Deliverability

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Introduction

Welcome to deliverability. This resource will show you how to prevent, diagnose, and fix poor
email deliverability. If your LVR (Loom View Rate) is weak, but your copy & offer is strong, then
the problem is most likely email deliverability. Deliverability is one of the most important things in
email marketing and it is more important than your copy and email list. You can have the best
copy in the world and the best email list, but if your emails don’t land in the inbox, there’s no point
in having them.

Today we’re going to go over our entire email warm-up SOP allowing us to beat email
deliverability issues once and for all and what we do IF we do end up in spam.

Subscribing to Newsletters

This is a very important step when it comes to warming up the accounts. We need to sign up
for different email marketing lists that send out emails on a frequent basis. This will make
your account seem real. The main reason we do this is that Google looks a lot at the inflow
of emails new accounts are getting and it affects deliverability in a massive way.

1. Subscribing

Do the following on all Google Workspace accounts. Open up the links below in one go in
an incognito window. Once you’ve subscribed to the warm email account to the different
newsletters, close the incognito window, open it up again, and redo the process with all cold
accounts one by one.

1. Axios (requires confirmation)

2. Buzzfeed (requires confirmation)
3. The Skimm (requires confirmation)
4. Daily Beast
5. Morning Brew

NOTE: Make sure you check your inboxes to confirm your email since most of the
newsletters require you to confirm your email address in order to subscribe.

2. Creating newsletter filters

After you’ve subscribed to all newsletters, do the following one account at a time.

Go to the inbox.

>> https://mail.google.com/
Click on the filter icon in the search bar -> add the domains below in the from bar -> click
‘create filter’ -> check off ‘Skip the inbox (Archive it)’ and ‘Mark as read’.

@axios.com OR @thedailybeast.com OR buzzfeed.com OR @morning7.theskimm.com OR @theskimm.com OR

@morningbrew.com

Newsletter emails are not the only emails we’ll need to create filters for. Dmarc reports are
also irrelevant (more on what these are later). Therefore, we also create a filter for these as
well. Click on the filter icon in the ‘Has the words’ bar -> add “Dmarc AND report” -> click
‘create filter’ -> check off ‘Skip the inbox (Archive it)’ and ‘Mark as read’.

Redo this process on all accounts.

Instantly Account Creation

We use Instantly to warm up our email accounts. We warm up the accounts by gradually
increasing the number of emails sent from each account since this looks like human
behavior. Doing this increases our reputation which makes us avoid spam filters. We do not
use it to send out emails.

Head over to Instantly.

>> instantly.ai

Click on ‘Get Started’ -> Signup.

Buy the ‘Growth Plan’ since all we need is the ‘Unlimited Email Accounts’ & ‘Unlimited Email
Warmup’. Get the yearly plan for minimum long-term fees.

Starting Warmup

Once Instantly is bought, we’ll start importing the newly created Google Workspace
accounts.

1. Importing Google Workspace users to Instantly

Go to Add New -> Gmail / G-Suite -> Yes, IMAP has been enabled -> Option 2: oAuth ->
Follow Instantly’s instructions -> Login

Do the above process in order from the top to the bottom of the Deliverability Hub.

NOTE: There’s only a need to follow instantly’s instructions about the admin panel on the
admin account on each domain (six times in total).

2. Starting warm-up

Once all accounts have been added to Instantly, click on the flame icon -> check ‘Yes, I
understand’ -> Continue.
Once warmup is enabled, click on the top account and go to settings.
- Change ‘Increase per day’ to 1

(remember to press ‘save’)

NOTE: Once 14 days have passed and you’ve begun outreach, bump up the ‘Reply rate %’
from 30% to 40% on all active accounts. We keep the 30% reply rate on for the inactive
accounts.

A low reply rate can lead to you getting a poor reputation. When we send emails, our overall
account reply rate will go down on the cold accounts which is why we at that point bump up
the reply rate.

3. Creating Instantly filters

In a couple of days, emails should start going back and forth between your emails and other
Instantly users. These will populate your inbox so we need to create a filter for these to keep
the inbox clean. Automatically, Instantly will create a label on your account named ‘Instantly
Warmup’.

Not all emails will automatically be detected and moved to that label, so we have to create a
filter ourselves too that ensures that the warmup emails go to that label. Every email that will
be sent from Instantly will have a specific 7-digit tag that will be inserted into the subject line
and email body that you can use to filter emails out.

There’s one tag per workspace, so to find this, go to the warmup setting for one of your
accounts. Under ‘Your warmup filter tag’, you can find your specific tag.

On all accounts, create a filter where you insert the tag in the ‘Subject’ and ‘Has the words’
fields. Click ‘Create filter’ and mark off ‘Skip the inbox (Archive it)’, ‘Mark as read’, and apply
the label ‘Instantly Warmup’.

Lastly, make the label grey.

Tracking Deliverability

In Instantly, the ‘Warmup Health Score’ determines the percentage of warmup emails that
are inboxing. Using this percentage to keep a log of our accounts’ health gives us a bird’s
eye view of the individual account’s health.

Once everything is set up in Instantly, you don’t need to use it as warmup will run in the
background. Just do a daily check to ensure that the account health is at 90% or above on
all accounts. If they are, you won’t have any deliverability issues.
NOTE: If the account health score dips below 90% on an account, finish all follow-ups and
leave the account in warmup. Introduce a new account from the Inactive accounts instead
and start sending from that account. Yes, this is a bit of a headache (logistically), however,
email deliverability is important.

Besides keeping a daily log of the email accounts’ health scores in Instantly, we do the same
with the domains and IPs we are using. Use the below tools to check your deliverability rates
and diagnose any problems.

Domain health status checkers (test once per week):

>> https://mxtoolbox.com/domain/
>> https://dnschecker.org/domain-health-checker.php

IP health checkers (test once per day):

>> https://www.myip.com/
>> https://talosintelligence.com/
>> https://www.whatismyip.com/blacklist-check/
>> https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

Keep a weekly log of the domain health in the Deliverability Hub.

If the IP is on 3 or more blacklists, use another VPN server. Keep testing IPs until you find
one that is on two, one, or no blacklists. You cannot fix a broken IP, the only way is to give it
lots of time to ‘recover’. For this reason, you should’ve purchased NordVPN so you can
change your IP address with a click of a button.

If the domain is on 3 or more blacklists, you’ll need to get a new domain. The only way for a
domain to have its ‘deliverability’ recovered is to give it time to ‘cool off’ and keeping the
users in the Instantly warmup. We cannot stop doing outreach which is why we have inactive
accounts warming up in the background ready to be used.

In addition to the tests above, ask 4-5 family members/friends for their personal email
addresses (ideally Gmails, Outlooks, etc). Send them Looms just as you would to your
prospects (editing the name, company, etc), and see if they deliver. Don’t worry about using
any fancy software.

Deliverability Checklist

You’ve now taken all the necessary steps to ensure that you land in the inbox. If you
diagnose your deliverability as being poor, print the below sheet off and tick the boxes that
apply to you. Poor deliverability is cause and effect. It’s not chance. Email providers will
never punish you with poor deliverability for no good reason. There are clear definable
causes that will lead to poor or good deliverability. We’ve listed all the ones we know below.

If you cannot tick all the boxes, you will need to create new email accounts and start again.
The easiest and cleanest way to fix deliverability is to start fresh, with new email accounts
and a new IP.

❏ I properly warmed up my email accounts for the first 2 weeks using Instantly with the
settings above and I have also added them to the newsletters.

❏ I have not been sending cold emails from my warm account, only my cold ones. I’ve
only used my warm account to reply to and organize engaged prospects.

❏ I have a DKIM, DMARC, and SPF record installed on all of my domains (refer to
‘Account Configuration’ earlier).

❏ I’ve never used automation software to send emails from my domains or home/office
IP address (note, major email automation providers send from their own IP, but if
you’ve tried to use bulk sending tools like Gmass in the last 6 months, your own IP is
likely ruined).

❏ My bounce rate is less than 8% and I am only sending emails to email addresses that
I’ve verified in Neverbounce (or another verification software).

❏ I haven’t been sending the same email to the same people, and I’m not sending
duplicate emails (e.g. I am using remove duplicate tools to prevent this).

❏ My email copy gets a ‘great’ score on the spam tester found here.

❏ My signature is free of pictures and links and contains the email address of the actual
account itself and the correct Skype number.

❏ My signature contains no custom code, just words (no social links, no icons, no
bullshit).

❏ I am not using short links in my copy (e.g. bit.ly).

❏ The only link in my initial email is the Loom link and I am not using calendar links in
my initial cold email. The only way for prospects to get my calendar link is if they ask
or use the Loom CTA button.
❏ I have not been sending more than 20 emails per day per account in the last 60 days.

❏ I have been rotating my email sending between accounts so that there is at least 1
minute between each email sent and 10 between emails on the same account in the
last 60 days.

❏ I have been replying to all prospects who reply to me from my warm account,
regardless of the sentiment. If prospects aren’t interested, I am respectful.

❏ However, I do not respond to rude prospects or ‘fuck off’s’, as I understand there is

no bloody point and that they will likely just mark my emails as spam to get back at
me. I do not re-email these people or follow up on them.

❏ I DO NOT have an open rate tracker installed on my email, and never have or will
again.

❏ I have personalized pretty much every email sent in the last 60 days with names,
company names & Loom links.

❏ I have given my email addresses (and prospects) regular breaks (e.g. not sending on
weekends).

❏ I have NOT scheduled emails, instead, I have sent them when they need to be sent.

❏ My email accounts have a profile picture and a real human name, alongside a
verified Skype number & backup email address.

❏ I have tried, where possible, to send emails directly to the person I’m trying to contact
(e.g. John@) and not generic company emails (support@).

❏ I am not sending attachments with my cold emails.

❏ I am not misusing capital letters and I am using them like a normal, rational human
(I’M NOT TYPING LIKE THIS).

❏ My subject line is simple and just says something like “Question for (name/company).

❏ I am not getting security alerts all the time because I log into accounts from an IP
across the globe 5 minutes after having logged into the account from an IP in my own
country. If an alert does appear, I handle it properly by checking off ‘yes, it was me’.

❏ I only access the accounts (both warm and cold) via an incognito window to prevent
the cache from being stored on the main browser.

❏ My email-sending rate is consistent (I don’t try to cheat the system and ‘save up’
days and send all emails at the end of the week on one day).
 ❏ I kneel before the deliverability Gods and haven’t tried to delude myself by cheating
the system or trying to find a loophole in any of the above points.

❏ Overall, my email-sending habits and behavior have been perfectly human and
normal since starting my email accounts.

Structural caution is key. Prevention is the only cure for poor deliverability. You must learn to
take deliverability as seriously as you take copywriting and sales. By following this
document, we are flying so far ‘under the radar’ that Google would need a satellite to see us.