Email deliverability: make it to the inbox

DEEP DIVE

Email deliverability: make it to the inbox

All that time you spend crafting the "perfect" outreach email, finding contact info, and writing the perfect blog post to pitch is completely wasted if your email gets sent straight to spam.

You can't get links if you don't get read. Simple as that.

Let's say you're sending 100 cold outreach emails per week. If your deliverability rate is only 20% (which is common for poorly configured outreach), then 80% of those carefully crafted messages are going straight to spam folders.

That means you're operating at 20% capacity while putting in 100% of the work.

This isn't just inefficient—it's a complete waste of resources.

Most SEOs approach email outreach with the digital equivalent of a sledgehammer:

1. Create a free Gmail account

2. Immediately blast 100+ emails per day

3. Don’t personalize a single one

4. Wonder why they're getting zero responses

This is the fast track to burning your domain reputation into the ground and wasting your time. 

Gmail and other providers aren't stupid. They see this pattern constantly from spammers and have sophisticated systems to detect it.

The no-BS way to email deliverability

Before I dive deep into this subject, I want to tell you a secret that I know 95% of you will ignore.

If you want near-perfect email deliverability, you should manually send your emails directly in Gmail.

It's a pain in the ass. It's not scalable. It takes forever.

But here's the thing: If you're doing slow, detailed, personalized outreach like I suggest (which gets way better results anyway), manually sending is optimal.

Read the above section again. Read this article. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. 

In my 8+ years of sending over 20,000 outreach emails per month, nothing—and I mean NOTHING—beats manual sending. It's the 80/20 of email deliverability.

But . . . we’re all SEOs here and we’re obsessed with SCALING, so let's get into it.

Step 1: Create a dedicated outreach domain

First and foremost, never send outreach from your main business domain.

If I own lazylinkbuilding.com, I'll create lazylinkbuilding(dot)co specifically for outreach. This keeps your main domain reputation clean while giving you a dedicated setup for cold outreach.

You’ll need to buy a Google Workspace account instead of using a free Gmail account, but trust me when I say the extra $6 per month is worth it for the improved deliverability.

Step 2: Set up proper authentication

Once you’ve set up your custom domain and email address, set up these protocols:

• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication)

These technical protocols tell email providers that you're a legitimate sender. If you don't know how to set these up, hire someone who does. It's that important.

I can’t tell you in this newsletter how to set these up (would take far too long), but here’s a good article on the topic. In addition, YouTube is your best friend for this. 

That said, it took me hours to learn how to properly set everything up. I would happily pay someone $70 to do this for me instead. And no, that’s not an affiliate link.

Step 3: Warm up your email (properly)

Cold email accounts need a gentle buildup, not a sprint.

There are two main approaches:

Method 1: Automated tools

Services like Warmup Inbox can automatically send emails between accounts in their network and interact with them in a way that signals to email providers you're legitimate.

They're convenient but not my favorite method.

Method 2: My secret weapon

Microworkers is my go-to. Here's what I do:

1. Create a free account on Microworkers.com.
   

2. Create a Google Form to collect worker email addresses.

• Include a question field for workers to answer in their reply.

• Use a validation pattern to filter for specific email providers (Gmail, Yahoo, etc.).
  

3. Set up Zapier to connect your form to Gmail.

• When the form is submitted, automatically send an email to the worker.

• Include their selected question in the email body.
  

4. Create your campaign on Microworkers.

• Select "Basic" campaigns and "Offer/Sign up > Email Submit/Subscribe."

• Set time estimate to 3 minutes.

• Start with 30 available positions.

• Pay about $0.40 per task for Western audiences.

• Set speed to 500–600 (not maximum) for natural completion pacing.
  

5. Create clear instructions for workers.

• Specify which email provider they should use (Gmail).

• Link to your Google Form.

• Instruct them to check spam and mark your email as "Not Spam."

• Ask them to reply to your email answering their selected question.
  

6. Launch the campaign and let it run.

This creates natural, human interaction patterns that Google loves.

The magic happens when real humans are interacting with your emails rather than automated systems.

Step 4: If you must use outreach tools

Look, I get it. Sometimes you need scale. If you’re going to choose one, use Pitchbox (if you have the budget). If you don’t, use BuzzStream.

When using outreach tools, here's how to minimize the damage:

Disable all tracking

Disable both open tracking and link tracking.

Most outreach tools insert tracking pixels that trigger spam filters. These are basically giant red flags saying, "THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MARKETING EMAIL!" to inbox providers.

The guys at Pitchbox taught me this years ago, and it's still true today: Send plain HTML emails with no tracking pixels.

Instead of obsessing over open rates (which are often inaccurate anyway), track your campaign success based on response and win rates—you know, the metrics that actually matter.

Step 5: The outreach schedule that works

Even once your email is warmed up, you can’t just start blasting out 100 emails per day, per inbox.

I've tested dozens of sending patterns, and here's what I do:

• Week 1: Max 10 emails per day

• Week 2: Max 20 emails per day

• Week 3: Max 30 emails per day

• Week 4: Max 40 emails per day

And honestly, I would never go above 40 emails per day for a single account. If you're sending more than that, you're probably not nailing targeted outreach anyway.

(If you're a link building agency, that's a different story—but you should be using multiple warmed-up inboxes, not blasting from a single one.)

Step 6: Personalization isn't just for conversion

Personalization isn't just about getting more responses; it helps with deliverability: Research your prospects and write genuinely personalized emails.

Mass-blasted templates with [FIRST_NAME] as the only personalization get flagged as spam at much higher rates than truly personalized messages.

Real personalization patterns look different to spam filters. 

Step 7: Avoid trigger words that kill deliverability

Certain words and phrases dramatically increase your chances of going to spam:

• "Free"

• "Limited time offer"

• "Discount"

• "Guaranteed"

Step 8: Use their first name

We always use the recipient's first name in the subject line and in the intro. 

No more “Dear sir” emails. 

Step 9: Test your deliverability regularly

Set up a weekly report to check in on your response and win rates. If you see these declining, then it’s time to investigate further. 

Start by evaluating the outreach email itself to ensure the content is good. If it is, look at the technical components, e.g., DMARC, DKIM, and SPF.

I use a tool called GlockApps for all of our deliverability tests. Here’s how to use it if you’re running into technical problems: 

1. Sign up for GlockApps. 

2. Start a "Spam Test" and select "Manual Test."

3. Keep all the default email providers selected for a complete picture.

4. Create the test and you'll get a list of seed addresses, plus a unique test ID.

5. Compose a real outreach email you'd normally send (content matters for the test).

6. Include the test ID string somewhere in your email.

7. Send it to all the test addresses provided.

8. Wait 3–5 minutes for your deliverability report.

The report should give you instructions on how to fix issues. 

In general, if you’re hitting a lot of spam filters, lower the number of emails you’re sending each day. If you lower the number of outreach emails you send and you STILL have problems, ditch the email address and spin up a new one.

Then rinse and repeat the steps above.

Your next steps

Reading articles and theory is cool, but you know what will actually move the needle for your business?

Action. Don't just read this.

Implement it or send it to a team member.

Here's what to do next:

1. Purchase a separate domain specifically for your outreach (yourcompany(dot)co or similar variation of your main domain).

2. Set up Google Workspace on this new domain ($6/month).

3. Configure DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records (or hire someone to do it for you).

4. Create a warm-up schedule for your new domain (10/20/30/40 emails per day progression).

5. Disable all tracking pixels in your outreach tool (or better yet, send manually for your highest-value prospects).

6. Start with a small batch of hyper-personalized emails to test deliverability before scaling up.

7. Continually monitor performance based on response and win rates.