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Deliverability Basics: How to Make Sure Your Emails Reach Inboxes

18 July, 2025

7 min read

You can write the perfect cold email — but if it lands in spam, no one sees it. Email deliverability is about making sure your email actually shows up in your prospect’s inbox.

Think of it like deployment: your message needs the right setup to “run” in someone else’s inbox without getting blocked. Here are the key things to get right.

1. Set Up SPF, DKIM (and maybe DMARC)

These are email authentication settings. They sound technical, but most domain providers and email platforms walk you through them.

  • SPF tells email servers which platforms are allowed to send from your domain.

  • DKIM adds a signature to prove the email hasn’t been faked or tampered with.

  • DMARC gives receiving servers a policy (e.g. reject messages that fail SPF/DKIM).

Without these, your emails may show up as “via xyz.com” or get flagged as suspicious. Set them up before sending any volume. It’s a one-time DNS update.

Bonus: if you’re using email tracking (opens, clicks), set up a custom tracking domain too — don’t use the default one from your tool, or it might get flagged.

2. Warm Up Your Domain

If your email account is new (or unused), don’t start by blasting 200 emails on day one.

Instead, start slow:

  • Week 1: Send 5–10 emails/day to friendly contacts who will reply

  • Week 2: Gradually increase to 30–50/day

  • Week 3+: Work toward your target volume

There are tools like Lemwarm or Mailreach that automate this — they simulate back-and-forth replies with other accounts to train providers to trust you. That warm-up phase builds credibility with Gmail, Outlook, etc.

3. Keep Your Email List Clean

High bounce rates kill your reputation. Aim for <2%. That means:

  • Always verify emails before you send

  • Don’t buy shady lists

  • Use tools like NeverBounce or Bouncer to clean your contacts

  • Remove unsubscribes or “not interested” replies from your list

One hard bounce won’t hurt. But if you send to 100 people and 20 bounce? That’s a problem — and mail providers will notice.

Also, always include an unsubscribe link in bulk outreach. It’s legally required in many places, and helps avoid spam complaints.

4. Write Like a Human

Spam filters look at your email content too.

Avoid:

  • ALL CAPS SUBJECTS

  • Too many exclamation marks

  • “FREE” or other promo-style words

  • Bit.ly links or random tracking URLs

  • Heavy HTML or banners

Use simple text, short sentences, and plain links. Think of it as a real email to a person — not a marketing blast.

Also avoid attachments in cold emails. If you want to share a deck or PDF, wait until someone replies.

5. Respect Sending Limits

Each email service has daily limits — usually 500–2,000/day per inbox. Stay well below that, especially early on. If you scale, consider rotating across multiple inboxes or domains.

And monitor your domain health. Tools like MXToolbox can tell you if you’re on a blacklist or if there are setup issues.

FuseAI Can Help

Managing all this manually is a lot. Tools like FuseAI can automate warm-ups, monitor bounce rates, and rotate senders. It might even suggest email content tweaks to avoid spam triggers or track how deliverability changes over time.

If you're using FuseAI, make sure authentication and warm-up are built into your setup. That way, you focus on outreach — not email plumbing.

Final Takeaway

Deliverability is invisible — until it breaks. And by then, it’s often too late.

Do these four things:

  1. Authenticate (SPF, DKIM, etc.)

  2. Warm up slowly

  3. Clean your list

  4. Write real emails, not spam

The best cold email is the one that gets delivered. Get this right, and your GTM motion will have a solid foundation from day one.