How we protect deliverability
We keep cold outreach off your primary domain, send from dedicated authenticated domains, warm them gradually, cap volume per inbox and watch the numbers continuously.
The short answer
Deligatr never sends cold outreach from your primary domain. It uses dedicated sending domains authenticated with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, warms them for four to six weeks before full campaign volume, keeps each mailbox well below platform limits and monitors domain health continuously. LinkedIn follows the same conservative ramp.
Sending infrastructure is built in the first week of the managed Outbound package (see pricing page), then warmed while volume ramps. The process around it is on how managed outbound works, and the channel view is on the Outbound overview.
The core rule
Risk lives on the sending domains, not on yours
If a sending domain ever has a reputation problem, your customer and internal email keep working.
Protected
Your primary domain
- Customer communication
- Invoicing
- Internal email
Never used for cold outreach
Takes the risk
Dedicated sending domains
- Mirror your brand
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC set
- Warmed before full volume
- Monitored continuously
Dedicated to you, never shared across clients
Six principles that keep outreach out of spam
Each principle removes a common cause of deliverability failure.
Isolate the primary domain
Cold outreach never touches the domain used for customer communication, invoicing or internal email. Dedicated domains absorb the risk.
Authenticate before sending
SPF, DKIM and DMARC are configured on every sending domain before warm-up begins.
Warm gradually, never rush
New domains send low, authentic volume for four to six weeks before carrying full campaign load.
Cap volume per inbox
Google Workspace allows up to 2,000 messages per user per day. Cold senders keep each mailbox far below that ceiling and ramp slowly.
Monitor continuously
Deliverability health is checked on an ongoing basis. If a domain shows warning signs, volume shifts away from it promptly.
Ramp LinkedIn conservatively
Connection requests and messages stay within safe daily limits and grow gradually, protecting the account long term.
How warm-up works
A new domain has no reputation, so it earns trust over four to six weeks of gradual, authentic sending. This cannot be safely compressed, and the same warm-up applies whoever sends.
Typical warm-up
A domain earns trust week by week
Bars share one weekly scale. Per-mailbox volumes are typical ramps, not promises, and Microsoft guidance runs to four to eight weeks. Volume steps up through weeks 5 and 6, and first meetings typically arrive in weeks four to six as it does.
Build and authenticate
Register domains, set SPF, DKIM and DMARC, create mailboxes
Low-volume warm-up
Roughly 5 to 10 a day per mailbox
Gradual increase
Roughly 20 to 30 a day per mailbox
Full campaign volume
After four to six weeks of warm-up. Monitored continuously.
First meetings
Typically weeks 4 to 6
Columns are weeks 1 to 6, then ongoing.
Per-mailbox ramps: Deligatr operating practice. Google Workspace limit: 2,000 messages per user per day. First meetings typically arrive in weeks four to six, with no guarantees.
Why it matters
Authentication and inbox placement
Fully authenticated means SPF, DKIM and DMARC together.
2.7 times
more likely to land in the inbox for fully authenticated domains than unauthenticated ones
Saleshandy, analysis of 53.1 million cold emails, January to June 2026.
Warm-up is not a Deligatr quirk. It is how inbox providers learn that a sender is real. Doing it yourself needs the same four to six weeks, plus the setup, copy, monitoring and reply handling landing on you.
Domain age is not a shortcut either: Warmup Inbox’s analysis of 4,406 inboxes found it barely matters. Authentication, a gradual ramp and sending behaviour do.
What inbox providers check before trusting a sender
Three DNS records prove a domain is allowed to send and has not been tampered with. Large senders now face published rules on top.
| Record | What it does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| SPF | Sender Policy Framework. Lists the servers allowed to send for the domain. | Lets receivers reject mail from servers you have not listed. |
| DKIM | DomainKeys Identified Mail. Signs each message so receivers can check it is genuine and unaltered. | Proves the message really came from the domain. |
| DMARC | Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. Tells receivers what to do when SPF or DKIM fail, and reports back. | Gives providers a clear policy and gives us visibility. |
The published rules
Where the lines are drawn
Google’s bulk-sender rules require SPF, DKIM, DMARC and one-click unsubscribe, and Microsoft enforces similar rules for Outlook.com.
0.3%
Maximum spam rate for bulk senders
0.1%
Spam rate Google recommends staying under
5,000+a day
Emails a day where Google’s bulk-sender rules apply
2,000a day
Messages per user per day on Google Workspace
Google bulk-sender guidelines (introduced February 2024) for senders of 5,000+ emails a day; Microsoft Outlook.com enforcement from May 5, 2025; Google Workspace sending limits.
Cold senders keep each mailbox well below those ceilings. The point of authentication is not to push volume, it is to make sure the volume you do send is trusted.
Monitoring and LinkedIn safety
Protection does not stop once a domain is warm. Health is watched on an ongoing basis, and LinkedIn is paced the same careful way.
- Continuous monitoring. If a domain shows early warning signs, volume is reduced or paused on it and capacity shifts to other warmed domains.
- Clean data in. Contacts are verified before they enter a sequence, and bounced or invalid addresses are removed from future sends. See the research engine.
- Conservative LinkedIn pacing. Connection requests and messages stay within safe daily limits per account. Our LinkedIn lead generation service follows the same rule.
- Unsubscribes honoured. Every email carries a working opt-out. See data privacy and the guide to cold email compliance.
Related guide: why cold email lands in spam. Our cold email agency page covers the commercial side.
Recovering a damaged domain
If a primary domain has already been damaged, the reliable route is to stop sending from it and start clean.
Stop all sending from the damaged domain
Quarantine it. Every further send can deepen the damage.Build fresh, isolated sending domains
New domains mirror your brand, carry no sending history and are authenticated before any warm-up.Warm gradually, then send
No campaign sending in week one. Domains warm over four to six weeks, then deliverability is tested before volume ramps.
Questions about infrastructure
Straight answers on domains, warm-up and what happens when something goes wrong.
Will outreach ever be sent from our main company domain?
No. Outreach sends from separate, dedicated domains that mirror your brand. Your main domain, used for customer communication and internal email, is never used for cold outreach.
What happens if a sending domain gets flagged or blacklisted?
Deliverability is monitored continuously. If a domain shows early signs of a reputation problem, sending on it is reduced or paused promptly and capacity shifts to other warmed domains, so your main domain and the rest of the programme are protected.
Is LinkedIn outreach safe for our account, or does it risk a restriction?
LinkedIn activity is ramped gradually, with conservative daily limits that stay within platform norms rather than being maximised for short-term volume. That is slower, but it lowers the risk of an account restriction. No outreach on any platform can be made risk-free.
How long does domain warm-up actually take?
Four to six weeks of gradual, low-volume, authentic sending before a domain carries full campaign volume. Microsoft guidance runs to four to eight weeks. In Saleshandy’s analysis of 53.1 million cold emails (January to June 2026), fully authenticated domains (SPF, DKIM and DMARC together) were 2.7 times more likely to land in the inbox than unauthenticated ones. The same warm-up applies to anyone who sends, whether Deligatr or you doing it yourself. First meetings typically arrive in weeks four to six, and nothing is guaranteed.
What technical setup is involved: SPF, DKIM and DMARC?
Every sending domain is configured with SPF, DKIM and DMARC records before warm-up begins. These are the authentication standards that tell inbox providers a domain is legitimate. Skipping them is a frequent cause of DIY cold email failing.
Can we buy an aged domain to skip the warm-up?
It does not help much. Warmup Inbox analysed 4,406 inboxes and found domain age barely matters. What counts is authentication, a gradual ramp and how the domain behaves once it is sending.
What if our domain was already damaged before we started with Deligatr?
It is a common starting point. The standard response is to stop all sending from the damaged domain and build fresh, isolated sending domains. Repairing a damaged domain can take months and is never guaranteed, so starting clean is usually the more reliable route.
Keep reading: research engine, personalisation and data privacy, or go back to the Outbound overview and the documentation home.