# Email deliverability audit Human Guide

## What This Is For
Diagnostic audit for a running cold email program. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for email marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Email deliverability audit agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for email deliverability audit.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Email deliverability audit guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- Has sent ≥200 emails in the lookback window
- Has an overall reply rate <1%
- Emails landing in spam (run the spam placement test)
- Domain reputation damaged (check DMARC reports, reconsider domain age)
- Copy is broken (manually review for vague CTAs, generic openers, or em dashes; re-run `/spam-word-checker`)
- List is cold / wrong ICP (check bounce rate — if >3%, list is the problem)
- Inbox hasn't warmed enough (check warmup status)
- Reply rate dropped by >30% week-over-week → run the full audit
- Bounces spiked above 2% → run auth + spam-placement checks
- Before scaling a campaign (make sure infrastructure is ready)
- When taking over a Smartlead account you didn't set up
- `--client-id=X` (for sub-clients)

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: What it checks, The 1% rule — core domain-health threshold, When to use, Inputs, Steps, Pull the inbox inventory, Check domain authentication, Pull sent + reply + bounce metrics per campaign/inbox, (Optional) Run a Smart Delivery spam placement test, Synthesize the report.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **If your positive reply rate is dropping and you don't know why, start here.** Most of the time the problem is deliverability — your emails aren't reaching inboxes. This skill tells you what's broken.
- Warnings (fix within 1 week)
- 50-80: keep warming, don't use for critical sends.
- Below 50: don't send from this inbox — warmup peers aren't seeing it in their inboxes.
- `+all` — allows any sender. **NEVER use. Makes SPF useless.**

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Email deliverability audit human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the growthenginenowoslawski/coldoutboundskills skill entry for `email-deliverability-audit`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Email Deliverability Audit

**If your positive reply rate is dropping and you don't know why, start here.** Most of the time the problem is deliverability — your emails aren't reaching inboxes. This skill tells you what's broken.

## What it checks

| Layer | What | How |
|---|---|---|
| DNS auth | SPF, DKIM, DMARC present on each sending domain | `dig` commands |
| Inbox health | Warmup status, reputation, blocks, connection failures | Smartlead email-accounts API |
| Volume health | Daily sent trending, capacity utilization | Smartlead analytics |
| Send + reply rate per inbox | Sent count, reply count, reply rate % over lookback period | Smartlead campaign analytics |
| Bounce rate | Per-inbox and per-domain bounce rate over last 30 days | Smartlead campaign analytics |
| Spam placement | Real inbox-vs-spam test via Smartlead Smart Delivery | optional |

## The 1% rule — core domain-health threshold

**A healthy domain should have an overall reply rate of at least 1% after 200 emails sent.**

Below 1% after 200+ sends is a red flag — something is broken. The audit explicitly checks this and flags any domain or inbox that:
- Has sent ≥200 emails in the lookback window
- Has an overall reply rate <1%

Possible causes (the audit's "root-cause suggestions" try to pinpoint which):
- Emails landing in spam (run the spam placement test)
- Domain reputation damaged (check DMARC reports, reconsider domain age)
- Copy is broken (manually review for vague CTAs, generic openers, or em dashes; re-run `/spam-word-checker`)
- List is cold / wrong ICP (check bounce rate — if >3%, list is the problem)
- Inbox hasn't warmed enough (check warmup status)

Below 200 sends: too early to judge. The rule needs sample size.

## When to use

- Reply rate dropped by >30% week-over-week → run the full audit
- Bounces spiked above 2% → run auth + spam-placement checks
- Before scaling a campaign (make sure infrastructure is ready)
- Monthly as routine hygiene
- When taking over a Smartlead account you didn't set up

## Inputs

- `SMARTLEAD_API_KEY` (env)
- Optional: scope the audit
  - `--client-id=X` (for sub-clients)
  - `--campaign-id=X` (audit only one campaign's inboxes)
  - `--domain=example.com` (audit only one domain)
  - `--tag=active` (audit only inboxes tagged active)

## Steps

### 1. Pull the inbox inventory

```bash
npx tsx scripts/audit-inboxes.ts --all --out=/tmp/audit/inboxes.csv
```

Outputs per inbox: id, email, domain, warmup_status, reputation, max_warmup/day, sent_today, smtp_ok, imap_ok, is_blocked, tags.

### 2. Check domain authentication

```bash
npx tsx scripts/check-domain-auth.ts --from-csv=/tmp/audit/inboxes.csv --out=/tmp/audit/auth.csv
```

For each unique domain, runs:
```bash
dig TXT <domain> +short          # SPF
dig TXT default._domainkey.<domain> +short    # DKIM (Zapmail uses "default")
dig TXT _dmarc.<domain> +short   # DMARC
```

Outputs: domain, spf_present, spf_strict, dkim_present, dmarc_present, dmarc_policy (none/quarantine/reject).

### 3. Pull sent + reply + bounce metrics per campaign/inbox

```bash
npx tsx scripts/audit-performance.ts --days=30 --out=/tmp/audit/performance.csv
```