Apollo & Smartlead stack — SPF ceiling breach
- Problem
- New outbound tools pushed SPF lookups to 13. Google Workspace silently flagged ~30% of sales email into quarantine — sequences looked “delivered,” calendars stayed empty.
- Fix
- Flattened SPF under the RFC 7208 ceiling and moved DMARC from p=none to enforced p=quarantine for the sending domain.
- Outcome
- Restored 98% primary inbox placement within 48 hours of DNS propagation.
Estimated quarantine share of cold volume
Before
30%
After
2%