Marketing / Cold Email Deliverability

SPF/DKIM/DMARC + Warm-Up Checklist

Confirm your email sending infrastructure is fully configured before launching any cold email sequence. Work through each section sequentially.

Section 1: Domain Setup

Sending domain

Domain purchased (not your primary business domain)

Domain connected to sending platform

Sending platform account created and domain verified

Section 2: SPF Record

Add TXT record:

v=spf1 include:[your-sending-tool-domain] ~all

Smartlead: include:_spf.smartlead.ai | Instantly: include:_spf.instantly.ai | Google: include:_spf.google.com

Wait 15-30 minutes for DNS propagation

Verify at mxtoolbox.com: SPF Lookup shows "SPF record found" with no errors

SPF status

Section 3: DKIM Record

Locate DKIM key in sending platform settings

Copy the CNAME or TXT record provided

Add record to DNS: [selector]._domainkey.[yourdomain.com]

Wait 15-30 minutes for DNS propagation

Verify at mxtoolbox.com: DKIM Lookup confirms signature validates

DKIM status

Section 4: DMARC Record

Add TXT record at _dmarc.[yourdomain.com]

v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:[[email protected]]

Wait 15-30 minutes for DNS propagation

Verify at mxtoolbox.com: DMARC Lookup confirms record found

DMARC status

Section 5: Full Authentication Test

Go to mail-tester.com, copy the test address

Send a plain-text email from your sending domain to that address

Check score. Target: 9/10 or 10/10

Score

/ 10

Section 6: 6-Week Warm-Up Schedule

Warm-up start date

Week	Daily Send Target	Warm-Up Running?	Notes
1	10-15/day
2	20-30/day
3	35-50/day
4	50-75/day
5	75-100/day
6	80-100/day

Keep warm-up running even after live sends start.

Section 7: List Quality Check

Run list through email verifier (ZeroBounce / NeverBounce / Millionverifier)

Remove "invalid," "catch-all risk," and "disposable" addresses

Target bounce rate: under 3%

Estimated bounce rate: %

Section 8: Pre-Send Final Gate

SPF verified

DKIM verified

DMARC verified

Mail-tester score 9/10+

6-week warm-up complete

List bounce rate under 3%

Personalization token in every email

Unsubscribe mechanism included

Daily send limit set at 80-100/mailbox max