# Cold Email Deliverability Pre-Send Checklist

> The 12 checks: authentication, warm-up, copy, and list hygiene, that stand between a cold sequence landing in the inbox and it quietly dying in Promotions or spam before a single prospect sees it.

Free checklist for sales reps. Topic: [Cold Email, LinkedIn & Social Selling](https://www.peerlab.ai/library/topic/cold-email-linkedin-social-selling/). Published by PeerLab in the [Sales Enablement Resource Library](https://www.peerlab.ai/library/). Source: https://www.peerlab.ai/library/cold-email-deliverability-pre-send-checklist/

## How to use it

Run through the checklist top to bottom before every new sequence launch or before scaling volume on an existing one: treat any unchecked item in the first section as a hard blocker, not a nice-to-have.

## What's inside

- SPF record validation
- DKIM signing confirmation
- DMARC record with rollout guidance (p=none to p=quarantine)
- Sending-subdomain setup to protect root domain reputation
- Domain age and warm-up schedule
- Daily send-volume caps per inbox
- Multi-inbox rotation guidance at scale
- Spam-trigger word audit
- Plain-text-first formatting rule
- Personalization token test-send check
- Unsubscribe and compliance footer requirements
- List verification and bounce-rate gate

12 checks, in the order to run them, before you launch or scale any cold email sequence.

## Domain & Authentication (do these first)
- [ ] **SPF record published and valid.** TXT record authorizes your sending tool's servers. Verify with `dig TXT yourdomain.com` or mxtoolbox.com/spf.htm. Should resolve to one SPF record only, multiple SPF records break authentication.
- [ ] **DKIM configured and signing.** Confirm outbound mail carries a valid DKIM signature for your sending domain. Most sending tools give you a CNAME to add; confirm propagation (can take up to 48 hours) before sending.
- [ ] **DMARC record published.** Start at `p=none` while monitoring, move to `p=quarantine` once SPF/DKIM are confirmed clean. Example: `v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com`.
- [ ] **Sending from a subdomain, not the root domain**, e.g. `mail.yourcompany.com` or `outreach.yourcompany.com`, so a deliverability problem never touches your primary company domain's reputation.

## Warm-up & Volume
- [ ] **Domain age check.** New domains need 2-4 weeks of warm-up (10-20 emails/day ramping to 30-50/day) before cold sending. Skipping this is the #1 cause of new-domain sequences landing in spam in week one.
- [ ] **Daily send volume within limits.** Cap per-inbox sends at 30-50/day on a warmed domain; go higher only with multiple rotating inboxes. A sudden jump (20/day to 200/day) triggers provider throttling.
- [ ] **Multiple sending inboxes/domains rotating** if total volume exceeds roughly 150/day, spread load so no single inbox carries the reputation risk.

## Content & Copy
- [ ] **Spam-trigger words removed from subject line and first line.** Audit for "free," "guarantee," "act now," "limited time," excessive punctuation (!!!), ALL CAPS words, and dollar amounts. Run copy through a spam-word checker before send.
- [ ] **Plain-text-first formatting.** No heavy HTML, no embedded tracking pixels/images on the first touch, no more than 1 link. Image- and link-heavy emails score worse on spam filters and read as templated.
- [ ] **Personalization token check.** Send a test batch to team inboxes first and scan for broken merge fields (`Hi {{first_name}}`, blank company names). One broken token in a live send tanks reply rate and reads as spam.

## Compliance & List Hygiene
- [ ] **Unsubscribe/opt-out mechanism present** (required under CAN-SPAM, CASL, and GDPR where applicable) with a real physical mailing address in the footer.
- [ ] **List verified within the last 30 days.** Run the list through an email verification tool (bounce/catch-all/disposable detection) before sending. Bounce rate above 3-5% on a single send is enough to get a new domain flagged by major providers.

## Pre-send final gate
Before hitting send on a new sequence: send to a seed list of test inboxes across Gmail, Outlook, and one corporate domain, and confirm inbox placement (not Promotions, not spam) across all three before it goes live to real prospects.