Foundation: make the channel measurable

Deliverability is obviously important. It’s the only way anyone sees your email at all. If it’s unhealthy, every decision downstream runs on bad data.

Our rule is deliverability first and offer second. The world's best offer sent to spam still produces zero.

The simplest option is any decent provider that sells pre-built SMTP or Gmail/Outlook inboxes.

What to verify before testing copy

• Sending domains and inboxes are set up right, with MX, SPF, DKIM, and the rest passing.
• Provider mix is visible, so Gmail and Outlook performance can be separated.
• A real person has checked inbox placement across the providers that matter.

If you're proving a new account below 1,000 emails a day, use Instantly's guided domain and inbox setup to test the channel. That's enough to find out if the account has legs.

Author’s note

That setup is best practice for anyone who doesn’t have access to the same infrastructure we do.

We use a private enterprise infrastructure arrangement, code-named Halo, for all of our clients. It’s what lets us track more than positive replies, like signups and clicks. When I compared our clients on Halo, the weakest result was a 30% lift across signups, meetings, and paying customers. The strongest client produced five times as many paying customers.