Complete Deliverability Recovery Checklist

When infrastructure, content, and list problems compound each other, fix things in the right order.

The four-phase approach

Phase 1 — Infrastructure (week 1): confirm every DNS record verified, PTR record configured, DMARC policy set (start in monitoring mode).

Phase 2 — Content (week 2): audit templates for spam-trigger language, run through Mail-Tester aiming above 8/10, balance text/images (~60/40).

Phase 3 — Reputation rebuild (weeks 3–8): start with 50–100 emails/day to your most engaged contacts, increase ~25%/week as metrics hold, watch Sender Score and blocklist status.

Phase 4 — Ongoing list hygiene: segment by engagement, remove hard bounces/unengaged addresses regularly, use double opt-in going forward.

What "recovered" looks like

98%+ delivery rate and Sender Score above 80, typically 13–16 weeks for a genuinely compounded problem. Skipping straight to Phase 3 usually means the gains don't stick.