Never Land In Spam Again With This Cold Email Deliverability Guide
Never Land In Spam Again With This Cold Email Deliverability Guide
Marketing
Marketing
September 6th, 2024
September 6th, 2024
The 16 steps your B2B company needs to be doing if you want your cold emails to hit your prospects inbox!
The 16 steps your B2B company needs to be doing if you want your cold emails to hit your prospects inbox!
Table Of Contents
6.1- Turn on provider matching
7 - Use Spintax for Email Variability
8 - Warm Your Domains and Accounts for Two Weeks
9 - Limit Emails to 50 Per Day
10 - Eliminate Spam Words from Your Scripts
11 - Always Include an Opt-Out Option
13 - Verify Your Email Lists (Twice)
14 - No Links in Your Initial Emails
15 - Redirect Secondary Domains to Your Main Website
16 - Limit Emails to Three Per Domain
Never Land in Spam Again with Our Inbox Infiltrator Deliverability Protocol
Cold emailing is a powerful B2B tool for lead generation and sales. However, even the best campaigns are useless if they never reach your prospect’s inbox. In 2024, email service providers are tightening their anti-spam measures, so it's critical to stay ahead of the curve to ensure deliverability. Here’s our 12-step Inbox Infiltrator Protocol to guarantee your emails land in the primary inbox, not the spam folder.
1. DNS Records: The Foundation of Deliverability
Every domain used for cold email must have the correct DNS records in place to prevent emails from being flagged as spam. These records authenticate your email and signal to email service providers (ESPs) that you’re a legitimate sender.
DMARC: Ensures your emails are protected from being spoofed.
SPF: Defines the IP addresses that are allowed to send emails on behalf of your domain.
DKIM: Attaches a digital signature to your emails, verifying their authenticity.
2. Use Only .com Domains
To maintain credibility, it’s crucial to use .com domains for cold email sending accounts.
Other domain extensions like .co, .info, or .xyz are often associated with spam and may hurt your deliverability. Stick with .com for the best results.
3. Personalized Email Accounts
Generic email accounts like info@ or sales@ don’t perform well in cold email.
Instead, use named email accounts like john@ or emily@ to add a personal touch.
This builds trust with your prospects and increases your chances of landing in the primary inbox.
4. Add Profile Pictures to Accounts
Adding a profile picture to your email accounts further increases trust and deliverability.
It makes the email appear more authentic and less likely to be flagged by ESPs.
5. Never Use Your Main Domain for Cold Emailing
Cold email campaigns always carry some risk of damaging your domain’s reputation. To protect your primary domain, always use secondary domains for sending cold emails.
This keeps your main domain safe while allowing you to scale your cold email campaigns.
6. Diversify Your Sending Accounts
Deliverability is dynamic, and what works today might not work tomorrow.
Diversify your sending accounts across different platforms like Outlook, Google Workspace, and private email infrastructures like Mailscale to reduce the risk of deliverability disruptions.
Example:
In late 2023, Zoho banned cold emails on its IPs, leaving many cold emailers scrambling to find alternative solutions.
Those who diversified their sending platforms were unaffected by the sudden ban.
6.1 Turn on Provider Matching
By using multiple providers, you can align your sending platform with the recipient’s.
For example, send from Outlook accounts to leads with Outlook addresses and Google Workspace to Gmail users.
7. Use Spintax for Email Variability
To avoid being flagged by spam filters, use Spintax to vary your email content.
This ensures that no two emails are identical, which reduces the likelihood of your emails being flagged as mass marketing or spam.
8. Warm Your Domains and Accounts for Two Weeks
New domains and email accounts need time to build a positive reputation with ESPs.
Use tools like Instantly to warm your domains for at least two weeks before sending any cold emails. During this time, focus on building your lead list and perfecting your email copy.
9. Limit Emails to 50 Per Day
To avoid triggering spam filters, limit the number of emails sent per account to 50 per day. This includes both campaign emails and warm-up emails.
We recommend sending 20 campaign emails and 30 warm-up emails per day to strike a balance between deliverability and volume.
10. Eliminate Spam Words from Your Scripts
Certain words and phrases are more likely to trigger spam filters. Use tools like MailMeteor to scan your emails for spam words before launching your campaigns.
Removing these words will significantly improve your chances of landing in the primary inbox.
11. Always Include an Opt-Out Option
It’s not just best practice—it’s the law to include a way for recipients to opt out of receiving future emails.
Failing to provide an easy opt-out option increases the likelihood of recipients marking your emails as spam, which will damage your domain’s reputation.
12. Stop Tracking Open Rates
Tracking open rates requires adding a tiny bit of HTML code to your email, which can trigger spam filters.
Plus, with the advent of iOS 15, open rate tracking is no longer accurate. Instead of relying on open rates, focus on reply rates. A healthy 2% reply rate typically indicates a solid open rate.
13. Verify Your Email Lists (Twice)
Sending emails to invalid addresses will increase your bounce rate, which is a major red flag for ESPs.
Use tools like Neverbounce to verify your email lists and ensure you’re only sending to valid addresses. This should be done twice—once before sending, and a second time before any major campaign launches.
14. No Links in Your Initial Emails
Including links in your cold emails—especially in the first outreach—can hurt your deliverability. Avoid sending calendar links, website URLs, or even links in your email signature.
Once a prospect replies, you can then include links in your follow-up messages.
15. Redirect Secondary Domains to Your Main Website
Your sending domains should have a valid website attached to them.
Forward all secondary domains to your primary website to establish legitimacy.
This ensures that if a prospect searches for your domain, they’re redirected to your main site, enhancing your credibility.
16. Limit Emails to Three Per Domain
Each domain should have a maximum of three email accounts. With a daily limit of 50 emails per account, this means you’re sending a maximum of 150 emails per day per domain.
Scaling beyond this requires more domains, not more emails per account.
Conclusion: The Path to Perfect Deliverability
By following these 12 steps, you’ll drastically improve your cold email deliverability and avoid the dreaded spam folder. Remember, cold emailing is an ever-evolving landscape, so staying ahead of these deliverability best practices is key to consistently landing in your prospects' primary inboxes.
Ready to supercharge your cold email campaigns? Book a meeting with us here to start driving more revenue, automating your outreach, and closing more deals.
Never Land in Spam Again with Our Inbox Infiltrator Deliverability Protocol
Cold emailing is a powerful B2B tool for lead generation and sales. However, even the best campaigns are useless if they never reach your prospect’s inbox. In 2024, email service providers are tightening their anti-spam measures, so it's critical to stay ahead of the curve to ensure deliverability. Here’s our 12-step Inbox Infiltrator Protocol to guarantee your emails land in the primary inbox, not the spam folder.
1. DNS Records: The Foundation of Deliverability
Every domain used for cold email must have the correct DNS records in place to prevent emails from being flagged as spam. These records authenticate your email and signal to email service providers (ESPs) that you’re a legitimate sender.
DMARC: Ensures your emails are protected from being spoofed.
SPF: Defines the IP addresses that are allowed to send emails on behalf of your domain.
DKIM: Attaches a digital signature to your emails, verifying their authenticity.
2. Use Only .com Domains
To maintain credibility, it’s crucial to use .com domains for cold email sending accounts.
Other domain extensions like .co, .info, or .xyz are often associated with spam and may hurt your deliverability. Stick with .com for the best results.
3. Personalized Email Accounts
Generic email accounts like info@ or sales@ don’t perform well in cold email.
Instead, use named email accounts like john@ or emily@ to add a personal touch.
This builds trust with your prospects and increases your chances of landing in the primary inbox.
4. Add Profile Pictures to Accounts
Adding a profile picture to your email accounts further increases trust and deliverability.
It makes the email appear more authentic and less likely to be flagged by ESPs.
5. Never Use Your Main Domain for Cold Emailing
Cold email campaigns always carry some risk of damaging your domain’s reputation. To protect your primary domain, always use secondary domains for sending cold emails.
This keeps your main domain safe while allowing you to scale your cold email campaigns.
6. Diversify Your Sending Accounts
Deliverability is dynamic, and what works today might not work tomorrow.
Diversify your sending accounts across different platforms like Outlook, Google Workspace, and private email infrastructures like Mailscale to reduce the risk of deliverability disruptions.
Example:
In late 2023, Zoho banned cold emails on its IPs, leaving many cold emailers scrambling to find alternative solutions.
Those who diversified their sending platforms were unaffected by the sudden ban.
6.1 Turn on Provider Matching
By using multiple providers, you can align your sending platform with the recipient’s.
For example, send from Outlook accounts to leads with Outlook addresses and Google Workspace to Gmail users.
7. Use Spintax for Email Variability
To avoid being flagged by spam filters, use Spintax to vary your email content.
This ensures that no two emails are identical, which reduces the likelihood of your emails being flagged as mass marketing or spam.
8. Warm Your Domains and Accounts for Two Weeks
New domains and email accounts need time to build a positive reputation with ESPs.
Use tools like Instantly to warm your domains for at least two weeks before sending any cold emails. During this time, focus on building your lead list and perfecting your email copy.
9. Limit Emails to 50 Per Day
To avoid triggering spam filters, limit the number of emails sent per account to 50 per day. This includes both campaign emails and warm-up emails.
We recommend sending 20 campaign emails and 30 warm-up emails per day to strike a balance between deliverability and volume.
10. Eliminate Spam Words from Your Scripts
Certain words and phrases are more likely to trigger spam filters. Use tools like MailMeteor to scan your emails for spam words before launching your campaigns.
Removing these words will significantly improve your chances of landing in the primary inbox.
11. Always Include an Opt-Out Option
It’s not just best practice—it’s the law to include a way for recipients to opt out of receiving future emails.
Failing to provide an easy opt-out option increases the likelihood of recipients marking your emails as spam, which will damage your domain’s reputation.
12. Stop Tracking Open Rates
Tracking open rates requires adding a tiny bit of HTML code to your email, which can trigger spam filters.
Plus, with the advent of iOS 15, open rate tracking is no longer accurate. Instead of relying on open rates, focus on reply rates. A healthy 2% reply rate typically indicates a solid open rate.
13. Verify Your Email Lists (Twice)
Sending emails to invalid addresses will increase your bounce rate, which is a major red flag for ESPs.
Use tools like Neverbounce to verify your email lists and ensure you’re only sending to valid addresses. This should be done twice—once before sending, and a second time before any major campaign launches.
14. No Links in Your Initial Emails
Including links in your cold emails—especially in the first outreach—can hurt your deliverability. Avoid sending calendar links, website URLs, or even links in your email signature.
Once a prospect replies, you can then include links in your follow-up messages.
15. Redirect Secondary Domains to Your Main Website
Your sending domains should have a valid website attached to them.
Forward all secondary domains to your primary website to establish legitimacy.
This ensures that if a prospect searches for your domain, they’re redirected to your main site, enhancing your credibility.
16. Limit Emails to Three Per Domain
Each domain should have a maximum of three email accounts. With a daily limit of 50 emails per account, this means you’re sending a maximum of 150 emails per day per domain.
Scaling beyond this requires more domains, not more emails per account.
Conclusion: The Path to Perfect Deliverability
By following these 12 steps, you’ll drastically improve your cold email deliverability and avoid the dreaded spam folder. Remember, cold emailing is an ever-evolving landscape, so staying ahead of these deliverability best practices is key to consistently landing in your prospects' primary inboxes.
Ready to supercharge your cold email campaigns? Book a meeting with us here to start driving more revenue, automating your outreach, and closing more deals.
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