Cold outreach configuration

Cold email still books sales-ready meetings, yet most campaigns die in spam because the technical foundations are weak. I learnt this early when two fresh domains were blacklisted in a week, wiping an entire quarter’s pipeline overnight.

This chapter fixes that risk. You will register clean domains, configure DNS records, run a proper warm-up and cap daily sends so reputation stays healthy. The work is unglamorous but vital. Skip it and every clever subject line lands in junk.

Follow the four steps in order. Each prepares the ground for the next, turning your outbound engine from fragile to fail-safe.

Start by registering two look-alike domains. If your main site is http://solidgrowth.com/, buy http://solid-growth.co/ and http://solidgrowth.io/. Choose reputable registrars such as Namecheap or Google Domains. Cheap unknown sellers often recycle abused IP ranges.

Create a single mailbox on each domain that mirrors your real address. I use mailto:ewoud@solid-growth.co for first sends and mailto:ewoud@solidgrowth.io for follow-ups. Keeping lanes separate protects primary branding if one address takes a hit.

Point both domains to a simple landing page or your main site. Blank domains look suspicious in corporate filters.

Domains secured, you are ready to prove ownership and legitimacy with DNS records. That configuration comes next.

Open your registrar’s DNS panel and add three records per domain. First, SPF. Add a TXT record that lists only the providers allowed to send mail, usually “v=spf1 include:sendgrid.net include:mailgun.org ~all”. Keep it short; more than ten look-ups breaks validation.

Second, DKIM. Your e-mail platform generates a CNAME pair. Paste both entries exactly as given. Missing characters void the signature and spam filters notice.

Third, DMARC. Start with “v=DMARC1; p=none; mailto:rua=mailto:dmarc@solid-growth.co”. A none policy collects reports without blocking mail. After thirty days move to “p=quarantine” if error rates stay low.

Run an external checker such as http://dmarcian.com/ to confirm green ticks across all three records. DNS can take up to forty-eight hours to propagate, so plan ahead.

With authentication live, the next priority is warming each mailbox before real outreach begins.

Cold inboxes with zero history trigger every alarm. For fourteen days send short, genuine messages to colleagues and friendly contacts. Ask them to reply once, then respond back. Threaded dialogue trains reputation algorithms.

Run an automated warm-up tool only after five manual exchanges per mailbox. Limit the tool to twenty sends a day during week one and raise by ten daily. Always enable auto-reply so conversations complete.

Monitor inbox placement with a seed-list service. You should see at least eighty per cent primary inbox by day ten. If spam hits rise, pause sends for twenty-four hours and review content for trigger words such as “guarantee” or “free”.

Once warm-up metrics stabilise it is time to raise output, mindful of safe daily volume ceilings.

Daily send limits protect reputation. I cap new domains at fifty emails per day in week three, scaling to a maximum of two hundred by week six. Increase in twenty-five email increments only after bounce rate stays below two per cent for a full week.

Split volume across two sending windows, 09:00–11:00 and 14:00–16:00 in the prospect’s time zone. Sudden midnight blasts scream automation and earn blocks.

Set a hard internal rule: never exceed four hundred total emails per domain per twenty-four hours, even months later. Scale throughput by adding more domains, not by pushing a single sender to the edge.

Volume controls in place, your technical foundation is solid. We can now move to list building and copy that earns replies.

A robust outbound setup rests on four invisible pillars. Register look-alike domains to shield the primary brand. Publish strict SPF, DKIM and DMARC records to prove legitimacy. Warm each mailbox with real dialogue before prospecting. Respect conservative daily volume ceilings to preserve sender reputation.

I follow this configuration every time I launch a new campaign. The upfront diligence keeps deliverability high, so the effort spent on hand-picked lists and value-first copy is not wasted in spam folders.

With the technical ground secure, the next chapter builds a high-quality target list that turns this sending power into meetings rather than unsubscribes.