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Let me start with the all-important: I am not a lawyer, and none of this is legal advice. This is also not AI slop. I used AI to make images because I can’t draw. I’ll hire an artist once this blog starts generating enough revenue. Anyway, let’s begin…

Reaching a recipient’s inbox is more challenging than ever, but email still has the highest ROI (return on investment) of any other marketing channel. We’re seeing an AI vs AI war, with sellers implementing AI tools to automate, author, and analyze their emails.

Recipients are using AI to defend themselves from Spammers. We’re in a smarter world. Does this change anything in the Email landscape? Yes, and no.

It may seem like a heavy lift, but the knowledge required to pull off a successful cold campaign is not as complicated as it’s made out to be. A small and scaling business with a limited budget can create and manage a profitable cold email pipeline. It takes patience and following strict rules, something that Sales reps and Recruiters struggle with.

There is no more forgiveness for senders who ignore the best practices introduced over the last 30 years. Gone are the days of missing unsubscribe links and blasting emails to every employee at a company, hoping to land a bite. The Wild West of Email is over.

There is a new law of the land, and Google [guidelines], Microsoft [guidelines], and Yahoo [guidelines] are the sheriffs.

Understanding Email Deliverability

Email deliverability refers to how well your emails land in the intended folder, usually the inbox. It’s influenced by sender reputation, authentication protocols, content quality, and numerous other “spam weights”. Message visibility is important. You can have the best product, but engaging with an audience is what sells it. Good deliverability helps more messages reach your readers’ eyes and creates more opportunities to close the deal.

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📜 Regulation	🌍 Region	📅 Enacted	⚖️ Key Requirements
CAN-SPAM Act 🇺🇸	United States	2003	✉️ Unsubscribe option 🏷️ Accurate headers 🚫 No misleading subject lines 📍 Physical address required
GDPR 🇪🇺	European Union	2018	✅ Prior consent 🗑️ Right to be forgotten 🔒 Data protection & encryption 📊 Transparency in data use
CASL 🇨🇦	Canada	2014	✅ Explicit consent 🕒 Time-stamped records ✉️ Easy unsubscribe 💬 Sender identification
PECR 🇬🇧	United Kingdom	2003 (Updated 2019)	📬 Opt-in for marketing 📢 Clear consent 🔄 Syncs with GDPR ☎️ Covers SMS, calls, cookies
CCPA 🇺🇸	California (USA)	2020	🧾 Data transparency 🛑 Right to opt-out of sale 📁 Access to personal data 🔐 Reasonable security
LGPD 🇧🇷	Brazil	2020	✅ Consent-based communication 📈 Data processing disclosures 🔒 Data security 🧑 Data subject rights
PDPA 🇸🇬	Singapore	2012	🔍 Purpose limitation 📬 Consent required ⚙️ Do Not Call Registry 🧩 Personal data protection
Spam Act 🇦🇺	Australia	2003	✅ Consent 🔍 Identity disclosure ✉️ Functional unsubscribe ⛔ No address harvesting

Understand and comply with regional regulations. This is not optional. I’m not a lawyer. I can’t tell you which one you’re supposed to follow. If I were you, I’d follow the rules you don’t have to. Talk to a Lawyer. Figure out what rules apply to you. Follow those rules, because the consequences are costly.

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Core Best Practices

1. Authentication: Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to authenticate your emails. These protocols help verify your identity and prevent spoofing.
   • Learn more about authentication on our ‘What is DNS?’ page.
     
2. Good List Hygiene: Regularly clean your email lists, remove inactive contacts, and invalid addresses. Use data enrichment tools to keep your contact database up to date. Maintain a library of known bounces with next steps for the organization’s sellers.
   
   • Start with Sendgrid’s tips on list hygiene.
     
3. Create Engaging Content: Craft relevant and personalized content that resonates with your audience. Avoid spammy language and strip content to plain text. Avoid images, hyperlinks, and HTML-rich content. The goal is to land in the inbox, and that is less likely to happen with a stuffed template. The average cold recipient will give an email 8 seconds before dropping it. Remove the fluff.
   
   • Read ZoomInfo’s tips on writing engaging content that converts.
     
4. Monitor and Test: Use tools to monitor your deliverability metrics and conduct A/B testing to optimize your email campaigns.
   
   • Start by reading Glockapp’s article on checking email reputation scores.
   • Learn more about A/B testing from Oracle.

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Tools and Resources

Reputation Monitoring Tools:

Every ESP has its own sender reputation database. One can assume they somewhat anchor around Google’s score, but I’ve no solid evidence to support that outside of what I’ve seen working with clients.

Platforms like Google Postmaster Tools, Yahoo Sender Hub, and Microsoft Smart Network Data Services give senders some visibility into their reputation. Every ESP chooses what they show. Some show nothing at all, providing only some postmaster resource documentation.

3rd party companies like Validity and Mailgun compile data to provide reputation insights, so it’s important for serious senders to consider a paid service. The value in these programs comes in the addon features they bundle in, like competitive data intel, seed list testing, and template reviews. Do I think every company needs one? No. Do they help? Yes.

Read more about why monitoring is important from Mail Meter.

Email Testing Services:

“Seed List testing” Services like Litmus and Email on Acid allow you to test your emails across different recipient types.

Learn more about Seed List Testing from GlockApps.

Educational Resources:

Webinars, online courses, and industry blogs can keep you updated on best practices and emerging trends. It’s 2025, use AI.

• Spamresource.com
• Sendgrid Blog
• AWS Deliverability Guide
• Email Deliverability Guru [AI]

Where do I start?

It’s not a nightmare to get to know the landscape. Let’s assume you have some templates written, and an your first lead list. You want to start sending X number of emails per day to reach your goals. Start with warming your reputation. Your email volume will start small. Your bounces will start high. These things snowball. Give it time. With the right steps, senders should expect to finish a reputation warming campaign within 5-15 weeks.

• Read about Domain, and IP reputation warming on SenGrid’s Blog.

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Questions? Feedback? Reach out to me through my contact form. Good luck!