Selzy (ex Sendsay): pairing delivery reports with seed tests

Selzy is the international rebrand of Sendsay, originally one of the oldest ESPs on the CIS market. The rename in 2023 came with a redesigned UI, a new pricing model, and a push toward the global SMB segment. Under the hood the platform still offers the same strengths — deep CIS reach, Mail.ru and Yandex reputation, automation with Russian-language triggers — while the product surface is now in English and priced in USD.

The Sendsay-to-Selzy rebrand context

If you joined email marketing before 2023, Sendsay was a familiar name in the CIS space — solid Mail.ru reputation, a robust automation engine, and Russian-speaking support. After the rebranding to Selzy the platform kept the same IP pools and deliverability infrastructure, but the customer base shifted. The company now pitches itself to global SMBs and operates from the US, with a product surface localised into English. CIS-native features (ruble billing, Mail.ru-first support, Postoffice integration) quietly remain but are not front-and-centre.

For deliverability purposes, the important takeaway is that Selzy shared IPs still carry historical reputation on Mail.ru and Yandex. If you are sending to a CIS audience, this is a genuine advantage over Brevo or Mailchimp. If you are sending purely to Gmail/Outlook audiences, Selzy behaves like any other mid-market shared-pool ESP.

Importing a seed list into Selzy

Selzy uses a contact-list model with tags and custom fields. For repeatable seed testing, create a dedicated list rather than mixing seeds into your main list.

1. Go to Contacts → Lists and create a new list named seed_placement.
2. Import 20+ seed addresses via CSV. Include at least 3–4 mailboxes per major provider: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Mail.ru, Yandex, ProtonMail. One seed per provider gives noisy data.
3. Tag the contacts as internal_test. Use Selzy's segmentation rules to exclude this tag from your engagement analytics.
4. Before every real campaign, duplicate the email, target theseed_placement list, and send.

Reading Inbox Check results for Selzy

Mail.ru placement

On clean lists, Selzy shared pools tend to land 75–85% at Mail.ru Inbox. Anything under 70% warrants investigation: check authentication alignment first (DKIM d= must match the sender domain, SPF must include Selzy's include record). Mail.ru's Spam folder is called «Спам»; its Promotions-like bucket is «Рассылки». Promotions-bucket placement is acceptable for marketing blasts but a failure for welcome flows and transactional emails.

Yandex placement

Yandex's filter weighs subject-line signals heavily. Shouty all-caps or heavy emoji use will drop Inbox rate visibly. A well-formed campaign on Selzy typically reaches 70–80% Yandex Inbox. Register a Postoffice account at postoffice.yandex.ru to see complaint data — without that, you lose the feedback loop signal.

Gmail placement

For Gmail, the split is Primary vs Promotions vs Spam. Selzy on Gmail behaves like most shared-pool ESPs: Promotions is common for marketing content. Primary placement for a newsletter typically runs 35–60%. If you see Spam, check DMARC alignment first.

Outlook placement

Outlook is the weak point. Microsoft's SmartScreen reacts poorly to shared-IP bulk traffic, and Selzy's Outlook inbox rate often sits at 40–60%. The fixes are structural: dedicated IP (available on Selzy Pro), stronger DMARC, and SNDS/JMRP registration on the sending IP.

Authentication requirements

Selzy requires SPF and DKIM setup on your sending domain. DMARC is not mandated but strongly recommended. Without a custom sending domain you'll be sending asnotify.selzy.com, which breaks DMARC alignment and tanks Mail.ru placement immediately.

yourdomain.com  TXT  "v=spf1 include:spf.selzy.com ~all"
selzy._domainkey.yourdomain.com  TXT  "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=..."
_dmarc.yourdomain.com  TXT  "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com"

Verify the records in Selzy's Settings → Domains tab. All three must be green before your first real send.

Pre-flight routine per campaign

A consistent routine keeps deliverability steady on Selzy:

1. Open Inbox Check, copy the current set of 20+ seed addresses.
2. In Selzy, refresh the seed_placement list — rotate in the freshest addresses because older ones may have hit greylists.
3. Duplicate the real campaign. Do not modify subject, From, preheader or HTML — identical content is the whole point.
4. Send to the seed list 10–15 minutes before your main blast. Inbox Check will show per-provider folder placement within 2–3 minutes.
5. Set thresholds: Mail.ru Inbox ≥ 80%, Yandex Inbox ≥ 70%, Gmail Primary+Promotions ≥ 95% (i.e. Spam < 5%). If any threshold fails, pause and diagnose before the main send.

Common fixes when seed tests fail

• Mail.ru Spam > 10%. Almost always DKIM-alignment or content-trigger words. Check postmaster.mail.rufor reputation drops in the last 48 hours.
• Gmail Spam > 5%. Most common cause is a DMARC failure — the From domain does not align with your DKIM signing domain. Less often: a blacklisted tracking domain.
• Outlook Junk > 50%. Structural — shared-IP reputation on Microsoft is weak. Request a dedicated IP, register SNDS, and start a slow warm-up.
• Yandex Spam > 10%. Register for postoffice.yandex.ru and verify domain ownership. Most of the time the issue is complaint rate > 0.3% on recent sends.

Frequently asked questions