General guidelines and best practices for email deliverability during the first few days

Starting to send emails from SleepPRO™? These first days set the tone for how email providers see you. Here is how to start well.

Since February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo have stricter rules for senders, and Microsoft (Outlook, Hotmail, Live) followed in May 2025. Providers now judge your whole credibility as a sender: your domain, your habits and how people engage. The practices below are no longer optional. They are what gets you into the inbox.

I. Your domain

Free email domains are now high risk, because they do not let you build your own reputation. Get your own domain with an active email address on it, one which can send and receive email. This builds your identity as a sender. See Is it possible to use a personal email address to send emails from SleepPRO™?

Change your default sender address in your account settings. A mismatch between your domain, your sender address and your setup can hurt trust from your first email.

1. Authenticate your domain. Providers expect SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. Without them, your emails can look unverified or even fraudulent. Authentication also protects your domain from being spoofed. See How to authenticate your domain name for email sending.
2. Confirm your sender address. Each address you send from needs confirming, so nobody can send from your address without permission. See How to confirm your email sender address.
3. Give your domain a homepage. Your sending address should belong to a domain with a real homepage, not a parked page. No website yet? Connect your domain to SleepPRO™ and create a simple homepage with a funnel or a blog. It does not need to be complex, it needs to show your business is real.
4. Track your results. Your SleepPRO™ dashboard shows your open rate, click rate, bounce rate and spam report rate. Some numbers depend on devices and providers. iPhones, for example, limit what is shared, and Gmail does not share spam reports at all. Read your numbers together. A lower open rate alone is not always a problem, combined with other signals it can be.

To track Gmail spam reports, use Google Postmaster Tools. See How to create a Google Postmaster Tool account for your domain. Google advises staying under 0.3% spam reports per sending domain. Going over this again and again slowly and lastingly damages your deliverability.

II. Your sending rhythm

When you change email tools, providers reset your history, so you rebuild your reputation from scratch. This warm-up period is watched closely.

1. Start with engaged parents. Engagement, meaning opens, clicks and replies, is one of the biggest factors in where your emails land. Emailing parents who no longer engage lowers your open rate and signals your emails are not wanted. An old list also risks bounces from closed addresses, and spam reports from parents who forgot you.
2. Build up slowly and steadily. Start with small amounts and grow gradually. Sudden jumps in volume look suspicious. Keep a regular rhythm instead of sending in bursts.
3. Keep your list clean. Regular cleaning keeps your numbers healthy. You can automate it. See How to automate the process of cleaning up your contact list.

III. Help

Contact SleepPRO™ support with any deliverability question. The team is available 24/7 and usually replies within 12 hours, often sooner.