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Email deliverability checklist

27 checks that decide whether your cold outbound reaches the inbox or the spam folder. Tick them off as you go, then copy or download the result for your team.

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1. Sending domain

Never send cold outbound from the domain your team uses for real mail.

  • e.g. notify.yourbrand.com or getyourbrand.com. One spam wave on your primary domain affects every employee's email.

  • Brand-new domains are treated with suspicion by filters. Register early, warm during the waiting period.

  • A lookalike domain that resolves to nothing looks like a throwaway. A 301 to your homepage looks legitimate.

  • Prospects who look it up should recognize the company immediately.

2. Authentication records

All three records must exist on the sending domain, not just the root domain.

  • One SPF TXT record only. Multiple SPF records cause a permerror and silent failures.

  • Publish the selector record your provider gives you and confirm outgoing mail is actually signed.

  • Begin with p=none plus a reporting address, read the reports for two weeks, then move to quarantine.

  • A From address on a domain you haven't authenticated fails DMARC even when the mail is legitimate.

  • Managed sending providers handle this. Self-hosted senders must set it explicitly.

3. Mailbox warmup

Warmup is a schedule, not a switch. Two weeks minimum per mailbox.

  • Start at 5-10 conversational emails a day and increase roughly 30% per day.

  • Scale volume by adding mailboxes, never by pushing one mailbox harder.

  • Three mailboxes at 40/day is far safer than one at 120/day.

  • Reputation decays. Keep a background stream of positive engagement.

4. List hygiene

Bad data damages reputation faster than bad copy.

  • Use a verification service and drop risky, catch-all, and unknown results.

  • Above 3% providers start throttling. Above 5% expect blocks.

  • Unsubscribes, hard bounces, complaints, and existing customers must be excluded globally.

  • info@, sales@, support@, and similar shared inboxes generate complaints and rarely reply.

5. Message construction

Filters read structure as much as words.

  • Heavy HTML and tracking pixels look like marketing mail, not a person writing to a person.

  • Link-free first touches consistently deliver better on cold lists.

  • A one-line opt-out plus a List-Unsubscribe header. It's legally required in most markets and reduces spam reports.

  • Required by CAN-SPAM and equivalents; also raises reply rates.

  • Generic bulk copy is the strongest spam signal you control.

6. Monitoring

Check weekly. Deliverability degrades quietly.

  • The only direct view of how the two largest inbox providers see your domain.

  • Catches unauthorized senders and misconfigured services using your domain.

  • Check monthly, and immediately after any bounce spike.

  • Send to your own Gmail, Outlook, and a corporate account and confirm where it lands.

  • Opens have been unreliable since Apple Mail Privacy Protection. Replies are the honest signal.

Deliverability is only half the problem

A perfectly authenticated domain still fails with a vague ICP or weak copy. The readiness scorecard checks the rest in 10 questions.

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