out of deliverability. Know where your emails land, fix issues fast, and keep your outreach performing at its best. Try it now.
FAQ
1. What is the Inbox Radar test, and how does it help in improving my deliverability?
Inbox Radar is your email placement testing tool that helps you find and fix deliverability issues. It shows where your emails land—Inbox, Spam, or other tabs—across major providers like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and more. You also get detailed reports with actionable insights on spam triggers, authentication, and blacklist status.
2. Can I test emails that are not part of a Saleshandy sequence?
Yes, use the External Email Test option. You’ll get a unique Test ID and a seed email list. Paste the Test ID in your email body, send it to the seed addresses, and click "Launch Test" within 10 minutes to generate your report.
3. Will I be notified if my inbox placement drops?
Yes, you can set a threshold (e.g., 90%) for inbox rates. If placement drops below this, your email account or sequence can be auto-paused (Pro plan & above). You’ll get both in-app and email alerts, and can resume sending manually after review.
4. Do I need to log in to view test reports?
No, each Inbox Radar test report includes a public shareable link. Anyone with the link can view the report—no login needed.
5. What types of tests can I run?
Inbox Radar supports 3 types of tests:
Recurring Tests: Automatically run on a set schedule for ongoing sequences.
Manual Tests: One-time test on a Saleshandy sequence.
External Tests: Test emails sent from any other mailbox using the Test ID and seed list.
6. What insights do I get from a test?
Every test includes:
Inbox, Spam, Other, and Undelivered % breakdown
SPF, DKIM, DMARC authentication status
IP/domain blacklist checks and suggestions
SpamAssassin spam score with spam trigger analysis
ESP-wise delivery breakdown
Spam words and weak content indicators
Shareable test link and CSV export
7. How many tests can I run?
Inbox Radar is an add-on (not included in outreach plans).
Starter Plan: 15 tests
Pro Plan: Unlimited tests
8. How many tests can I do if I am a paid outreach user?
If you're a paid user on an outreach plan, you get limited tests:
Pro plan: 1 test
Scale plan: 2 tests
Scale Plus: 2 tests
To run more, you’ll need to subscribe to the Inbox Radar add-on.
9. Do I need to pay separately for the seed list?
No, you're only charged per test, not per seed list. The seed list is included in every test.
10. Which email accounts and ESPs can I test?
You can test any email account connected to your Saleshandy workspace. Choose specific ESPs like Gmail, Outlook, Zoho, etc., and see where your emails land across each provider.
11. Can I pause sequences if placement drops?
Yes, you can configure triggers to auto-pause the email account or sequence if inbox placement falls below a set limit. This feature is available on the Pro plan and above.
12. Is it better to send test emails all at once or one by one?
We strongly recommend "One by one" mode—it mimics human-like sending and avoids spam filters. Only use "All at once" if your ESP allows it, as it can be risky.
13. How soon do I get the test results?
Inbox Radar test reports are generated within minutes after sending. You get real-time insights and recommendations instantly.