Deliverability‑First Growth: More Landings Before More Leads

Most teams try to fix the pipeline by “getting more leads.” If 30–40% of your emails don’t land, you’re scaling a leak. This is how I think about deliverability as a growth lever, not a technical chore.

1. The invisible tax on your pipeline

Deliverability is a quiet tax:

• You don’t see the people who never got your message

• You only see “low replies” and “low open rates”

If 30% of your emails don’t land:

• Your CAC is instantly higher

• Your test cycles are slower

• Your team loses confidence in outbound

You’re not doing “bad outbound.” You’re doing invisible outbound.

2. The growth equation nobody writes down

Most teams think in terms of:

Replies = Leads = Meetings = Revenue

But the real equation is:

Revenue = (Delivered × Opened × Replied × Qualified × Closed)

Deliverability is the first multiplier. If that number is broken, the rest of your funnel math is a lie.

3. The “Deliverability‑First” stack in plain English

If I had to make one simple stack for any team, it would be:

1. Healthy domains

   • Multiple sending domains

   • Proper DNS (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

   • Human‑like sending volumes

2. Warm‑up & reputation guardrails

   • Gradual ramp‑up on new domains

   • Daily caps per inbox

   • Alerts when bounce or spam signals spike

3. Clean lists, always

   • No buying giant lists

   • Real‑time validation on form fills

   • Regular pruning of dead or inactive contacts

4. Message patterns ISPs actually like

   • Short, plain emails

   • Low link / image usage in first touch

   • No spammy subject line tricks

None of this is sexy. All of this is cheaper than burning a domain (and your funnel) every quarter.

4. Deliverability as a product decision

Here’s the part most people miss: deliverability isn’t just about your emails. It’s about your promises.

If your messaging forces you into:

• Overhyped claims

• Misaligned targeting

• Aggressive follow‑up

…you will inevitably get more spam complaints, which will kill your domain.

The more your product actually delivers:

• The fewer people mark you as spam

• The more positive engagement you generate

• The better your long‑term reputation with inbox providers

Better product → better word of mouth → better deliverability. That loop is real.

5. A simple “deliverability health” scoreboard

Instead of obsessing over open rate, I’d track:

• Bounce rate: keep it under ~2%

• Spam complaint rate: keep it below 0.1%

• Inbox placement tests: what % of tests land in primary / promotions vs spam

• Domain “lifespan”: how long can a domain stay healthy at current volumes

And I’d review it weekly, not when the damage is already done.

6. Putting it into practice in 30 days

A 30‑day deliverability‑first sprint could look like:

• Week 1: Audit domains, DNS, sending patterns

• Week 2: Clean lists, kill bad data sources

• Week 3: Rewrite templates to be shorter, simpler, and more honest

• Week 4: Set up monitoring + new sending rules

You don’t need perfect. You need to stop paying an invisible tax forever.

7. Deliverability checklist for founders

Before you ask for “more leads,” ask:

• Do we know our real deliverability across main domains?

• Are bounce and complaint rates monitored weekly?

• Are we pruning low‑engagement contacts regularly?

• Does our product actually support the promises in our email copy?

• If inbox providers could “review” us like users, would we pass?

Once these boxes are ticked, then go buy more traffic.