Email deliverability basics for small teams
Updated October 17, 2026 · 6 min read · Montegra Studios
Deliverability is whether your email reaches the inbox. For small teams it mostly comes down to four things: authenticating your domain, sending at a sensible pace, emailing the right people, and writing like a person.
Authenticate your domain
- SPF lists the servers allowed to send email for your domain.
- DKIM adds a signature that proves the message wasn't changed and came from your domain.
- DMARC tells receiving servers what to do when SPF or DKIM fail, and is now expected by large mailbox providers for bulk senders.
- Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 show the records to add in their admin settings; your domain registrar is where you add them.
Send at a human pace
Sending hundreds of emails at once from a new mailbox looks like spam. Start low (for example 20 to 30 a day), space messages a few minutes apart, and increase gradually over weeks if replies are healthy. Reach lets you set a daily limit and a minimum gap per campaign.
Email the right people
- Smaller, relevant lists get more replies and fewer complaints.
- Remove addresses that bounce; Reach suppresses hard bounces automatically.
- Never send to purchased lists of personal addresses.
Write like a person
- Plain text-style emails with few or no images.
- One link at most, no link shorteners, no attachments in a first email.
- No all-caps subject lines or piles of exclamation marks.
Watch the signals
Replies are the healthiest signal. Bounces and spam complaints are the warning signs: if they rise, slow down, check your list, and review your message.
Put it into practice
Montegra Reach sends short sequences from your own mailbox, stops when people reply or unsubscribe, adds your business details to every campaign email, and keeps a consent record on every contact. $0 for 30 days.