Sender Reputation Gate (Onboarding)

Sender Reputation Gate (Onboarding)

1. 01

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

   Map each domain to its owner, registrar, and DNS host. Agencies inheriting a client's old outreach stack routinely find domains registered to a departed employee, which stalls SPF and DKIM changes for days.

2. 02

   Verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC alignment on each domain and record the exact records in a shared sheet

   Misaligned authentication is the most common cause of bulk folder placement. Capture the raw TXT values so a later change can be diffed against the baseline.

3. 03

   Warm new mailboxes for 14 to 21 days at 10 to 20 sends per day per inbox

   Platforms like Amplemarket and Salesloft both expose per-mailbox send caps; set them conservatively at the start and raise them only after bounce rates hold under 2 percent.

4. 04

   Cap total daily volume per domain at a level the domain's age and history can support

   A domain younger than 90 days should not carry more than roughly 50 sends per day across all mailboxes. Buzz and Apollo both let you throttle at the mailbox or campaign level.

5. 05

   Run a seed-list test across Gmail, Outlook, and one corporate filter before the first client campaign

   Send to 10 to 15 seed addresses and confirm inbox placement, link rendering, and tracking-pixel behavior. Document the result as the pre-launch baseline.

6. 06

   Define the pause threshold that stops a sequence automatically

   Common triggers: bounce rate above 3 percent, spam complaint rate above 0.1 percent, or reply rate falling below half the trailing 14-day average. Salesloft and Outplay both support cadence-level pause rules.

7. 07

   Assign one named human to review replies and edge cases daily for the first two weeks

   Automated qualification from tools such as CloseBot or 11x still misreads sarcasm, out-of-office chains, and referral replies. A 15-minute daily review catches those before they reach the client.

8. 08

   Log the gate outcome and hand the signed checklist to the delivery lead

   The checklist becomes the reference document if deliverability degrades mid-retainer, so the team can tell whether the cause is new or pre-existing.