The 4 inbox-placement fixes we run when reply rates stall.

Reply rates stall. Happens to every campaign, ours included. The wrong move is to panic and rewrite the email. Nine times out of ten the email isn't the problem, inbox placement is. Here's the diagnosis order we run, in exact sequence.

Fix 1 — diagnose first, don't guess

Before you change anything, pull the numbers: open rate, reply rate, bounce rate, spam complaint rate. If opens are still strong (40%+) but replies are soft, it's a copy problem. If opens are in the teens, it's placement. Google Postmaster Tools will tell you straight. Check your domain reputation first.

Fix 2 — warm down, warm up, reset reputation

If Postmaster flags reputation as 'medium' or worse, stop real outbound for 14 days. Drop all active domains into pure warm-up traffic only (tools like Mailreach, Warmy, or Lemwarm). Volume comes down 50% for the ramp back. This is painful, but pushing through a reputation drop is how you burn a domain permanently.

“A burnt domain is a 90-day problem. A 14-day pause is a 14-day problem. Pause.”

Fix 3 — rotate domains, spread the risk

One-domain-per-client is a failure mode. We run each client on 5 to 15 domains (one sender per domain, two senders max). Any single domain sends max 2,000 emails a month. When any one domain starts to wobble, we park it and another picks up the slack. Your pipeline doesn't notice.

1. Buy new domains 90 days before you need them
2. Set up SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX from day 1 (no exceptions)
3. Run 14 days of warm-up traffic before a single cold send
4. Cap at 30 to 50 sends per inbox per day
5. Never run two domains on the same IP unless you want them to share reputation

Fix 4 — only now, touch the copy

If the first three are clean and reply rates are still soft, now you're in copy territory. Subject lines first. The open rate tells you whether the subject works. Our rule: under 7 words, no emojis, no 'Quick question', no 'Following up'. Something the recipient couldn't possibly expect.

Then body copy. Shorter, more specific, one CTA. See the 0.4% reply rate post for the full copy framework. Copy fixes can lift you 30 to 60% on replies. Placement fixes can lift you 5x. That's why we do them first.

Don't skip ahead

Every agency we onboard wants to jump straight to fix 4. Feels productive. Isn't. Run the order. If you want us to run the diagnosis on your stack for free, book a call. We'll screen-share it in 20 minutes.