Deliverability Infrastructure

The best cold email ever written does not matter if it lands in spam. Deliverability is the unsexy foundation of email-based demand generation, and most teams ignore it until their reply rates crater. Deliverability is determined by three factors: domain reputation, sending infrastructure, and content signals. Get all three right and your emails land in the primary inbox. Get any one wrong and you are broadcasting into the void.

1. Domain Warm-Up New domains and new sending infrastructure start with zero reputation. Email providers treat unknown senders as suspicious. Warm up new domains by sending small volumes of genuine, non-automated emails for two to four weeks before launching outbound sequences. Start with 20 emails per day, increase by 10-15 per day, and monitor bounce rates and spam complaints at every step.
2. Authentication Protocols SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are non-negotiable. SPF tells receiving servers which IPs are authorized to send email from your domain. DKIM cryptographically signs each email. DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks. All three must be configured correctly before you send a single outbound email.
3. Sending Domain Strategy Never send outbound sequences from your primary company domain. Use a dedicated outbound domain — a variant like "getcompany.com" or "companyai.com" — so that deliverability issues from outbound volume do not contaminate your primary domain's reputation. One domain for corporate email, one for outbound sequences, always.