<aside> 👋

This playbook was created by Reza Mokdad in collaboration with lemlist. Reza is one of the few true deliverability experts in the B2B world, and one of the most passionate.

Feel free to reach out to him directly on LinkedIn if you have any questions… or simply to thank him for this masterpiece.

It took him quite some time to put together for you!

Enjoy…

and say goodbye to the spam folder!

💙

The lemlist team

</aside>

How to Use This Playbook (TL;DR)

1. Plan capacity from pipeline math (deals → meetings → sends) and validate against clean TAM.
2. Map inbox reality (Gmail/Outlook/SEGs) so your tests match your market.
3. Size infra (domains/inboxes + buffer) and pick a build path (Automated / DIY / DFY).
4. Warm first, then ramp cold steadily (keep total daily volume stable).
5. Monitor like ops: bounce daily, replies weekly, seeds monthly; rotate before reputation slips.
6. Protect with habits: data hygiene, sensible copy, disciplined campaign management.

Introduction

Most scale-ups lose cold-email pipeline to deliverability and infrastructure problems they never see coming.

When growth accelerates, email volume scales faster than the systems supporting it.

One month, you’re sending a few hundred emails. The next, you’re running thousands across multiple domains, tools, and regions, all built on systems that were never designed for this kind of load.

As scale kicks in, complexity multiplies and you have far less margin for error. A single flagged sequence doesn’t just hurt one inbox, it ripples across your entire system, and by the time you notice, it’s already costing you pipeline.

This playbook shows you how to plan, build and maintain an infrastructure that scales without breaking.

You'll learn how to size your setup based on real volume targets, choose the right providers, architect domains and inboxes for scale, monitor deliverability as you grow, and catch issues before they kill pipeline.

Who is this playbook for ?