Email Deliverability Guide: How to Actually Land in the Inbox
SPF, DKIM, DMARC, domain warm-up, and sender reputation — the technical foundation every outbound team needs.
## Deliverability Is the Foundation The best email in the world is worthless if it lands in spam. --- ## The Technical Setup Checklist ### 1. Domain Configuration - Use a dedicated sending domain (e.g., outreach.company.com) - Never send cold email from your primary domain - Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records ### 2. Domain Warm-Up - Week 1: 5 emails/day - Week 2: 15 emails/day - Week 3: 30 emails/day - Week 4: 50 emails/day (maximum) ### 3. List Hygiene - Verify every email before sending - Keep bounce rate under 3% --- ## Deliverability Metrics | Metric | Green | Yellow | Red | |--------|-------|--------|-----| | Open rate | 45%+ | 30-45% | <30% | | Bounce rate | <2% | 2-5% | >5% | | Spam complaints | <0.1% | 0.1-0.3% | >0.3% | Fix your deliverability.