Blog
Notes from the
honest side of email
Deliverability, honest analytics and outreach craft — written in plain language, with no growth-hack snake oil.
Earlier articles
253 articles
AI6 min
How to prompt AI for cold email that doesn't sound like AI
A practical guide to prompting AI for cold email that reads as researched, not generic — specificity, constraints, real detail, and the stock phrases to ban.
StrategyAnalysis7 min
Why your 40th email today gets judged differently than your 4th
Real research on decision fatigue — from parole judges to online shoppers — and what it means for when a cold email lands, not just what it says.
Deliverability7 min
DMARC forensic reports (ruf): what they are, and why almost nobody sends them
The ruf tag asks for a copy of every failing message. What forensic reports contain, why most mailbox providers stopped sending them, and when to bother.
Deliverability7 min
DMARC setup for a new domain before you send your first cold email
SPF, then DKIM, then DMARC at p=none, then watch, then climb: the practical setup sequence for a new domain before its first cold email.
CopywritingAnalysis9 min
Does a joke in a cold email actually help, or just feel like it does?
A fair look at what the actual research on humor and persuasion says, where a joke helps a cold email and where the same joke quietly costs you the reply.
Strategy6 min
Does Norbelys have a free trial? Here's what starting actually looks like
Norbelys doesn't run a free trial — no capped features, no 14-day countdown. Here's exactly what a Starter account unlocks from day one, and why it's built that way.
StrategyAnalysis9 min
Hiring a full-time SDR vs. running outbound with Norbelys: the real cost
What a fully loaded SDR actually costs and how long they take to ramp, compared to what it costs to run consistent outbound with Norbelys instead.
AI9 min
How Norbelys tells a real reply from an out-of-office
A bounce, an auto-responder, and a real reply all land in the same inbox. Here's how Norbelys tells them apart and threads each one correctly.
ComplianceAnalysis6 min
How a canned meat brand ended up naming your junk folder
The real path from a 1937 canned-meat brand to a Monty Python sketch to your inbox, and how the mess it named turned into US federal law in 2003.
ProspectingAnalysis6 min
How top sales reps structure their day (it's not more hustle)
Top-quartile SDRs don't out-dial the average rep by much. The real gap is block scheduling versus reactive switching, per The Bridge Group's 2025 benchmark data.
Deliverability8 min
MTA-STS and TLS-RPT explained: the DMARC of the transport layer
DMARC protects who a message claims to be from. MTA-STS and TLS-RPT protect the connection it travels over — the two DNS records and policy file explained.
Prospecting7 min
Why recruiter outreach gets replies almost nobody else does
Recruiting emails reply at nearly double the average cold email rate — the real numbers, why automation narrows the gap, and the volume math to send safely.