Overview
It doesn't matter how much of a wizard you are with words, or how good your email strategy is if your emails aren't landing in your prospects' inboxes. Before you embark on any email outreach, you must follow deliverability best practices and set your mailboxes up for success.
Check out the following sections to maintain a healthy domain reputation and improve email deliverability rates with Apollo.
Want to uncover make-or-break email deliverability tips, tricks, and best practices? Hop into Chapter 7 of Apollo's book Outbound Sales to learn how modern spam filtering has changed and how to avoid the spam folder.
How to Improve Email Deliverability
Email deliverability is a tough nut to crack and not easy to understand. For most, it's a black box. For everyone, it's an ongoing process that's never a one-and-done exercise.
Use Apollo to visualize areas of opportunity and take control to improve your deliverability rates.
Apollo recommends that you opt for quality over quantity. You should write and send emails like a real person. Your recipients receive multiple outreach emails every day, and it only takes a moment for them to click spam. Ensure you research well and leverage Apollo's data and personalization features to tailor your messaging to each prospect. The more you clearly define your ideal customer profiles and segment your lists when prospecting, the more relevant your messages will be.
Follow this 8-step deliverability checklist to ensure your emails land in the right inboxes at the right time.
| Authenticate your domains | Set up your mailboxes | Warmup your emails | Use good targeting with clean data |
| Structure your email content | Monitor your domain health | Repair damaged deliverability | Advanced tactics |
Authenticate your domains
You may need your IT, engineering, or web dev team to help complete some of these steps.
Before you start sending emails, make sure your sending domains are fully authenticated. Complete the following steps to verify your setup and to keep an eye on your domain's reputation:
Not sure if you already set it up correctly? Click Sequences > Run diagnostics to make sure.
If your domain is damaged or you need more mailboxes, you can generate domains and mailboxes directly on Apollo, and we'll handle all the domain authentication. Customize your domain and assign email addresses to team members — with no costly or complicated set up required! Get started on Apollo.
Set up your mailboxes
First, link your mailboxes to Apollo. Then configure these important mailbox settings:
- 50 emails per day. You can increase this if you have a healthy domain reputation and your outreach sequences consistently gain more than a 5% reply rate.
- 6 emails per hour.
- 600 second delay between emails.
If you need more mailboxes, you can generate domains and mailboxes directly on Apollo. Customize your domain and assign email addresses to team members — with no costly or complicated set up required! Get started on Apollo.
Warmup your emails
Before you launch any outbound campaigns, give your domain time to settle and choose the right warm-up method for your mailbox:
Use good targeting with clean data
To maximize your deliverability, focus on high-quality, relevant contacts and clean data. Follow these steps to ensure you're only emailing engaged, verified recipients and avoiding any sequence conflicts:
- Opened emails sent in Apollo
- Have visited your website
- Have shown buying intent
Structure your email content
Your email content should read like a genuine conversation and stay focused on your prospect's needs. Keep formatting simple, limit links and attachments, and always include an easy opt-out option.
- Promotional images. They can look spammy.
- HTML tables and other formatting.
- Overuse of bold or italics.
- Always use secure
https://links. - Show the full URL instead of hyperlinking in a "click here."
- Avoid URL shorteners like bit.ly or linking to files in Google Drive.
Monitor your domain health
Once your campaigns are live, ongoing monitoring is key to catching issues early and maintaining strong inbox placement. Use Apollo's built-in analytics combined with external reputation tools to track performance, identify trends, and take action on any red flags.
Are you an admin on Apollo? Use the deliverability suite for an overview of deliverability across your team's mailboxes. You can quickly address problems with setup, resolve bottlenecks, and implement recommendations so your org's messages land in inboxes and not in spam.
Repair damaged deliverability
If your sending domain's reputation has taken a hit, follow these recovery steps to rebuild trust, protect your sender score, and safely resume outreach.
- If unavailable, set up and warm new subdomains or domains.
Advanced tactics
Once you've mastered the fundamentals, these advanced tactics will help you further diversify your sending strategy, spread risk, and continuously optimize performance.
- Ensure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are set up for each domain.
- Warm up and build credibility with the first domain before adding more.
Next Steps
Ready to keep your emails landing where they belong?
| Use the Deliverability Suite | If you're an admin, use the deliverability suite to spot mailbox issues, fix bottlenecks, and keep your team’s emails hitting inboxes instead of spam. |
|---|---|
| Use Email Warmup | Use email warmup to steadily build your sender reputation through warm IP engagement. |
| Set Up Domain Authentication | Configure domain authentication to verify your DNS records and protect your emails from spam filters. |
| Configure Email Sending Limits | Use email sending limits on Apollo to maintain an optimal daily volume and safeguard your sender reputation. |
| Email Best Practices | Follow email deliverability best practices to avoid spam filters and boost your inbox placement rates. |
| Webinar: Email Deliverability 101 | Want some hands-on help? Join Apollo's live webinar session Email Deliverability 101 to learn the ABCs of deliverability: how to link your mailbox, set up domains for deliverability, and monitor the health of your email performance. |