Apollo WTWalkingTree Technologies
Updated May 15, 2026
Post-call resource hub

Everything from today's call in one place.

From today's deliverability and account review: the IT setup email for your DNS person, the full remediation packet, three Apollo-side guides, status on the items I'm chasing internally, and the agenda for next Thursday's check-in.

Deliverability
16 / 16
mailboxes flagged on at least one block list
Reply rate today
0.7%
despite 98.95% delivery rate (spam-folder problem)
Dialer DNC block
90–95%
of US prospects flagged. Support ticket open
Credit top-off
~50K
queued. Confirmation by May 18

02 · Resource shelf

Ten resources, one shelf.

The shelf now includes the customer-facing prep artifacts, the remediation packet, the live working tools, and the new setup blocks from today's call.

ReadyFor IT

Deliverability Review

Mailbox-by-mailbox health for all 16 sending accounts, block-list status, and the SPF / DKIM / DMARC findings I walked through on the call. Source for the IT email below.

Apollo · Ready
Ready

Credit Usage Plan

Three-month runway model with the playbook for the next quarter. How to spend down what's there now and not run dry mid-quarter again.

Apollo · Ready
ReadyExec

Executive Remediation Brief

The customer-facing plan: four issues, Apollo response, timeline, named ownership, and the commitment structure for closure.

Remediation packet
Ready

Account Diagnostic

Account context, usage snapshot, health signals, opportunity signals, and recommended plays tied to the renewal plan.

Account view
ReadyLive

Live Deliverability Audit

Working call surface for domain authentication, mailbox health, sending patterns, bounce rates, and action-item capture.

Live audit tool
ReadySOP

DNC Scrubbing SOP

Rep-facing pre-launch workflow for DNC cleanup, suppression-list setup, and sequence hygiene before outreach starts.

Operating process
NewFor IT

IT Setup Email Block

Forwardable copy you can send to your IT / DNS person. Covers DMARC quarantine upgrade and tracking subdomain setup on look-alike domains. Includes the exact records.

Forward to IT
New5 min

Chrome Call Notifications

Step-by-step to enable browser pop-ups for inbound calls so you stop missing live conversations while the missed-call email investigation is open.

Inside Apollo
New10 min

Continuous Warm-Up

Activate continuous warm-up on all 16 mailboxes to start rebuilding sender reputation with Microsoft 365 / Outlook receivers. Direct path to lower spam rates.

Inside Apollo
New10 min

Waterfall Enrichment Expansion

You're using 2 of 9 available providers. Turn on the rest, switch zero-balance validation off so credits only deduct when a real email is found.

Inside Apollo

03 · Forwardable to IT

The email for your DNS person.

Ashish, copy this and send to whoever owns GoDaddy DNS access. It's written so they can act without needing call context. Two changes total.

Subject: WalkingTree DNS · DMARC upgrade + tracking subdomain setup
Hi [IT contact], We use Apollo for our outbound email (cold outreach to prospects). Apollo's deliverability suite just flagged two issues on our sending domains that need DNS changes. Both are low impact and reversible. Two changes: 1. Upgrade DMARC policy from "none" to "quarantine" on two domains - Domains affected: explorewalkingtree.tech and fromwalkingtree.tech - Current TXT record at _dmarc.[domain] is set to p=none, which means receiving servers (Gmail, Outlook) ignore SPF/DKIM failures. That makes us look unauthenticated and increases spam-folder placement. - Change to: p=quarantine; rua=mailto:dmarc-reports@walkingtree.tech; ruf=mailto:dmarc-reports@walkingtree.tech; pct=100; adkim=s; aspf=s - After 7–10 days of clean DMARC reports, we can move to p=reject. 2. Add tracking subdomains to the six sending domains that don't have one yet - Right now only walkingtree.tech has a tracking subdomain configured. The other six sending domains do not: connectwalkingtree.tech, explorewalkingtree.tech, fromwalkingtree.tech, meetwalkingtree.tech, teamwalkingtree.tech, walkingtree.ai. - For each domain, create a CNAME record: Host: track Points to: tracking.apollo.io TTL: default (1 hour) - This lets Apollo's open / click tracking work without flagging us as a spoofed sender. Why this matters: 16 of our 16 Apollo sending mailboxes are currently on at least one email block list. Reply rate is sitting at 0.7% even though Apollo is "delivering" 98.95%. Emails are landing in spam folders, not inboxes. DMARC and tracking subdomain alignment are the two highest-leverage DNS fixes to get us out of spam. If you can get these in this week, we'll be set up for the warm-up rebuild and should see deliverability recover within 2–3 weeks. Let me know if you need the exact domain list or anything else. Thanks, [Your name]
Heads-up: Specific domains and DMARC reporting address are pre-filled from today's deliverability audit. If your IT person needs the full per-mailbox breakdown or SPF / DKIM context (SPF softfail across all 7 domains, weak 1024-bit DKIM key on walkingtree.tech, walkingtree.ai dual MX conflict), the deliverability review linked above has all of it.

04 · Inside Apollo

Three setup guides, ten minutes each.

The three things I asked you to flip on inside the Apollo app. Owner is on your side (Nishant or whoever owns Apollo admin). Sequence them in the order shown: warm-up, then waterfall, then enrichment expansion.

Chrome call notifications

Browser pop-ups for inbound calls. Workaround until missed-call emails are restored.

  1. Open Chrome, install the Apollo Chrome Extension from the Chrome Web Store if it's not already there.
  2. Click the Apollo icon in your toolbar → log in with your Apollo credentials.
  3. Right-click the extension icon → Manage extension → toggle Site access: On all sites.
  4. In Apollo (web app) → Settings → Calls → enable Browser notifications for inbound calls.
  5. When the browser asks for notification permission, allow it.
  6. Test by having a teammate call your Apollo number. Pop-up should appear in the bottom-right of any Chrome tab.
If pop-ups don't fire, check System Preferences → Notifications → Chrome → ensure Allow Notifications is on.

Continuous warm-up

All 16 mailboxes. Rebuilds sender reputation with Microsoft 365 / Outlook receivers.

  1. Apollo → Settings → Email Accounts.
  2. Filter to your 16 sending mailboxes (use the domain filter for walkingtree.tech and the two look-alikes).
  3. For each mailbox: click the row → Deliverability tab → toggle Continuous Warm-Up: On.
  4. Set warm-up volume to 20 sends/day baseline (Apollo will ramp automatically based on reputation signals).
  5. Confirm the warm-up reply rate target is set to 30%. This is what trains receivers to mark Apollo mail as wanted.
  6. Enable on all 16. Expect 7–14 days before noticeable inbox-rate improvement, faster on the mailboxes already off block lists.
Run this in parallel with the IT DNS fixes. Warm-up alone won't fix deliverability if DMARC is still set to "none."

Waterfall enrichment expansion

You're using 2 of 9 sources. More providers + smarter charging = better hit rate, lower waste.

  1. Apollo → Settings → Enrichment → Waterfall Enrichment.
  2. Review the active provider list. Currently 2 enabled.
  3. Toggle on the remaining 7 providers (drag to set order; recommend Apollo first, then second-tier providers, then long-tail).
  4. Find the Zero balance validation toggle → switch to Off. This means credits only deduct when a real email is returned, not when a provider returns blank.
  5. Save and run a test enrichment on a known-coverage prospect to confirm the new waterfall fires correctly.
  6. Monitor for 3–5 days. Expect higher email match rates and credit-per-find to drop noticeably.
This addresses the Apollo missing-email-data complaint from the call. With more sources active, the ZoomInfo fallback should become rare.

05 · On me

What I'm chasing inside Apollo.

Three open items I'm running internally. I'll have an update on each before Thursday's check-in. No action needed from your side.

Credit top-off (~50K credits)

Submitted to internal credit ops. Confirmation expected by May 18. You'll see it land directly in the account, no action needed on your side.

Nick · ETA May 18
DNC dialer block · support ticket

Filed: when DNC screening is toggled off in Rules of Engagement / Prospecting Configuration, the parallel dialer should release contacts. On the call we toggled it off and the dialer still blocked. Engineering investigating.

Apollo Support · ETA Thursday
Missed-call email notifications

Engineering ticket open to investigate why these stopped firing for your account (last received Feb 28, 2025). If the feature was deprecated, we can build a workflow to recreate the same notification trigger. I'll have an answer by Thursday.

Apollo ENG · ETA Thursday

06 · Next Thursday

Check-in agenda.

Thursday May 21, 11:30 AM CDT. Same time as today. Goal of the call: confirm what's working post-fix, decide next round of changes.

01
Deliverability rebuild status

Confirm DMARC and tracking subdomain DNS changes are live. Walk through deliverability suite to see block-list change since today + warm-up reputation signals.

02
Dialer + DNC bug update

Live test calling after the DNC fix lands. If the support ticket resolved, we should see contacts release for parallel dialer immediately.

03
Missed-call email decision

Eng response: feature restored vs. workflow rebuild. Whichever path, I'll demo it live.

04
Waterfall enrichment performance

5-day data on hit rate and credit-per-email since expanding the provider list. Adjust if anything's off.

05
Open items + next quarter plan

Anything outstanding from today, plus credit usage check against the runway model heading into next quarter.

Bring to the call: any IT confirmation that DNS changes landed, plus a couple of test outbound recipients we can use to live-check inbox placement.