Before you run an email outreach sequence in Hubfluence, you need to set up your sending domain so your emails actually land in creators' inboxes instead of the spam folder. This is a one-time setup in your domain's DNS settings, and it applies whether you send through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 / Outlook. This article walks through what to set up, why it matters, and how to avoid spam and bounces.

Email deliverability is whether the receiving mail server (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) accepts your message and puts it in the inbox instead of spam or a bounce. Cold outreach to creators is exactly the pattern spam filters are built to catch, so if your domain is not authenticated, providers assume the worst and filter you out.

Both Google and Microsoft now require bulk senders to authenticate their domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. This is no longer optional. Without it, your sequence can send perfectly and still never get read.

Send from a real business address you control, like outreach@yourbrand.com, not a free @gmail.com or @outlook.com address. You cannot authenticate a free inbox because you do not control its DNS, and domain reputation is an asset you build with every properly authenticated send.

If you plan to send a lot of cold outreach, many teams use a dedicated subdomain (like go.yourbrand.com) so that outreach reputation stays separate from the main domain your customers and invoices rely on.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are three TXT records you add to your domain's DNS. Together they prove to Gmail and Outlook that your email is really from you and was not forged.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) lists which mail servers are allowed to send for your domain. You publish one SPF record only, so if you send through more than one service, merge them into a single record. For Google Workspace it looks like: v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a cryptographic signature to every message. You generate the key inside your email provider, then publish the matching public key as a DNS record so receivers can confirm the message was not altered.

DMARC ties SPF and DKIM together and tells receivers what to do on failure. Add it as a TXT record at _dmarc.yourdomain.com. Start in monitor mode: v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:dmarc@yourdomain.com

Confirm your domain is verified in Google Admin, then add the three records in this order. Add the SPF TXT record at your domain root. Turn on DKIM under Apps, Google Workspace, Gmail, Authenticate email, generate the key, add the TXT record it gives you to your DNS, then click Start Authentication. Add the DMARC TXT record at _dmarc.yourdomain.com starting with p=none. DNS changes can take a few minutes to 48 hours to go live.

The steps are the same, only the menus differ. Add an SPF TXT record with v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all at your domain root. Enable DKIM in the Microsoft Defender portal under Email and collaboration, Policies and rules, Threat policies, DKIM, then add the two CNAME records Microsoft gives you. Publish the DMARC TXT record at _dmarc.yourdomain.com the same way, starting with p=none.

A brand-new domain has no reputation. If you jump from zero to a thousand cold emails on day one, providers read that spike as a spam attack. Warm up by sending a small number of emails per day, ideally to people who will open and reply, and increase the daily count gradually over two to four weeks. Keep volume steady once warmed. Skipping warm-up is the single most common deliverability mistake, and the easiest to avoid.

Authentication gets you in the door, but content and behavior keep you in the inbox. Write like a human, not a billboard: no all caps subject lines, no exclamation-point pileups, no "act now" language. Keep a short text-to-link ratio, always include a real unsubscribe or opt-out path, and personalize the first line so the message reads as one-to-one mail. Google wants your spam-complaint rate under 0.3 percent, so only email genuinely relevant creators and make it easy to opt out.

A bounce is an email that could not be delivered. Hard bounces are permanent (the address does not exist) and hurt your reputation the most, so remove them immediately and never retry. Soft bounces are temporary (a full mailbox or a server that is down) and usually resolve on their own. Only send to verified, real addresses, clean your list after every send, and never scrape and blast. A bounce rate under about 2 percent is healthy; past 5 percent, providers start throttling you.

If you get stuck with your DNS setup, email us at support@hubfluence.io or message us in our Discord support server. Want a second pair of eyes on your domain or sequence before you scale? Book a call and our team will walk through it with you.