Email Service Compliance

Deliverability rules changed 🚨 Most GTM teams didn’t. That’s the problem, that's killing your Outbound.   Here’s a step by step guide to play by the new rules as discussed in last Monday’s webinar with ZeroBounce (recap below, plus slides 👇):   1. Deliverability has gotten brutal - ESPs now enforce SPF/DKIM/DMARC - Sending limits: as low as 30/day (!) - Open-tracking pixels + links = red flags - Treat deliverability like infra.   2. KPIs to live by - Bounce rate < 5% - Spam-complaint rate < 0.1% - Positive reply rate > 25% - Forget opens, replies are your real signal.   3. Stack smart, and send smarter ✅ Warm up inboxes 2–3 weeks (ZeroBounce helps) ✅ Mix inbox providers (Google + Microsoft) ✅ Match sender ↔ recipient (Google → Gmail) ✅ Pause weak performers weekly   4. Data hygiene = deliverability - Always validate emails with tools like ZeroBounce - Drop catch-alls & risky emails - Analyze why emails are invalid → fix source   5. Personalize or perish ✍️ - AI can segment, enrich, write, but the offer must land - ~60% variation per send to beat filters - Clay + Twain = to scale with relevance   6. Multichannel for resilience - If email bounces, use LinkedIn. - Use buyer signals (site visits, job changes) to stay warm.   Huge thanks to everyone who joined us on Monday's webinar 🙏 Special shoutout to ZeroBounce for hosting and powering the deliverability infra.   Want the slides? 1. Make sure we are connected 2. Drop a “SLIDES” in the comments and I’ll send them over. 3. Repost for early access 😉   #deliverability #coldemail #outbound #salesops #gtm #salesstrategy #emailmarketing #b2bsales

Email Rules to Avoid Spam Filters Introduction Marketing email tactics seem simple enough: Offer brilliant incentives, build trust, create compelling content, and write strong CTAs. You put your blood, sweat, and tears into making those campaigns as perfect as possible before hitting send. Then, nothing. What happened? Here’s a few tips and marketing email rules that you can use to prevent your emails from dropping off the list and into those dreaded spam folders — your hard work deserves to be seen. Rules for Avoiding Spam Filters After you hit send, your email goes through a check process. Something as simple as a word can stop you at the gateway. If it does make it through, Google, Outlook, and other email providers have advanced their spam filter game and can now read into the interactions people have had with your previous emails. The three main Internet Service Provider (ISP) spam filters are: Gateway spam filters Hosted spam filters (third-party) Device filters (desktop, mobile, tablet) Content Phrases such as “lose weight fast” and “Earn Money Now” are guaranteed to send you to the spam folder. Content such as videos, infographics, and photos are great for site engagement but should be used sparingly for email. Although you can add a nice photo for some flair, or hyperlink a play button to your YouTube channel, don’t overdo the links, and don’t include forms. Forms are a red flag indicator that you are “phishing” for information. Third-party Verification Third-party verification helps ISPs see your IP (the online address you send emails from) as part of the cool crowd, the kind that doesn’t spam your friends or theirs. This is also known as sender accreditation or email reputation certification. Verification Services can check that you're following standards. When you send emails, the ISP cross-checks your domain and verifies your status. If you have been verified, you are typically sent through to the inbox. Email list Purging and Segmentation When you have a large email list, there are probably email addresses on there that are closed, no longer responsive, or don’t exist, which shows as a hard “bounce” (or rejection) from your email. ISPs index a sender’s reputation by how many bounces they are receiving. High bounce rates lower your credibility and is a sure way for your email to be sent to the spam box. #EmailMarketing #SpamFilters #EmailBestPractices #EmailDelivery

Most marketers know the big rules in email & SMS: CAN-SPAM. GDPR. TCPA. But great strategists? They know the nuances—the legal blind spots that open brands up to risk. ✨ Name, Image, Likeness (NIL): Dropping a celeb name in your subject line like you’re besties? Without a deal in place, that’s a fast track to a lawsuit. Publicity rights don’t care how good your open rates are. ✨ Copyright & IP: That cool logo or meme you "borrowed" for your email? Still counts as infringement—even if it’s just going to your list. If it’s not licensed, don’t touch it. ✨ Illegal Lottery: If your giveaway has chance, a prize, and a required purchase? Congrats—you’ve accidentally built a felony. Promotions aren’t plug-and-play. ✨ Deceptive Tactics: “RE: your account,” fake countdowns, or shady opt-ins—this isn’t 2009. The FTC reads marketing emails too, and they’re not amused. ✨ Regional Privacy Laws: Think one global opt-in covers you everywhere? Tell that to California. Or Quebec. Or Connecticut. Privacy law is a moving target, and ignorance isn’t a defense. The strategy isn’t just in the creative—it’s in knowing where the legal boundaries are, and how to scale without crossing them. This is why “just anyone” can’t build a winning email and SMS program. And, respectfully, your cousin who’s “sent some emails before” isn’t going to figure this out on day one. If you think they can, I hope you’ve saved your qualified email marketer budget for legal counsel instead.

100+ cold email stacks audited. Every one under 5% reply broke on the same 10 things. SURBL wasn't one of them. Everyone's panicking about the SURBL blacklist. Our audit says it's not why your emails are in spam - it just exposed the fundamentals that were already broken. Here's the 10-point checklist: 1. Monitor inbox placement weekly ↳ Don't assume you're landing. Validity tracked 16.5% of legit B2B email going to spam in 2026 ↳ Test placement weekly (GlockApps, MailReach, or your sequencer's built-in tool) ↳ Stop guessing. Test the actual placement 2. SPF, DKIM, DMARC ↳ Not optional. Skip it and your spam rate spikes within 2-3 weeks ↳ Run a check with MXToolbox before the next campaign 3. Move DMARC from p=none to p=reject within 90 days ↳ Most teams set p=none and never enforce. Providers flag domains stuck there ↳ p=quarantine after 30 days, p=reject after 90. p=none is the parking spot 4. Secondary domains only, never your primary ↳ Cold sending from your primary is how you burn the domain your business runs on ↳ Buy secondaries. Space the purchases across registrars and days, no same-day batches 5. 2 inboxes per secondary domain ↳ Too many senders on one domain gets it flagged ↳ Want 10 inboxes? That's 5 domains, not 1 domain with 10 mailboxes 6. Warm up 2-4 weeks before the first cold send ↳ A new domain sending 50 cold on day one is a death sentence ↳ Bare minimum 2 weeks. Ideal 3-4. There's no shortcut 7. 5-20 cold emails per inbox per day, no spikes ↳ 200 Monday and 20 Tuesday flags you faster than a steady 20 a day ↳ Consistent low volume beats spikes that burn inboxes 8. Bounce rate under 2% ↳ Above 2% and Gmail starts flagging. Verify 100% of the list before sending ↳ Re-validate any list older than 30 days. Always 9. Plain text only. No HTML, no images, no tracking pixels ↳ HTML reads as marketing to the filters. One image raises your spam rate ↳ If you wouldn't type it as a Slack DM to a coworker, don't send it cold 10. Domain age + clean registration ↳ Nothing under 30 days old in a live campaign ↳ No hyphens, no .net or .info, no bulk buys from a single registrar flagged for abuse Here's what the SURBL scare actually taught us: the teams that panicked had no infrastructure discipline to begin with. The ones who audit weekly barely felt it. SURBL didn't break your deliverability. It just found the cracks that were already there. Infrastructure is 99% of your results. If you're in spam, the copy and the offer don't matter. What's your average bounce rate, spam rate, and inbox placement right now? If you don't know all three, that's the real problem. Repost if someone else needs this ♻

Email Marketing in 2025: Navigating the New Spam Filter Paradigm The email marketing landscape has undergone significant transformations in 2025, with advanced AI-driven spam filters and evolving regulations redefining deliverability standards. Here's what marketers need to know: 🔍 Key Developments: 1. Over 51% of spam emails are now AI-generated, enhancing their sophistication and making detection more challenging 2. Providers like Microsoft have integrated advanced AI models into their spam filters, utilizing real-time subscriber feedback to improve accuracy. 3. Email Service Providers (ESPs) such as Gmail and Yahoo mandate strict adherence to SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols. Non-compliance can result in emails being flagged as spam. 4. Gmail has reduced the acceptable spam complaint rate to 0.10%, meaning that exceeding this rate can lead to email blocks. 5. The rise of voice-activated inboxes necessitates emails to be optimized for audio rendering, emphasizing the importance of clear and concise content Strategic Recommendations: Focus on sending relevant content to engaged subscribers to maintain low spam complaint. Ensure all emails are authenticated using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to enhance deliverability. Craft emails with natural language and avoid spam-triggering keywords to navigate advanced AI spam filters. Design emails with clear structure and concise messaging to cater to voice-activated email. Staying abreast of these changes is crucial for effective email marketing in 2025. Let's connect and discuss how to adapt strategies to this evolving landscape. #email #emailmarketing

New Strategies For Keeping Your Emails Out of Spam 👇 You might be making amazing emails. But if no one sees them, they won’t drive revenue. Step 1: Your Domain Has a Credit Score (And You Probably Don’t Know What It Is) Inbox providers like Google and Yahoo assign a kind of “credit score” to your domain based on how people interact with your emails. Open rates, clicks, replies = build a good credit score → inbox. No engagement, high bounce/spam complaints = bad credit score → spam folder. Use GlockApps to check yours (not a sponsor I just like them). They’ll give you test email addresses, you send a campaign, and they’ll show you exactly where you’re landing (Inbox vs Promotions vs Spam). Goal: You want 75%+ inbox placement. Step 2: Set Up Your Technicals (Takes 5 Minutes) This is non-negotiable. Missing this = guaranteed spam. Make sure the following records are correctly set up: SPF DKIM DMARC If you're using Klaviyo, this is pretty painless and most of it is automated. You just need to manually add a DMARC record (Klaviyo has an article in this if you look it up). Once it's done, it's done forever. Step 3: Warm Up Your Domain (Even If You’ve Been Sending for Years) Think of warming up your domain like building trust with inbox providers. You wouldn’t apply for a $100k loan with zero credit history. Same thing here. If you’re switching domains or have low open rates, treat your list like it’s fresh: Example Warm-Up Cadence: Start with 250 contacts. Then 250 → 500 → 1000 → 2000 Send unique campaigns every other day. Monitor open rates and only scale when engagement stays strong. Even with a massive list, you can get to full sends within 1 month. Step 4: Send Consistently! In 2025, going silent for weeks and blasting your full list out of nowhere is a huge red flag. Set a minimum cadence of 2 emails per week, even if it’s just a simple text-based update. This keeps your domain “active” and builds positive sending history over time. Step 5: Engagement Is Necessary Open rates, clicks, and replies tell inbox providers, “Hey, people actually want this.” Shoot for: 50%+ open rates 0.5%+ click rates <0.1% spam complaint rate Pro tip: If you’re not hitting those numbers, STOP sending to everyone. Instead, build a 30-day engaged segment (people who opened/clicked in the last 30 days) and only send to them. Once you’re consistently hitting 50%+ open rates, expand to 60, 90, 120-day segments. Bonus: Simple Emails = Higher Engagement Fancy designs are cool. But inbox providers love engagement, not aesthetics. Mix in text-based founder emails. Keep buttons clear. Add PS sections. Make it feel personal. It’s not just better for engagement, it builds trust and makes people want to open the next one.

Is your mail sliding into the spam folder? Has your reputation slipped to "low" in Google Postmaster Tools? Does Microsoft SNDS think you stink like a kid who just came in from recess? Well, I have good news and bad news. 🟢 Good first: Most major mailbox providers (MBPs) provide methods of contacting them! Gmail, Microsoft, Yahoo, Comcast, Apple (and more!) all offer sender support forms or publish postmaster email addresses so that you can reach out directly when you're encountering an issue delivering mail to their users. 🔴 Now for the bad: These MBPs receive a ton of submissions, most of them from spammers. They already have information on your traffic, which is why you're blocked or bulked in the first place. They're not going to just fix whatever problem you're having because you asked nicely. They're definitely not going to fix it if you're being rude. They don't care about your business model, or your bottom line, or your legal requirements. What they care most about is their own customers. And if you're sending to the right people, then those people are also *your* customers, and you should care about them, too! So, even though it's an option to ask the MBP for help, it's probably not the first (or best) one, because all the evidence they have available so far indicates that your mail is potentially dangerous, and maybe you are too. Your job now is to demonstrate that they got it wrong, ideally using your actions and not just words. Before submitting that sender contact form, review the MBP's guidelines and your own practices. After all, their playground, their rules! Each MBP has its own quirks, but the basics tend to be the same. If you're not sure where to start, it's here! 🛝 Rule 1: Keep spam complaints as low as possible. The best way to do that? Get permission, always. Maintain a healthy list by removing bounces and sending to your most-engaged subscribers. Make it easy to unsubscribe, and honor unsubscribe requests when you get them. 🛝 Rule 2: Authenticate your mail. Use SPF, DKIM, and DMARC so you earn the deliverability you deserve (and don't forget to actually review your DMARC reports!). Authentication doesn't guarantee inbox placement, but you'll be left in the dust without it. 🛝 Rule 3: Be predictably yourself. MBPs and subscribers both reward consistency, and results tend to be stronger when everyone knows what to expect, when. Send similar volumes at similar times on similar days, ensuring increases are gradual to give the filters (and the audience) time to adjust. If you're ramping up and see increased delays, blocks, or complaints, or lower opens than expected, slow down and reassess. It's possible that the segment is no longer viable, or requires a different approach. If these bases are covered, THEN you can reach out. Include your name, your company, your domain & IP, the specific outcome you're having (including the bounce reason, if applicable), and what you've done to improve. And be nice!

After reviewing data from 1,000s of inboxes at RevGrowth, these 8 practices have made the biggest impact for consistent 99% email deliverability:   Most teams skip at least one of these, then wonder why their cold emails land in spam.   Here's what we do:   1. Use Secondary Domains - Never send from your main domain > We buy secondary domains through Porkbun for cheap, easy management   2. Track Replies Only - Open and click tracking hurt deliverability > I keep reply tracking on and turn everything else off. Clean signal, less risk   3. Send Fewer Emails Per Mailbox - I stick to 30 emails/day per mailbox, max > Spread your volume across several domains. Fewer red flags, more consistency   4. Warm Up Slowly - Ramp up sending volume over time. > Start low, increase gradually. This builds trust with inbox providers.   5. Double-Verify Your Lists - Bad data kills sender reputation > We use LeadMagic, Icypeas, and Prospeo.io for email search, then verify with LeadMagic. Clean lists = low bounce rates   6. Use Modern Sending Platforms - Old-school SEPs drag down deliverability > I recommend EmailBison or Smartlead   7. Automate CRM Syncing - Manual updates cause errors and missed follow-ups. > OutboundSync handles real-time syncing with HubSpot or Salesforce. Less manual work, more accuracy.   8. Stick to Plain Text - Links and images lower inbox rates. > I write text-only emails. They look more human and get better placement.   Our team applies these 8 steps in every workflow ourselves & all client accounts.   What’s been your biggest deliverability challenge lately?

I've sent 10 million cold emails with near-perfect deliverability. The secret is to never send more than 20 emails per day per inbox. This is the biggest fumble of all time when scaling cold email campaigns. People want to scale quickly, so they crank up the volume to 100 emails per day per inbox. That's the fastest way to go to spam, ruin your deliverability, and basically have to start your whole campaign over. Instead, keep the sending constant per inbox: 20 per day maximum. If you want to scale, think horizontally, not vertically: 1) Purchase more domains 2) Set up new inboxes on those domains 3) Keep each inbox at that 20/day sweet spot Think of it like pawns on a chessboard. If you want to scale your outreach, just purchase more pawns and put them on the board. Don't concentrate all your risk and volume on a single domain because Google or Outlook will pick up on that pattern immediately. I've personally scaled three separate businesses to seven figures using cold email as our main acquisition channel, and this rule has been non-negotiable across all campaigns. And while you're at it, always warm up your new cold email domains for at least 14 days before you start sending actual outreach messages. Let Google or Outlook know you're a human being by mimicking human behavior first. People get impatient, fumble the bag, and go straight to spam because they don't want to wait 14 days for the warm-up process. But guess what? You're just going to go to spam anyway if you rush it. Follow these two rules religiously, and your deliverability will thank you.

Your email deliverability didn’t drop… it flatlined. And most founders are still sending emails like it’s 2019. Last quarter I watched a $42M brand lose 38% of their Black Friday revenue overnight. Not because ads got expensive. Not because Shopify broke. Because Google + Microsoft quietly changed their filters. 61% of their emails went to Updates or straight to Spam. They had “perfect” setup: ✓ Great reputation ✓ Perfect DKIM ✓ 6-year warm IP Didn’t matter. The new AI filters crushed them anyway. When they called me freaking out, I asked one question: “When’s the last time you checked your email intelligence?” Blank stares. They’d never heard of it. The simple truth (screenshot this): Email in 2025 isn’t “send a blast and pray.” It’s AI-managed reputation. Google, Microsoft, and Apple judge every sender in real time. The winners = brands that send smart signals The losers = brands that keep sending like nothing changed. Old rules (RIP): • Keep complaints low • Warm up your IP • Use a big ESP and you’re fine These don’t work anymore. New rules (2026+): • Every subscriber acts like a “reputation sensor” • One bad segment can poison your whole domain • AI predicts spam complaints before a user opens • Inconsistent sending kills reputation fast • List hygiene must be daily, not quarterly Real examples happening right now: • Brand with 1.4M list: Inbox rate dropped 94% → 41% after adding one bad list • Fintech: Lost Apple Mail deliverability because 0.7% of their list was role accounts • DTC brand: Gmail inbox fell 98% → 27% overnight after sending old data The 2025 Email Intelligence Checklist (Do these or expect pain) 1) Remove traps/roles within hours 2) Check reputation every day 3) Segment by engagement + risk 4) Use separate domains for transactional/marketing 5) Avoid random “bursts” — plan volume 6) Create positive signals (polls, clicks, replies) 7) Lock down your infrastructure (BIMI, MTA-STS, etc.) Do all 7 = 99% inbox. Miss even one = random spam placement forever. This is the biggest gap since 2003. Most founders think deliverability is “set it and forget it.” They won’t realize the game changed until revenue drops. If you want my 47-point audit that fixes this in under 30 days, comment “INTEL.” Most won’t. The ones who do will own the inbox while everyone else screams into spam. The new email game already started. You’re either building intelligence… or you’re the signal someone else exploits.