How to Ensure Your Outbound Emails Get Delivered [Free Checklist]

The Signal

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Hey, y’all!

It feels like tech is speedrunning breakthroughs these days. Here are a few insane things that happened just this week!

I write The Signal with the goal to create (and/or curate) content, lessons, and alpha that help you navigate the ever-changing tech space, specifically as it relates to B2B GTM.

Last year, we went through one of the biggest changes in our industry - the “deliverability apocalypse.” I experienced it first-hand, at Apollo (ironically). It was brutal. A lot changed last year. And I learned a ton in the process.

People kept asking me about email deliverability, so a few months ago, I put together a dead simple google doc based on everything I had learned in 2024.

And, today, I’m sharing this checklist more broadly. (If you have feedback on it, please let me know! I’d love to improve it over time. Feel free to steal this checklist and make it your own.)

By the way, many tools (like Smartlead, Instantly, etc.) have these best practices baked into them now, which is amazing.

Lastly, but most importantly, the best thing you can do to ensure your emails get delivered:

Don’t use a spray-and-pray method.

Instead, be thoughtful, relevant, and timely with your outreach, using methods like signal-based selling, creative plays, and micro-campaigns.

But, to some degree, you gotta play the game. And the game is changing, fast. Let’s learn together.

Alright, let’s get right into it.

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Review/Audit:

1. Reputation monitoring audit

   1. Google postmaster

   2. MxToolbox

   3. Inbox placement testing (eg: use something like GlockApps, Smartlead, etc.)

2. Analytics/reporting

   1. Opens, Clicks, Bounces, etc. (further down, you’ll see, I no longer track Opens and Clicks; it’s a bummer, I know)

3. List segmentation audit for relevance (this matters a lot):

   1. Accounts aka Companies (ICP)

   2. Contacts aka People (titles)

4. Messaging audit:

   1. Relevance

   2. Personalization

   3. A/B testing

   4. Content optimization (relevant, short & sweet, not overly promotional)

5. “Offer” audit (aka CTA):

   1. How can you genuinely add value in your outreach?

   2. Say anything other than “want a demo?” (very few people want a demo these days)

Setup:

1. Set up SPF, DKIM, DMARC records for all your sending domains (work with IT Team; two specific resources at the bottom of this post)

2. Set up a custom tracking subdomain (if you’re tracking opens, which I no longer recommend — see below)

3. Buy domains + set up mailboxes (work with IT Team or via Instantly/Smartlead)

4. Bot warm-up of mailboxes (using Instantly/Smartlead/etc. )

5. Ramp-up of mailbox sending (using Instantly/Smartlead or Apollo)

6. Throttling (# of emails sent per mailbox per day; <50/day/mailbox)

7. Unsubscribe links (explicitly include the word “unsubscribe”)

8. Disable Click Tracking and Open Tracking (this is new; it sucks, I know)

9. Review email signatures (ideally text-only; no hyperlinks, images, etc.)

Process:

1. Bounce management (removing hard bounces from systems)

2. Bot warm-up of extra mailboxes (for future use)

3. Email verification process to minimize bounces (Apollo configuration + a third-party tool, eg: MillionVerifier, Findymail, Trykitt.ai, etc.)

Other Resources:

• How to Improve Email Deliverability (Checklist), by Apollo

• The Complete Guide to Email Deliverability Audit, by Smartlead

• LinkedIn post + course, by Lavender

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As always, I appreciate your continued attention and trust.

Until next time,
Brendan 🫡