Deliverability Ramp and Domain Warmup Protocol (Onboarding)

Deliverability Ramp and Domain Warmup Protocol (Onboarding)

1. 01

   Inventory every sending domain and mailbox the client will use before any sequence goes live

   Map each domain to its owner, registrar, and current daily send volume. Flag any domain younger than 90 days or shared across multiple clients, since those carry the highest reputation risk.

2. 02

   Authenticate the sending infrastructure with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records

   Verify all three records resolve correctly using a DNS lookup tool. A missing or misconfigured DMARC policy is the single most common reason cold outreach lands in spam folders on day one.

3. 03

   Set a conservative daily send ceiling per mailbox and hold it for the first two weeks

   Start at 20 to 30 emails per mailbox per day for new domains and 50 for established ones. Platforms like Amplemarket and Salesloft expose per-mailbox throttling controls that make this enforceable rather than aspirational.

4. 04

   Increase volume in fixed weekly increments only after bounce and complaint rates stay under threshold

   A workable gate is under 2 percent bounce and under 0.1 percent spam complaints for seven consecutive days before adding 20 percent more volume. If either metric breaches, hold at the current level for another week.

5. 05

   Route all replies to a monitored human inbox and disable auto-reply on the sending mailbox

   Automated replies to genuine prospect responses are the fastest way to burn a warmed domain. Tools such as Buzz and Reply support reply detection that pauses the sequence and notifies an operator.

6. 06

   Run a seed-list test across Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo before the first client campaign sends

   Send to a monitored seed inbox on each provider and confirm placement in the primary tab, not promotions or spam. Document the result with a timestamp so the client has a baseline to compare against later.

7. 07

   Log the warmup schedule, current volumes, and authentication status in a shared client-facing document

   This becomes the reference point when a client asks why volume is capped in week one. It also gives the delivery team a single source of truth when a new operator inherits the account.