Spam filters and email delays

Sending 1,000+ cold emails a day and suddenly your replies drop to zero? You’ve got a SERIOUS deliverability problem. Here’s what you need to do: 1️⃣ Stop EVERYTHING and drop the volume ASAP. Sending too much after being flagged is like robbing a bank… and then hitting the next one the next day. Filters are watching you. What to do: - Drop email volume to 1–2 per mailbox per day. - Don’t go to zero. Trickling a few emails keeps your inbox active without waving more red flags. 2️⃣ Test your placement with fresh copy. Your script is likely the #1 culprit. Spam filters LOVE patterns. If the same copy has been running for weeks, it’s probably burned. What to do: - Run inbox placement tests using GlockApps or MailReach. - Pick 3 inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, SMTP) and test a new copy variation. - If one version lands in spam, switch it up. Keep testing until you hit the inbox again. 3️⃣ Monitor reputation signals. To troubleshoot your inbox placement, you need to look under the rug. What to do: - Use Google Postmaster Tools to monitor spam rates, domain reputation, and IP health for Gmail inboxes. - Use Microsoft Defender for Outlook to identify issues with flagged mailboxes and domain health. These tools give you insights into WHY your emails are getting flagged, so you can fix problems faster. 4️⃣ Burned accounts? Start fresh. If you are still landing in spam after changing the copy, move on. It means your domain or IP reputation is completely shot. What to do: 💡 Here’s when having aged domains parked can save you so much time and money. If you have 30-60 days old domain, just switch to those with new copies and ramp up the volume slowly. If not: - Buy new domains (GoDaddy, Cloudflare, or Porkbun) - Warm up your new domains with the reply rate set at 100%. Start with low volume and increase slowly by 10-15% weekly. When deliverability tanks, don’t keep pushing. Stop, test, and rebuild—slowly. 💬 Got any questions/cases you want me to look into? Drop a comment!

There’s a story that unfolded in my DMs after my last #coldoutbound post. Brave sales and growth teams, battling an unknown frontier of email deliverability, stuck with legacy platforms built for 2019, not 2023. And that’s largely why I joined rift: we work with teams to get them to a place of best-in-class email deliverability & strong engagement on cold outbound email. But I know that a lot of you aren’t decision makers. You’re trying to get to goal using whatever stack you’ve already got. So after countless DMs, I put together a quick guide tailored for individual contributors. Here’s what you can do to get more emails in inboxes WITHOUT spending a dime on new tools: 1. Go to learndmarc.com and check that the domain you’re sending from has DMARC, DKIM, and SPF set up correctly. Seeing some errors? Get in touch with IT. (Seriously — do not just bring it to your manager or RevOps or ask in #sales, just go straight to IT.) 2. Keep it as plain-text as possible. Adding images can slow down email loading times and attachments often trigger spam filters. A link back to your website should be fine, so long as you… 3. Turn off click tracking! Click tracking can hurt your deliverability because the embedded tracking links and pixels can be flagged by spam filters as suspicious, potentially causing your emails to be categorized as spam or blocked entirely. 4. Do not send to unverified email addresses. I know it’s tempting to guess emails when they all have similar structures, but a bounce is the biggest way to shout to email service providers from the top of your lungs that you’re sending to people you don’t know. (ZeroBounce is best for this but use whatever you already have, even Apollo/ZoomInfo is better than nothing) 5. Send consistent volumes, Monday to Friday. This is probably one of the hardest things to do, but suddenly going from 15 emails a day to 75 is also a super obvious red flag that you are doing cold outbound. Try to stay as “flat” as possible unless you’re scaling up or down volumes due to performance (more on that next) 6. Become an engineer of your email performance. If you send 30 emails a day and get good open rates, reply rates, and low bounce rates, you can slowly (over time!) ramp up to ~50 emails a day, all the way up to ~100 if your performance is stellar. If your open and reply rates are decreasing, you need to ramp your volume DOWN. Yes. You need to SEND LESS. Tracking closely is the only way to do this. Continuing the same volumes with decreasing performance can lead to you burning your sender reputation all together. (If you’re a decision maker, you may be thinking “I’m supposed to rely on every one of my AEs and BDRs to do this manually?” – well…yeah. Or come chat with us at rift.)

Google is deleting your cold emails before they even hit inbox. This happened to us recently!! We had: - Clean list. - Warmed domain. - SPF, DKIM, DMARC — all ✅ - Great copy. But stil… Zero replies. We thought something was off. It was: our infrastructure. Gmail doesn’t just scan your words. It scans how you send, from where, and what patterns you follow. If any of it looks off, your emails are erased before they reach anyone. What fixed it for us: 1. We set-up our own Infra: We set up our own SMTP server Postfix on a VPS. Hooked it to a dedicated IP. No shared infra. No third-party fingerprints. → Clean sender identity. Now Gmail treats us as a standalone sender not a bulk app user. 2. We fully configured DNS (beyond the basics) Most people set SPF, DKIM, and DMARC and think they’re done. Wrong. You also need: - PTR records (reverse DNS) - FCrDNS (forward-confirmed reverse DNS) These are what Gmail uses to verify that your IP = your domain. 3. We slowed everything down Started sending 5–10 plain-text emails/day. Just real messages, written manually. Replies boosted sender reputation. Then we scaled up slowly over 45 days. Volume only grew when reply rates held steady. 4. We re-learned how to write No fancy formatting. No AI-sounding “quick questions.” No calendar links. Instead we used: - all small caps email - made mistakes on emails Gmail flags anything that looks templated or mass-produced. 5. We implemented greylisting + rate-limiting Most people don’t know what this is. We configured our server to: Accept retry attempts from legit mail servers The bursts that look like spam behavior Gmail tracks this. It’s their way of filtering real senders from spam bots. If your infra can’t retry or slows down under load that’s a good thing. 6. We started live monitoring everything We now use internal dashboards to monitor: - Spam feedback loops (Spamcop, AOL, etc.) - IP reputation health - Open/reply/soft bounce signals - Domain temperature Auto-rotation of sending IPs One red flag… The system pauses, reroutes, and resets warm-up if needed. Most founders optimize copy. Smart founders fix infrastructure. Google’s AI doesn’t care how clever your hook is. It cares how trustworthy your server looks from the outside. I’m still learning and implementing things day by day —— Send this to your SDR

Remember, emails don't just bounce because a contact is invalid... Your cold emails get blocked due to spam risk too... The top 5 issues that make this happen are: 1) Sender reputation. Your domain or account could have a lower sender reputation based on your sending activity and inbox placement. You can use an inbox placement tool like Allegrow to measure this accurately.  2) Content.  Your content may have been perceived as highly likely to be spam based on its structure and resemblance to past spam messages. 3) Manual spam reports.  If your approach to recipients is too aggressive, you may have had more manual spam reports, which means future messages you send can be blocked altogether. 4) Strict spam filters There are varying degrees of how strict companies' spam filters are. To the degree that some decision-makers will have filters that reject most messages being delivered to the inbox from senders that aren't already in their contact book. 5) Email provider throttling & authentication If you send too many emails in a short period of time or have flawed authentication (DKIM, SPF + DMARC) on your outgoing emails. Deliveries will be rejected by email providers as a security protocol (protecting against unauthorized activity). 

Google and Yahoo have rolled out new email requirements, and if you're sending email, you are quite surely sending a lot of mail their way. So, it's crucial to get yourself compliant with their rules and monitor your email performance to ensure you *stay* compliant. Here's what to focus on: 1️⃣ Bounces: Enforcement is being rolled out in a phased approach, starting with non-compliant emails facing delays in delivery. Eventually, these will result in rejections, so ensure compliance to avoid disruptions in delivery. 2️⃣ Opens: Track open rates, especially at the provider level, to gauge performance accurately. A drop post-compliance could signal reputation issues. 3️⃣ Unsubscribes: While a spike post-implementation is expected, monitor for sustained trends, indicating potential recipient fatigue or list hygiene issues. 4️⃣ Spam Complaints: Maintain spam rates below 0.1%, aiming even lower for consistent inbox placement. Monitor closely, as complaints can adversely affect deliverability. 5️⃣ Overall Reputation: Evaluate your sender reputation using metrics like StreamScore. Consistent positive engagement indicates compliance and enhances deliverability. Additional Tips: ➡️ Leverage tools like #Google Postmaster Tools and #Yahoo Sender Hub for deeper insights into sender reputation, complaint rates, etc. ➡️ Conduct seed testing to assess inbox placement, focusing on Google and Yahoo addresses. Although use this directionally, as false positives are common. ➡️ Ensure you're compliant with authentication standards (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) using tools like the Google Postmaster Tools compliance dashboard and About My Email, built by Steve Atkins from Word to the Wise. Late to Comply? Well, get movin'... like, today! Then keep a close eye on delivery, bounces, and engagement metrics. Address your compliance gaps promptly — focusing on your most important mail streams like transactional mail first — to mitigate potential damage to recipient trust (and your sender reputation!) Ultimately, compliance, best practices, and performance monitoring are key to a successful email program...not only because these are required by Google and Yahoo, but also because they're the right thing to do for the sake of your email recipients! Remember they are who we are really here to please, not the mailbox providers. I'm sure I'm missing some great tips, so please back me up by adding them in the comments, you nerd. 😉 Also, reach out for support whenever needed! I've been living and breathing this topic for months, and more importantly — I'll be chatting directly with representatives from Google and Yahoo in a webinar on April 10th! I'd be happy to ask them questions on your behalf. 💌 #emailmarketing #deliverability #compliance

67% of cold emails never reach the inbox ... and it's KILLING your reply rates Most people blame their copy when the real problem is deliverability If you're stuck under 2% reply rates, your emails probably aren't being seen Here's a 5-step fix: 1. Diagnose the real problem Check bounce rates, reply rates, and run placement tests If bounce rates are above 2%, it's a major red flag 2. Kill the spam signals Turn off open tracking pixels - they scream 'marketing automation' to Gmail Just focus on replies, not vanity metrics 3. Spread your volume 10 inboxes sending 20 emails beats 1 inbox sending 200 Set up secondary domains with proper authentication 4. Write like a human 'Book a free call!' goes to the spam folder 'Worth a quick chat?' lands in the inbox Remove the sales-y language that triggers filters 5. Target people who actually care Random prospects ↓ Spam complaints ↓ Ruined reputation Use real triggers like hiring, funding, or job changes — Perfect copy in the spam folder → 0 results Decent copy in the inbox → booked meetings Most people optimize backwards and wonder why nothing works Fix deliverability first, then worry about being clever

I helped a SaaS company 5x sales meetings. (Without changing their messaging) Last month, I gave an audit to a SaaS company. They were getting no results from their cold emails. I quickly found that it was all because of deliverability. I fixed it all with these 8 tactics: 1. Disabled open tracking pixels. ↳ Google and Outlook flag these as spam in 2025. ↳ Prevents emails from being marked as spam. 2. Implemented Spintax variations. ↳ Each prospect receives a truly unique email. ↳ Spam filters can’t detect mass sending patterns. 3. Sent plain text emails only. ↳ HTML, images, and links trigger spam filters. ↳ Text-only feels more personal and authentic. 4. Set up proper mail infrastructure with Maildoso. ↳ 98%+ inbox placement. ↳ Their IP rotation lands you in primary inbox. ↳ Their new AI Warmup feature increases deliverability. 5. Balanced sending with strategic warm-up. ↳ Each account maintains consistent activity. ↳ Protects domain reputation long-term. 6. Randomized daily sending times. ↳ Fixed schedules look automated to AI filters. ↳ Natural patterns mimic human behavior. ↳ Avoids the “marketing automation” flag. 7. Varied time gaps between emails. ↳ Eliminated the perfect 5-minute intervals. ↳ Created natural, human-like sending patterns. 8. Used a spam checker before campaigns. ↳ Caught deliverability issues before sending. ↳ Identified spam trigger words and fixed them. 9. Limited to 15 targeted emails per account daily. ↳ Quality over quantity approach. ↳ Maintained pristine sender reputation. ↳ Each prospect received truly personalized outreach. The results? Reply rates jumped from 0.5% to 2.4%. That’s nearly 5X more meetings from the same list. Without changing a single word in their pitch. Cold email is still the highest ROI channel in B2B. But only for those who master deliverability first. If your emails land in spam, it won't work. P.S. How are you currently handling deliverability?