A cold outbound deliverability checklist from Google's sender guidelines
Practical guide: a cold outbound deliverability checklist from Google's own sender guidelines If you send outbound or lifecycle email to Gmail addresses, Google's Email sender guidelines are the primary source worth bookmarking. Here's a short checklist pulled from it:
- 1.
Authenticate every sending domain. All senders need SPF or DKIM. If you send more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts, you need SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and your DMARC policy can start at none.
- 2.
Align your From: domain with either the SPF or the DKIM domain.
- 3.
Use a strong DKIM key. 1024 bits is the minimum, and Google recommends 2048-bit if your provider supports it.
- 4.
Watch your spam rate in Postmaster Tools. Keep it below 0.10% and avoid ever reaching 0.30%.
- 5.
Add one-click unsubscribe to marketing messages (List-Unsubscribe and List-Unsubscribe-Post headers), plus a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the body.
- 6.
Send steadily. Start with low volume to engaged recipients and ramp slowly, avoid bursts, keep one From: address per message category, and don't buy lists.
Worth knowing: Google says it doesn't track open rates, and low opens aren't necessarily a sign of a deliverability problem. Source: Google: Email sender guidelines (free, no login) Which item on this list is your team still missing: DMARC alignment, one-click unsubscribe, or something else?
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