Deliverability
Sender reputation
Sender reputation is the score mailbox providers assign to your sending domain and IP, based on your history, that decides whether your mail reaches the inbox.
Why it matters
Sender reputation is the single biggest factor in whether outreach lands. Providers use it to decide inbox, spam, or block, so a strong reputation lifts every send and a damaged one drags down even good mail. Because it builds slowly and falls fast, protecting it is one of the highest-leverage things an outbound team does.
How it works in practice
Providers score a sender on signals like bounce rate, spam complaints, how recipients engage, and whether the domain is authenticated. Sending relevant mail to valid addresses that people open and reply to builds the score. Sending to bad lists, triggering complaints, or spiking volume from a cold domain lowers it. Reputation attaches to both the domain and the sending IP.
Common mistakes
The common mistake is treating reputation as fixed rather than earned every day. Others include blasting a cold domain at high volume, mailing unverified lists that bounce, and ignoring complaint signals until placement has already dropped. Once reputation falls, recovery takes weeks of careful sending, so prevention beats repair.
How hubsell approaches it
hubsell protects sender reputation by verifying contacts before send, flagging catch-all domains, and spreading volume across sender profiles within safe limits, so the score stays healthy as you scale.