You've completed the first quarter of your email training. Before we move into list management next week, let's consolidate everything into a practical audit checklist you can use to assess any domain.
This Week’s Lesson
Here is your complete Q1 Technical Foundations checklist. Use this to audit your company's email setup — or any domain you send from.
Authentication: SPF record exists and is under 10 DNS lookups. DKIM is signing all outbound mail with valid keys. DMARC is published at minimum p=none with a reporting address. DMARC alignment is configured for both SPF and DKIM. BIMI is configured (or on the roadmap for when p=reject is achieved).
Reputation: Domain and IP are not listed on major blacklists. Google Postmaster Tools shows Medium or High domain reputation. Spam complaint rate is below 0.08%. FBL enrollment is active for Yahoo and Microsoft.
Infrastructure: MX records are correct with redundancy. TLS/STARTTLS is enabled. MTA-STS policy is published. IP warming was performed before high-volume sending. Dedicated vs shared IP decision is appropriate for volume.
Monitoring: Google Postmaster Tools is set up and reviewed weekly. TLS-RPT reports are collected. DMARC aggregate reports are processed and reviewed.