Free checklist · 5 min · Technical

The cold email pre-send checklist.

Go through each point and tick everything that’s true for your business today. Be honest — nobody’s watching. Your score appears at the bottom.

Every unticked box raises your odds of the spam folder.

Domain & authentication

The technical foundation. Get any of these wrong and mailbox providers filter you before a human ever sees your subject line.

0/6 · 1–6

1You send from a separate domain — never your main company domainCold outreach can damage sender reputation. A dedicated domain (e.g. yourbrand-mail.com) keeps your primary domain safe if things go wrong.
2SPF record is published and passingSPF tells receiving servers which IPs may send for your domain. Without it, Gmail and Outlook treat you as a likely spoofer. Verify with a tool like MXToolbox — “we set it up once” isn’t the same as “it passes.”
3DKIM signing is enabled and verifiedDKIM cryptographically signs each email so providers know it wasn’t tampered with. No DKIM = major deliverability penalty at Gmail and Microsoft.
4DMARC policy is published (at least p=none with reporting)Google and Yahoo now require DMARC for bulk senders. Start at p=none to collect reports, then tighten. No DMARC record at all fails their sender requirements.
5A custom tracking domain replaces your sending tool’s shared oneOpen/click tracking rewrites links through your tool’s domain — shared with thousands of senders, some of them spammers. A custom tracking subdomain (e.g. track.yourbrand-mail.com) isolates your reputation.
6The sending domain redirects to your real websiteProviders and suspicious prospects check the domain. A dead page looks like a burner operation; a 301 redirect to your main site looks legitimate.

Even a perfectly authenticated inbox gets flagged if it goes from zero to hundreds of emails overnight.

0/4 · 7–10

7New inboxes were warmed up for 2–4 weeks before any campaignWarmup gradually builds sending history with real opens and replies. Skipping it is the #1 reason new campaigns land in spam on day one.
8Each inbox sends under ~50 cold emails per dayVolume beyond that per mailbox trips provider limits. Need more volume? Add inboxes and domains, don’t push one harder.
9Volume ramps up gradually — not 500 sends on day oneSudden spikes are the classic spam signature. Increase daily volume in small steps over weeks.
10Sending is spread across multiple inboxes/domains with rotationRotation distributes risk: if one inbox’s reputation dips, the campaign keeps running while it recovers.

Deliverability is earned or destroyed by who you send to. Bad lists burn good infrastructure.

0/5 · 11–15

11Every address is verified before sending (target bounce rate under 2%)Hard bounces are the fastest way to get blacklisted. Run lists through a verifier (e.g. MillionVerifier) — bought lists that “look fine” routinely bounce 10%+.
12Catch-all and risky addresses are separated or excludedCatch-all domains accept everything, then often bounce later or hit spam traps. Treat them as a separate, lower-volume segment.
13Your list matches a written ICP — not “anyone with an email”A defined ideal customer profile (industry, size, role, geography) is why 200 targeted emails outperform 5,000 sprayed ones.
14Each contact has data you can personalize with (name, company, context)“Hi {{first_name}}” with an empty field has killed more campaigns than any spam filter.
15A suppression list blocks existing clients, competitors, and past opt-outsCold-emailing a current customer or someone who already unsubscribed is embarrassing at best and illegal at worst.

Filters read your email before humans do — and humans delete faster than filters.

0/5 · 16–20

16The email is plain text — no images, no HTML templates, minimal linksHeavy HTML and images scream “marketing blast.” Plain text looks like a one-to-one email, which is exactly what filters and humans reward.
17First line is personalized to the prospect — not your company intro“Saw you just opened a second location” beats “We are a leading agency” every single time. The first line is also the inbox preview.
18The whole email is under ~120 words with one clear, low-friction askLong pitches get skimmed and deleted. “Worth a quick chat?” converts better than “book a 30-minute demo via this link.”
19Subject line is short, lowercase-casual, and spam-word free3–5 words, no FREE!!!, no GUARANTEED, no ⚡. It should read like a colleague’s email, not a billboard.
20Copy is varied between sends (spintax or multiple variants)Sending the identical string 1,000 times creates a fingerprint filters catch. Variation keeps each send unique.

One legal misstep can cost more than the whole campaign earns.

0/2 · 21–22

21Every email includes a working opt-out and your real identityCAN-SPAM requires a clear way to decline and honest sender info — a simple “not relevant? just reply ‘no’” line covers UX and law.
22You know which rules apply to your target geography (CAN-SPAM, GDPR, PECR)B2B cold email is legal in the US under CAN-SPAM; the EU and UK have stricter legitimate-interest requirements. Sending blind across borders is a real risk.

Campaigns aren’t “send and pray.” The money is in what happens after the first send.

0/3 · 23–25

23You monitor blacklists and inbox placement — not just opensOpen rates lie (Apple Mail inflates them). Blacklist checks and seed-list placement tests tell you where emails actually land.
24A follow-up sequence of 2–4 emails is written and scheduledMost replies come from follow-ups, not the first email. No sequence = leaving the majority of results on the table.
25Replies are answered within hours, with a clear next stepA cold prospect’s interest has a half-life of hours. Same-day, next-step replies are where campaigns turn into revenue.

Your result

Every unticked box raises the odds your emails never reach a human — filtered, bounced, or buried in spam.

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