Overview
There is an art to mass emailing. Sequence diagnostics helps you easily identify and resolve any issues with your domain health, email deliverability, and contact data accuracy to improve the performance of your sequences in Apollo.
Access Apollo recommendations and take action in the sequence diagnostics tool to:
- Check your domain health and take precautionary steps to protect your primary domain
- Review best practices to send mass emails safely and connect Mailgun or SendGrid
- View your tracking domain status and learn best practices to avoid SPAM filters
- Identify and pause any unverified contacts in your sequences
Follow the steps in the sections below to access sequence diagnostics and follow email best practices.
Run Sequence Diagnostics
Launch Apollo, click Engage, and then click Sequences.
Click Run diagnostics.
There are 4 categories available in the Sequence diagnostics modal.
Domain Setup
Click the Domain setup tab if you want to check the health of your primary domain.
From here, Apollo displays all the primary domains mapped to your Apollo account. If you have any problems with your domain, you will see a Fix icon under the associated issue.
Hover your mouse over the icon to access more detailed insights. Then, click the links to take action on these insights and improve your domain's health.
Please note, when you take any actions to protect your domain, it can take between 2-4 hours for the change to reflect in Apollo.
If you make any changes, click the Refresh icon after 2-4 hours to re-diagnose your domain.
When you have set up everything correctly, you should see a Good icon under each category.
Hover your mouse over the title of an email authentication method to view its definition and access more information.
There are 3 email authentication methods that Apollo recommends you set up to ensure a healthy domain:
- Sender Policy Framework (SPF): SPF records authorize your emails so that you can more easily detect and prevent unauthorized IP addresses from sending emails on your behalf. To set up SPF records, follow the steps in this article.
- Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM): the DKIM method adds an encrypted digital signature to your company's outgoing emails. This helps the receiving email servers to confirm that you authorized and sent an email from your domain. To set up DKIM, follow the steps in this article.
- Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC): this method allows you to limit sent emails to those authenticated by your company and leverages SPF and DKIM to help prevent email spoofing. To set up DMARC, follow the steps in this article.
If you want to more learn about the best practices you can follow to protect your domain reputation, click the Purchase a secondary domain drop-down for more information.
You have now leveraged domain best practices in sequence diagnostics.
SendGrid / Mailgun
Click the SendGrid / Mailgun tab if you want to improve email deliverability. From here, Apollo displays your SendGrid or Mailgun status and provides further information about why a mass email delivery service provider is important.
If you have already connected SendGrid or Mailgun to Apollo, Apollo displays a Connected icon. This means that you have taken the necessary steps to protect your domain and ensure higher email deliverability.
If you don't have SendGrid or Mailgun set up yet, click Learn More to access further information.
Then, click Connect service to get started with the setup and follow the instructions in the "Integrate Mailgun with Apollo" or the "Set Up Apollo's Integration with SendGrid" article.
For a summary of the best practices to follow to improve your deliverability, click the Connect Apollo to a mass mailing service provider drop-down.
You have now leveraged email deliverability best practices in sequence diagnostics.
Tracking Domain
Click the Tracking domain tab if you want to check your tracking domain status and learn more about best practices.
From here, Apollo displays your tracking domain status and provides further information about how tracking opens, pixels, and unsubscribes with a secondary domain can help you avoid SPAM filters.
If you have already connected a custom tracking subdomain, Apollo displays a Connected icon.
You see a Healthy badge if your tracking subdomains are in good condition. This means that you have taken the necessary steps to protect your primary domain, avoid SPAM filters, and ensure higher email deliverability.
If you see an Unhealthy badge next to a tracking subdomain, click View Subdomains to take a closer look at the stats. Then, consider following the steps in the "Deactivate a Tracking Subdomain" section of the Set Up a Tracking Subdomain (URL) article to deactivate the unhealthy subdomain.
Before you deactivate an unhealthy subdomain, make sure you create a new tracking subdomain to replace it first. For more information, follow the steps in the Set Up a Tracking Subdomain (URL) article.
If you don't have a custom tracking subdomain connected yet, Apollo displays a Not set up icon.
Click Learn More to access further information about tracking subdomains.
Then, click Settings to get started with the setup.
Apollo directs you to the Tracking Subdomains section in the Apollo Settings. You can then follow the instructions in the "Set Up a Custom Tracking Subdomain (URL)" article to create and add a new subdomain to Apollo.
For a summary of the best practices to avoid SPAM filters, click the Set up a tracking domain to track opens, pixels, and unsubscribes drop-down.
You have now leveraged tracking domain best practices in sequence diagnostics.
Unverified Contacts
Click the Unverified contacts tab to check which sequences have the most unverified emails.
From here, you can take action to pause or remove the contacts associated with the unverified emails from your sequences. To do so, click the arrow icon on the right of a sequence.
Apollo directs you to a list of all the contacts with unverified emails in that sequence.
Click the select all checkbox. Then, click Select all people to bulk select all the unverified emails.
Please note, you can only bulk select if you are on a Custom plan. If you are on a Free, Basic, or Professional plan, you can select up to 25 records at a time.
Then, click the Pause icon if you want to pause the selected contacts in the sequence.
If you want to remove them from the sequence entirely, click the Remove icon.
Please note, Apollo recommends that you pause or remove unverified contacts from low-performing sequences. However, these are not the only 2 actions you can take. For example, you can choose to mark the sequence as finished, set an auto-resume date, or remove them from a list, among other actions. Hover your mouse over the icons to review your options and take any alternative actions on the selected contacts.
You have now identified the sequences with the most unverified emails and taken action on those contacts to protect your domain reputation.