Cold email outreach remains one of the most effective B2B lead generation strategies, with research showing that 81% of B2B organisations still rely on email as their primary customer acquisition channel. However, sending emails without proper preparation can damage your sender reputation and land your messages straight in the spam folder.
At SendIQ, we’ve helped hundreds of UK businesses master their email outreach campaigns. Here’s your essential pre-send checklist to ensure your cold emails actually reach inboxes.
Technical Authentication: Your First Line of Defence
DKIM Setup and Verification
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) acts as a digital signature, proving to receiving servers that your message is legitimate.
Before sending, verify: your DKIM record is correctly configured in DNS, the public and private keys align, your provider supports DKIM signing, and test emails show “DKIM: PASS” in headers.
Without DKIM, Gmail, Outlook, and other providers are likely to reject emails. Google reports that 98% of legitimate emails now use some form of authentication.
DMARC Policy Configuration
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) builds on SPF and DKIM to protect against spoofing and improve deliverability.
Checks before launch: begin with a monitoring policy (p=none), ensure SPF and DKIM align with DMARC, review reports regularly, and gradually move to stricter policies (p=quarantine, then p=reject).
Valimail’s 2023 Email Fraud Landscape Report shows domains with DMARC see 10% higher inbox placement.
Content Quality: The Make-or-Break Factor
Subject Line Optimisation
Your subject line decides whether prospects open or delete. Campaign Monitor research shows 47% of recipients open emails based on subject line alone.
Best practices: keep under 50 characters, avoid spam words (“free,” “urgent”), personalise with name or company, and create curiosity without clickbait.
Email Body Content Review
Checklist before sending: personalise beyond first name, deliver value in the first two sentences, keep messages under 150 words, maintain a professional yet approachable tone, include one clear call-to-action, and check grammar/spelling.
HubSpot’s analysis of 40 million emails found personalised emails generate 6x higher transaction rates.
Spam Filter Testing
Test your email content with tools like Mail Tester or GlockApps.
Avoid triggers: excessive capitals or exclamation marks, heavy use of images or large attachments, misleading sender names, and poor text-to-image ratios.
Link Safety and Tracking Setup
URL Verification and Safety
Broken or suspicious links reduce trust and harm deliverability.
Final checks: test all links, use HTTPS, avoid shorteners, ensure fast-loading landing pages, and confirm relevance of linked content.
Tracking Implementation
Tracking ensures you can measure and optimise performance.
Essentials: UTM parameters, open and click tracking (where legally compliant), response rate monitoring, and bounce tracking for list hygiene. Always comply with GDPR and PECR.
Pre-Launch Technical Checks
Sender Reputation Monitoring
Your reputation dictates whether emails reach inboxes. Tools like Sender Score and Google Postmaster Tools help monitor.
Key metrics: bounce rates under 2%, complaint rates below 0.1%, spam trap avoidance, and blacklist status.
List Hygiene and Segmentation
Targeted lists consistently outperform broad blasts.
Checks: remove duplicates, verify formats, segment by relevant criteria, and exclude unsubscribes or previous bounces.
Ready to Launch Your Campaign?
Following this checklist significantly improves cold email success rates. At SendIQ, clients see average open rates of 42% and response rates of 8.3% by combining technical setup with personalised content.
Successful cold outreach demands technical precision plus compelling messaging. Configure authentication, refine content, and maintain clean lists for optimal results.
Ready to supercharge your prospecting? SendIQ’s lead generation platform manages the technical details while delivering targeted prospects directly into your pipeline.
