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Free Technical Reference · 2026 Edition
Email Infrastructure IT Teams

Email Deliverability Checklist for IT Teams

A practical email infrastructure checklist for reviewing the systems behind business email. Go beyond basic SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks.

PDF · Free · Business email required
30
Operational Parts
329+
Individual Checks
4
Incident Runbooks
About This Checklist

What is an email deliverability checklist?

An email deliverability checklist helps teams review the technical conditions that affect whether business email can be sent reliably, authenticated correctly and investigated when something goes wrong.

For larger organizations, that environment can span Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, CRMs, marketing platforms, support systems, transactional applications, vendors and legacy infrastructure.

A valid DNS record in one part of that system does not mean the whole email environment is healthy.

Coverage

Review the full email infrastructure behind your domains

The guide brings the main technical and operational areas into one reference.

01
Sender & Domain Inventory
Know which domains, applications, services and vendors send email for your organization.
02
Authentication
Review SPF, DKIM, DMARC and sender alignment across the sending estate.
03
DNS & Transport
Check MX, DNS health, TLS, certificates, MTA-STS and related infrastructure.
04
Reputation & Delivery
Review reputation signals, blocklists, bounces, complaints, SMTP errors and provider-specific behavior.
05
Security
Identify unauthorized sending, compromised infrastructure, lookalike domains and external abuse.
06
Change & Monitoring
Track changes to DNS, senders, policies, certificates and infrastructure before they become incidents.
07
Ownership & Recovery
Know who owns each critical system, who responds when something changes and how recovery is verified.
Why It's Different

Not another pre-send marketing checklist

Most email deliverability checklists focus on campaigns. This one focuses on the infrastructure that exists before, during and after the send.

It is built for teams responsible for:

Business-critical email
Email authentication
DNS and mail routing
Sending platforms
Sender reputation
Email security
Infrastructure monitoring
Technical incident response

The goal is not a perfect score. The goal is operational control over email infrastructure.

See where your email infrastructure has gaps
Use the checklist to review your sending environment with the teams responsible for DNS, security, applications, platforms and business-critical email.
Free technical reference · 2026 edition · PDF
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FAQ

Common questions

What should an email deliverability checklist include?
For technical teams, it should cover sender inventory, SPF, DKIM, DMARC, DNS, transport, reputation, bounces, complaints, provider-specific behavior, security, monitoring and recovery.
What is an email infrastructure checklist?
An email infrastructure checklist reviews the domains, sending systems, authentication, DNS, mail routing, reputation signals, vendors and operational processes behind business email.
Is this only for marketing email?
No. It is designed for corporate, transactional, operational, machine-generated and marketing email infrastructure.
Does the checklist cover SPF, DKIM and DMARC?
Yes. It includes SPF, DKIM and DMARC as part of the wider infrastructure behind trusted and reliable business email.