How to keep cold email out of spam.

Cold email lands in spam for a handful of reasons. Fix them in this order: the first ones matter most.

1. Set up your domain

• Add SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Without them, Google can reject your email outright. Step-by-step guide.
• Send from a separate domain, such as tryacme.com, so your main domain stays safe.
• Use real mailboxes with a real name and signature.

2. Clean your list

• Keep bounces under 2%. Remove addresses whose domain can't receive email, throwaway inboxes and duplicates.
• Leave out team addresses like info@ and sales@. They rarely reply and report spam more.
• Never email people who unsubscribed or bounced before.

3. Send slowly and steadily

• Start a new mailbox at about 10 a day, and grow to 30 to 50 over three weeks.
• Spread emails through the working day instead of sending in bursts.
• Need more volume? Add mailboxes, don't push one mailbox harder.

4. Write like a person

• Short plain-text emails, under 120 words, with one clear question.
• Few links, no images or attachments in the first email.
• Personalise the first line, and vary wording with spintax so no two emails are identical.
• Avoid hype: "free", "guaranteed", "act now", lots of capitals or exclamation marks.

5. Earn real engagement

• Target people who really fit your offer. Replies are the strongest signal there is.
• Include a few of your own addresses in your first campaigns, on other domains. Open, click and reply, and mark any that land in spam as "Not spam".
• Make unsubscribing easy and honour it straight away. Keep spam complaints under 0.1%.

6. Watch and react

• Pause a campaign if bounces pass 3 to 5%, and fix the list before continuing.
• If one mailbox struggles, lower its volume. Don't move its campaign onto your other mailboxes.

GTM and Outreach does most of this for you: DNS checks with exact fixes, list checks on upload, a slow start for new mailboxes, smart scheduling, automatic bounce pauses and one-click unsubscribe.