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Email Marketing Insights

Practical guides on deliverability, AMP emails, cold outreach, inbox warm-up, and modern email infrastructure.

SMTP warmup: How many emails a day your new server can sendEmail Deliverability

SMTP warmup: How many emails a day your new server can send

SMTP warmup limits differ by setup. Get the daily limit for a Google Workspace user, a new Microsoft 365 tenant or your own IP, plus the codes to heed.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Oct 12, 2026
9 min read
Email authentication protocols: What Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com requireEmail Authentication

Email authentication protocols: What Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com require

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are email authentication protocols. See what Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook.com require, the bounce codes, and what to publish first.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Oct 7, 2026
7 min read
Google Workspace MX records: the one record to add and how long to waitEmail Authentication

Google Workspace MX records: the one record to add and how long to wait

Google Workspace MX records for a new setup: add one record, smtp.google.com at priority 1, then wait up to 72 hours. Covers older records and subdomains.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Oct 5, 2026
10 min read
Mailer daemon yahoo.com: Tell a hacked account from a borrowed addressEmail Authentication

Mailer daemon yahoo.com: Tell a hacked account from a borrowed address

A mailer daemon yahoo.com notice names your address as sender of a failed message. Find out if you wrote it, a forward broke, or someone used your account.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Oct 1, 2026
11 min read
Hard bounce vs soft bounce: The code decides, not the labelEmail Deliverability

Hard bounce vs soft bounce: The code decides, not the label

Hard bounce vs soft bounce, decided by the actual SMTP code rather than your platform's label: which addresses to remove now, which retry, which are blocked.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Sep 25, 2026
13 min read
Mailer daemon email: Why you get blamed for a message you didn't sendEmail Deliverability

Mailer daemon email: Why you get blamed for a message you didn't send

A mailer daemon bounce has four real causes, and only one of them means you did something wrong. Decode your fields, spot backscatter, and stop the flood.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Sep 21, 2026
12 min read
SMTP error codes explained: What every 2xx, 4xx and 5xx reply actually tells youEmail Deliverability

SMTP error codes explained: What every 2xx, 4xx and 5xx reply actually tells you

SMTP error codes explained: what the class digit and the enhanced status code actually mean, plus links to five cause-by-cause breakdowns of common bounces.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Sep 18, 2026
11 min read
SMTP error 421: it's not a bounce, but whether it retries depends on youEmail Deliverability

SMTP error 421: it's not a bounce, but whether it retries depends on you

SMTP error 421 explained: four real causes sorted by who actually sent the deferral, the RFC backed retry window, and exactly when to stop waiting it out.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Sep 16, 2026
10 min read
Message blocked in Gmail: The real reason is hiding behind that noticeEmail Deliverability

Message blocked in Gmail: The real reason is hiding behind that notice

Message blocked in Gmail hides one of nine real error codes. See what each means, which is permanent, and the exact fix, verified against Google's own docs.

Brain Lucas
Brain Lucas
Sep 14, 2026
12 min read