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
103 articles
Deliverability5 min
The 0.3% line: how spam complaints decide your sender reputation
Since February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo enforce a hard 0.3% spam-complaint ceiling and want you under 0.1%. Here's the real math — 30 complaints per 10,000 emails — how fast one bad send moves the needle, and how to stay well below it.
Strategy6 min
The follow-up curve: where a cold sequence's replies actually come from
The real numbers on follow-ups — a 4–7-step sequence roughly doubles a one-and-done, 42% of all replies come from follow-ups, and one extra touch lifts replies 65.8%. Here's the curve, and where to stop before you start hurting your reputation.
Strategy6 min
Cold email benchmarks for 2026 that survive contact with reality
The real numbers from studies of 20M+ and 12M emails — delivery, opens, replies, positive replies — why the reported open rate is mostly Apple's robots, and how personalization swings reply rate from 1% to 18% on the same product.
Strategy4 min
Cold email subject lines by the numbers: length, questions, and reply rate
What a 12-million-email outreach study can — and cannot — tell us about subject-line length and personalization, plus the rule that survives every benchmark: test it on your own list.
StrategyField note3 min
Our domain is 11 days old. Here's exactly how we're sending from it.
A build-in-public deliverability diary: the records we set on day one, the warmup ramp we're actually on, and the receipts you can check yourself — on our own domain.
Deliverability3 min
How to read email headers like a postmaster
Received chains read bottom-to-top, Authentication-Results don't lie, and a five-minute header read explains most delivery mysteries. A field guide.
Prospecting3 min
How to find (almost) anyone's business email — without paying for it
Most companies use one of 14 address patterns. The free permute-and-verify workflow, the catch-all trap that fakes success, and the line you shouldn't cross.
Deliverability3 min
Half of your email opens are robots. Here's how to find the real number.
Apple Mail opens your email automatically, Gmail caches every image, and security software clicks every link. What's actually left when you filter the noise out — and how to make decisions on it.
Deliverability3 min
Email blacklists: how to check if you're listed — and actually get off
Which DNS blocklists matter in 2026, how to check your domain and IPs in one sweep, and the delisting process that works (it's free, despite what some sites imply).
Deliverability3 min
The Gmail & Outlook sender rules, explained like you're busy
SPF, DKIM, DMARC, one-click unsubscribe and the 0.3% spam threshold — what mailbox providers actually require from senders now, in plain language, with a checklist.
Strategy2 min
Cold email math: what 1,000 sends honestly turns into
Work the funnel backwards — sends, deliveries, real opens, replies, meetings — with honest numbers at every stage, and see why list quality beats volume every time.
Deliverability3 min
Why your emails go to spam (it's rarely the words)
Spam placement in 2026 is mostly reputation, authentication and engagement — not trigger words. A diagnostic order that finds your real problem in 20 minutes.