Email Deliverability: The Technical Setup Most Firms Miss

Why Your Cold Emails Land in Spam

You wrote the perfect email. You targeted the right people. You hit send. And nothing happened.

The problem is not your messaging. The problem is that your emails never reached the inbox. They landed in spam, promotions, or were blocked entirely.

Email deliverability is the invisible foundation of every successful outbound campaign. Get it wrong and nothing else matters.

The Technical Checklist

1. SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

SPF tells receiving mail servers which servers are authorised to send email on behalf of your domain.

How to set it up:

Add a TXT record to your DNS

Include all services that send email from your domain

Example: v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

2. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails that proves they were not tampered with in transit.

How to set it up:

Generate a DKIM key pair in your email provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365)

Add the public key as a TXT record in your DNS

Verify the signature is being applied

3. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication)

DMARC ties SPF and DKIM together and tells receiving servers what to do if authentication fails.

How to set it up:

Start with a monitoring policy: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com

Review reports for 2-4 weeks

Gradually move to quarantine and then reject policies

4. Secondary Domains

Never send cold outreach from your primary business domain. If your reputation gets damaged, it affects all your business email.

Best practices:

Buy 2-3 similar domains (e.g., if you are maven.com, buy getmaven.co, trymaven.io)

Set up Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 on each

Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC on every domain

Warm up for 2-3 weeks before sending

5. Domain Warm-Up

New domains have no sending reputation. You need to build it gradually.

Warm-up process:

Week 1: Send 5-10 emails per day to engaged contacts

Week 2: Increase to 15-25 per day

Week 3: Increase to 30-50 per day

Week 4+: Maintain 40-50 per day per account

Use warm-up tools like Instantly or Warmup Inbox to automate this process with realistic email conversations.

Monitoring Your Deliverability

Tools to Use

GlockApps: Test inbox placement across major providers

Mail-tester.com: Quick score check for individual emails

Google Postmaster Tools: Monitor your domain reputation with Gmail

Metrics to Watch

Inbox placement rate: Target 90%+

Bounce rate: Keep under 3%

Spam complaint rate: Keep under 0.1%

Domain reputation: Monitor in Google Postmaster

Common Deliverability Killers

Sending too much too fast — The number one mistake

Poor list hygiene — Sending to invalid or outdated emails

Spam trigger words — Free, guarantee, act now, limited time

HTML-heavy emails — Plain text performs better for cold outreach

No unsubscribe link — Required by law and by email providers

Shared IP addresses — Use dedicated IPs when possible

The MAVEN Approach

When we build outbound systems for our clients, deliverability setup is always the first thing we do. Before a single prospecting email is sent, we ensure:

All secondary domains are purchased and configured

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are verified on every domain

Email accounts are created and warming up

Sending limits are programmed into the sequence tool

Monitoring dashboards are set up

This typically takes 2-3 weeks — and it is the most important 2-3 weeks of the entire engagement.

Need Help?

If deliverability sounds technical, that is because it is. But it is not optional. If you want your outbound efforts to actually reach inboxes, the technical foundation has to be right.

Book a Virtual Coffee and we will audit your current email setup for free.