Skip to main content
Cold email is unforgiving — a bad first batch can hurt a mailbox’s reputation for weeks. Run through this checklist before you launch any real campaign. Most of it takes a few minutes and saves you from the mistakes that quietly kill reply rates.

Before you send a single email

When you connect a mailbox, Norbelys sends a real test email to confirm it works before saving. If a mailbox shows a paused or reconnect state, fix it first — it won’t send anything. See Managing senders.
Use two weeks as the minimum observation period for a new low-volume mailbox; a new or higher-volume domain can need materially longer. Turn warmup on, then launch only when authentication, placement, health, list quality, and the planned volume agree. See Warmup.
Publish your DMARC monitoring record so you can see how Gmail and Microsoft authenticate your mail. A low pass rate means messages are heading to spam. See Domains & DMARC.
Open the Deliverability page. Before you’ve sent, it will say it’s standing by; once you’re set up it should not be flagging problems. Fix anything it lists first. See Deliverability.

Check your list

Every CSV import is verified automatically. After importing, review the Deliverability summary — it separates sendable, blocked (won’t bounce), and pending addresses, and lists exactly what it caught (dead domains, role inboxes, likely typos, and more). Blocked addresses are held back so they can’t bounce. See People.
Confirm the group, segment, or list you enrolled is the one you meant. Segments show a live ”≈ N people match” count so you can sanity-check the size before enrolling. See Groups & segments.

Check the emails

In the sequence, any email marked Needs copy is missing a subject or body and will block launch. The email editor also warns about unknown variables — merge tags that don’t match a real field. Fix these before launching. See Writing emails.
In the email editor use Send test & preview to see the email exactly as a recipient will — with your personalization filled in — and send yourself a copy. Check that merge tags resolve, links work, and nothing looks broken.
Any merge tag that could be empty needs a fallback, e.g. {{givenName | default: "there"}}. A missing variable with no fallback causes that send to be skipped. See Personalization.
Review the wait between each email. The first email sends as soon as someone joins; follow-ups default to three days. Adjust the “wait N days” pills to match how aggressive you want to be.

Launch settings

The Launch dialog lets you Send now (begins as soon as your sending window allows) or Schedule for later (pick a date and time; locked once launched). Sending is always paced by your sending window and each mailbox’s daily limits.
Check the campaign’s Config tab for the sending window / business hours so emails go out at sensible times in the recipient’s day, not at 3 a.m.

After you launch

Replies usually start landing within one to three days. Watch:
  • Home and the inbox for replies to answer while leads are warm.
  • Deliverability for any bounce or spam problems.
  • The campaign’s Analytics tab for the funnel and reply rate.
Ask Norbe to keep an eye out for you. From Norbe → Scheduled you can set up a reply monitor, a daily deliverability digest, or a bounce-spike alert so you don’t have to check manually. See Norbe.