Cold email deliverability: how to send safely from Google Workspace

1. Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC

These three DNS records tell receiving mail servers that your emails really come from you. Google and Yahoo expect them from anyone who sends a lot of mail, and they help every sender.

• SPF lists which servers may send mail for your domain. For Google Workspace it includes _spf.google.com.
• DKIM signs each email with a key published in your DNS. Turn it on in the Google Admin console (Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Authenticate email), then add the record it gives you.
• DMARC tells receivers what to do when SPF or DKIM fail, and where to send reports. Starting with p=none and a reporting address is a safe first step.

Check all three after any DNS change. A typo in one record is one of the most common reasons good email lands in spam.

2. Warm up a new mailbox

A brand-new mailbox that suddenly sends dozens of emails to strangers looks like spam. Start with a handful a day and raise the number gradually over a few weeks, while you keep using the mailbox for normal work.

3. Send few, slowly, in business hours

Personal emails don't need volume. Space them out with a few minutes between each, send only while your recipients are at work in their own time zone, and keep the daily total modest. It's gentler on your domain, and it's how a person would write anyway.

4. Write like a person: plain text, no tracking

Heavily designed HTML emails, tracking pixels and lots of links are typical of marketing mail, and Gmail tends to sort that into Promotions or spam. A short plain-text email with one question and at most one link reads, and gets filed, like a note from a colleague.

5. Keep your list clean and watch bounces

Every email to an address that doesn't exist bounces back, and a high bounce rate is one of the clearest spam signals there is. Only send to addresses a business publishes itself, skip shared or role inboxes you don't need, and pause sending if bounces climb past a few percent until you find out why.

6. Make opting out easy, and permanent

Give every recipient a clear way to say no, and honor it immediately and for good, across every campaign. People who can't easily opt out press “Report spam” instead, and spam reports hurt more than anything else. Google asks bulk senders to keep reported spam well under 0.3%.

US rules for commercial email (the CAN-SPAM Act) also cover things like honest subject lines and identifying who's sending. For your own situation, check with your counsel.

7. Know the warning signs

• Replies dry up while you're sending the same kind of email as before.
• Bounces or “message blocked” notices start appearing.
• Test emails to your own Gmail address land in spam or Promotions.
• Google Postmaster Tools shows your domain's reputation dropping.

When you see these, slow down or pause, fix the cause, and restart small.

How KnockB handles this for you

KnockB sends from your own Google Workspace mailbox, one email at a time, a few a day, only during your recipients' business hours. New mailboxes warm up over several weeks. Emails are plain text with no tracking pixels. Sending pauses itself if bounces reach 5%, every opt-out is permanent, and the sender-health check in Settings shows your domain's SPF, DKIM, DMARC and MX records.