Email Deliverability
Two questions come up before anyone sends a cold email: will it reach the inbox, and am I allowed to send it at all. This section answers both, because in practice they are the same discipline. A sending setup that respects the receivers and a list that respects the law tend to be built by the same careful habits.
My own rules are short. Sending domains are separate from the domain your invoices go out from. Authentication is live on every one of them before volume starts. New mailboxes warm up for at least 10 to 14 days, and I pull a list once bounces cross 0.5%. On the legal side, I draw a line between spam and cold email: spam is identical text blasted at unverified people who are given no fair way out. Write to checked people, from a real sender, and make opting out easy.
The failures I see repeat. Cold email goes out from the main company domain. A burned domain gets swapped for a fresh one and the same list goes through it, so the cause travels along. A low reputation score gets treated like a listing, when only a real listing has a removal route.
The articles cover three areas. Infrastructure: tools, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, warm-up, DKIM, sender reputation and inbox placement by provider. Problems: blacklists, blocked mailboxes, security gateways, warning banners, and claims about tracking, links and trigger words graded against what filters actually check. Law: country-by-country rules, GDPR fines, legitimate interest, CCPA, Ireland, Switzerland and financial services. None of it is legal advice, and the legal rules link to their official sources.
Start with warm-up timing, then inbox placement by provider, then the law table for the countries you sell into.
Start here
How Long to Warm Up a New Email Domain for Cold Outreach
Published answers range from 10 days to 6 months, so here are eight sources side by side, with Google's own wording, a ramp you can follow and the date your first real email can go out.
Cold Email Inbox Placement Rates for Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo
Independent test data by provider and sending volume, the rules each provider actually publishes, and why the numbers you see quoted disagree.
Cold Email Laws by Country for B2B, With Official Sources
Who needs consent before the first email, what every message must carry, and what a breach can cost, in seven places a B2B list often reaches.
All articles in Email Deliverability
Email Deliverability
Cold Email Laws by Country for B2B, With Official Sources
Who needs consent before the first email, what every message must carry, and what a breach can cost, in seven places a B2B list often reaches.
Last updated · 13 min read
Email Deliverability
Cold Email Blocked by Mimecast or Proofpoint? The Fix Order
A bounce code, a silence and a dead link are three different blocks, and each one tells you what to fix on your side before you ask anyone's IT.
Last updated · 9 min read
Email Deliverability
FCA, FINRA and SEC Rules on Cold Outreach for Finance Firms
Which rulebook covers your cold email or LinkedIn message, where the approval line sits, and what to ask your compliance lead before the first send.
Last updated · 16 min read
Email Deliverability
Is Cold Email Spam? What Spamhaus Says and Where I Stand
The people who run the blocklists say yes, by definition. Here is where I agree with them, where I part ways, and how I send so a campaign stays out of the spam folder.
Last updated · 10 min read
Email Deliverability
Are B2B Data Providers GDPR Compliant? What Each One Says
Apollo, ZoomInfo, Cognism and Lusha all say yes, but their own documents show four very different amounts of proof, and part of the job stays with you.
Last updated · 10 min read
Email Deliverability
Does Open Tracking Really Hurt Cold Email Deliverability?
Gmail and Outlook never mention tracking pixels in their sender rules. Every popular claim graded by its evidence, and the one risk that holds up.
Last updated · 10 min read
Email Deliverability
Google Workspace vs Microsoft 365 for Cold Email Sending
Both will carry a cold campaign. Here are the official limits, the tenant cap most comparisons skip, the Microsoft rule that was dropped, and the mailbox math on each platform.
Last updated · 8 min read
Email Deliverability
How to Check Your Email Sender Reputation Every Week
Postmaster Tools and SNDS each see a narrow slice of your sending. What they show, what they hide, and how to read them next to your own numbers.
Last updated · 9 min read
Email Deliverability
Legitimate Interest Assessment for Cold Email, Filled In
A completed LIA for one sample B2B campaign, test by test, with the UK email rule that sits next to it and the record to keep before you send.
Last updated · 11 min read
Email Deliverability
Should You Send Cold Emails to Catch-All Addresses?
A catch-all result means the server said yes to everything. Here is how common that is, what it can do to your bounce rate and when the segment is worth sending.
Last updated · 8 min read