Cold Email Deliverability Masterclass

Are you looking to increase your cold email deliverability?

Here’s how to make sure your emails land in your prospect’s inbox and maximize your cold outreach ROI.

What Does Email Deliverability Refer To

You could have the absolute best offer and the most enticing cold messaging out there but if your cold emails land in spam you won’t get any leads, demos or clients.

You want to make sure your cold email deliverability is on point so that the next time you launch a new cold email campaign your emails get delivered to your prospects’ inboxes.

Cold Email Deliverability Checklist

Here’s an email deliverability checklist to improve domain reputation:

Get new domains from Google
Set up DKIM
Warm up domains
Add custom tracking domain
Only outreach to verified email addresses
Cold email deliverability best practices

Get New Domains

If you’re planning to send bulk cold emails to potential leads, then you’ll need new domains to avoid being reported as spam.

By having separate domains for your cold emailing efforts, you can protect your main domain from any negative consequences.

Here’s the structure of what accounts and domains could look like:

Domain: TryXYZ.com
Account: clara@TryXYZ.com, tom@TryXYZ.com, clee@TryXYZ.com

In other words, the domain is the website, and the account is the inbox.

Now, here’s how you can set up new domains with Google.

Why do we want to get the new domains from Google?

Simply because Google makes it super easy to manage them all and because it automatically configures MX, SPF, and DKIM.

DKIM and SPF
“In a nutshell, SPF allows email senders to define which IP addresses are allowed to send mail for a particular domain. DKIM on the other hand, provides an encryption key and digital signature that verifies that an email message was not forged or altered.” – Sparkpost.com

STEP-BY-STEP

Create a new Gmail account so that you can access all the Google Workspace for the cold email prospecting domains
Go to domains.google.com/registrar
Type in a name similar to your company’s domain
At checkout: Put in your favorite email as back-up
- Example: Your domain is: companyxyz.com
- Search for: (.co) (.io) (.net) (.info) (.com)
- MYxyz.CO
- TRYxyz.CO
- GETxyz.CO
- GOxyz.CO
- DEMOxyz.CO
- YOURxyz.CO

How To Set Up New Google Accounts

Log in to the new Gmail account to set up the new purchase domains
Open Google’s email for a domain, copy the temporary password, and then click on the “Sign In to new domain”
Create a new password
To add a picture, go to admin.google.com
Log in with the new Google Account
Then choose the new workspace email domain to change the picture
Go to User
Click on the profile
Then click on the image next to the name to add a new picture.

Congrats! The domain is now registered.

Now it’s time to Forward the new domain to your landing page.

Go to domains.google.com/registrar
Click the new domain name
Under “Forward to an existing webpage, click; Add a forwarding address.
Enter a URL or IP address in the “Website URL” field.
Click on “Advanced Options” and choose “Permanent Redirect 301 “ And “SSL On”

And that’s it.

So now, every one of your cold email prospecting domains will redirect to your landing page.

How To Add DMARC Records

Now we’re going to add DMARC records.

DMARC: Lets you tell receiving servers what to do with outgoing messages from your organization that don’t pass SPF or DKIM.

Because we used google workspace for our email provider we don’t need to configure MX, SPF, or DKIM as it comes preconfigured.

Go to: https://domains.google.com
Go to the DNS tab under your domain
Type _DMARC for the hostname
Select TXT for the type
Enter “1 hour” for TTL
Add this to Data: “v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:YOUR@NEWDOMAIN “

Domain Warmup

In order to improve your domain reputation and optimize your cold email deliverability, you need to allow enough time for warming up new domains.

The domain warmup process reduces the likelihood of future emails being marked as spam.

Nowadays most email-sending software allows you to warm up your domains.

Go to your favorite warming-up tools (Inboxy, WarmupInbox, Instantly, Lemlist, etc)
Create an account with New Gmail account info
Warm up the new domains you’ve just created by following their instructions

How To Warm Up A New Email Domain

Warmup Inbox (Cheapest option)

Add Custom Tracking Domain

By setting up a custom tracking domain, you increase your cold email deliverability, improved click-through rates, and maintained your email sender reputation.

If you aren’t using a personal tracking domain for your email clicks and opens, you’re stuck with whatever generic shared domain that’s assigned to you with your email-sending software.

What Is A Custom Tracking Domain

Although your email-sending software occasionally changes its URL, every customer uses the same domain – unless you set up a custom tracking domain.

If you establish a custom tracking domain, the unique code that your email-sending software inserts will use your designated domain instead of its own.

With your own domain, you can be confident that your sending reputation and cold email deliverability will not be impacted by others.

Imagine it as bringing your toothbrush on a road trip instead of using one from the motel. By having only used yours, you’re preventing any gum disease or other dental problems associated with sharing.

When you set up a custom tracking domain, it operates as a stand-in for the original source of the link.

This separates your sender reputation from that of other users and helps protect your credibility… so always use a custom tracking domain.

How To Set Up Custom Tracking Domain

Every email-sending software allows you to easily add one.

For example, here’s how you can set one up using Instantly.

Here’s how to set it up using Instantly:

Go into your domain settings at your domain provider.
Add a new CNAME type record.
Set the value as prox.itrackly.com
Set the name as “leads“
Insert your custom tracking domain in Instantly, it will be formatted as leads.yourdomain.com

Here’s what it looks like in Google Domains:

Then go to the settings in Instantly for the email account

Then, click on ‘Use custom tracking domain’
Add a new CNAME for your domain and set it to prox.itrackly.com
1. Use leads as the name of the CNAME
2. Use prox.itrackly.com as the value of the CNAME
Add the new CNAME in the Instantly settings and click on ‘Check Status’
1. Add it as leads.yourdomain.com in Instantly with yourdomain.com being the domain you added the CNAME record under.
If everything is set up correctly you will receive the following notifications below the Check Status button => “CNAME Verified SSL Verified”

Email Cleansing

By verifying your email addresses, you could reduce your bounce rate by up to 90%. This would go a long way in improving cold email deliverability and seems like a valid enough reason on its own to invest time into email cleansing.

A higher cold email deliverability rate means you get a more effective email marketing campaign since there’s a greater chance that more of your emails will be seen by recipients.

How To Clean An Email List

Once you’ve scrapped an email list of targeted prospects using either SalesNav, Apollo, or BuiltWith, you then simply upload the CSV file into an email verification tool like NeverBounce, MailCheck, Hunter, etc.

When the cleansing is done, then simply keep the “verified emails” and use that list in your cold email prospecting campaign.

How To Send Bulk Cold Emails

If you want successful cold outreach results, then it’s key to understand the basics from the beginning. That way, once you’re handling larger volumes, you’ll already be doing everything right.

Here we’ve divided the most vital basics into 5 lessons to help you send bulk emails:

Lesson #1: Max 50 emails/day

Do not send more than 50 emails per day, including warm-up emails, from each email account (aka inbox) to avoid cold email deliverability issues. This number is not set in stone but rather a best practice that we’ve seen produce great results.

This 25/25 split of cold and warm emails respectively has yielded the best results for us and our clients.

Lesson #2: Scale With Domains Not With Emails

The second lesson I learned is that it’s always best to scale your outreach volume by purchasing more domains and email accounts rather than sending higher volumes from your existing accounts (which risks burning them).

Want to book more qualified appointments?

Then simply buy 5 new domains with 3 accounts each, and soon you’ll be able to send an additional 375 cold emails each day (5 domains X 3 accounts X 25 cold emails each = 375).

Some people have success with pushing the daily limits, but it’s simply not worth jeopardizing those domain names which already have a good reputation. It takes a lot of time and effort to build up a decent reputation, so you should take care of any domains that get to that point.

BUT, this doesn’t mean you should immediately start sending 50 emails a day (25 warm + 25 cold)…

Lesson #3: Start Slow

The third lesson is to always start low and gradually increase your volume as you go.

If you immediately start sending 25 cold emails per day from a new account, it will ruin the reputation of both the account and domain name since spam filters are harsher on new domains.

Therefore, it’s suggested that you begin with only 5 cold emails per day for each email account while keeping the warmup system at 25 emails daily.

With a watchful eye on your metrics, like open rate, reply rate, and warmup health score, scale up the cold email sending volume gradually until you reach the maximum limit of 25 per day per account.

Starting sending cold emails with an email account that has been warmed up for 10-14 days:

Day 1 – 5 emails/day PER account
Day 5 – 10 emails/day PER account
Day 10 – 15 emails/day PER account
Day 15 – 20 emails/day PER account
Day 20 – 25 emails/day PER account

You can improve these limits regularly each day if you want to be extra safe, but increasing them every 5 days like the example above does well too.

For example, if you initially buy 10 domains with 3 accounts each, you can safely send:

Day 1 – 5 emails/day X 10 domains X 3 accounts = 150/day
Day 5 – 10 emails/day X 10 domains X 3 accounts = 300/day
Day 10 – 15 emails/day X 10 domains X 3 accounts = 450/day
Day 15 – 20 emails/day X 10 domains X 3 accounts = 600/day
Day 20 – 25 emails/day X 10 domains X 3 accounts = 750/day

Lesson #4: Important Metrics To Watch

Do not increase the number of emails you send per account unless your open rate is about 40% or higher and your warmup health score is 98% or greater.

You want to confirm that your cold email deliverability levels are excellent before increasing volumes.

If emails get stranded in spam folders often and recipients rarely bother replying, this will only harm you more.

If you see a healthy open rate for your email campaigns, it’s very unlikely that being marked as spam is an issue. This means that you can safely scale up your volumes.

Lesson #5: When To Halt Campaign

The fifth lesson I’ve learned is that if your open rates or warmup health score are low, halt all cold outreach and let only the warmup run for a few days.

The whole point of the warmup system is to gradually build up your sending reputation with positive interactions.

So, if you have a low open rate or warmup score, just stop any cold outreach and let it run its course. Try again later with less volume to see if there’s been any improvement.

In some cases, you might need to let the process play out over the span of 1-2 weeks in order for there to be an impact on a damaged reputation.

This can be a go-to strategy from now on if you’re ever worried about being stuck in spam.

If you think this might be the case, cease all cold outreach and let the system warm up on its own before trying again with lower volumes.

How To Safely Scale A Cold Email Campaign

If everything is running smoothly with your ~50 daily emails per account, it’s time to buy more domains and create additional email accounts.

Start the process from the beginning with new domains and accounts, sending out 5 cold emails per day per account.

Remember to gradually increase traffic for new accounts–it’s helpful to create distinct campaigns for each new account so you can clearly monitor their performance individually.

Additionally, keep an eye on how all of the new accounts are progressing.

To begin the scaling process, clone your most successful campaigns and give those campaigns more attention. After that, you can try new strategies with fresh accounts.

If you want your messages to actually be seen and not immediately sent to the trash, follow these rules:

1. Keep your daily emails per account at 50 (25 warm and 25 cold).
2. Ease into it by starting low and then gradually increasing volume if everything looks good health-wise.
3. If metrics look bad, stop sending cold outreach until things improve then start from number two again.
4.“Scaling” means buying more domains and then creating more email accounts – don’t just up the limit of daily emails per account.

Other Best Practices To Increase Cold Email Deliverability

Use Text Only

Use text only in your cold emails. Keep the text free of odd formatting and extraneous punctuation. No URLs, no special fonts, and no gifs in the first email.

Avoid Spammy Words

Avoid these words that get automatically flagged as spam: Free or Guaranteed.

Add An Unsubscribe Button

Even though you’re sending people a cold email, it’s important that you offer them the chance to opt-out of your cold email sequence. So make sure to add one.

Address Prospects By Their Name

DO NOT address your recipient by “my friend” or “dear”. Only send them a cold email if you have their first name.

Include Contact Information

By adding your phone number and business address you tell Google/Outlook that you are a real legitimate business and not some random spammer.

Final Thoughts

By following these best practices you’ll maximize your cold email deliverability and increase your cold outreach campaign ROI.

Make sure your cold email deliverability is as high as possible, and you’ll be rewarded with high open rates, lots of interested leads, and get qualified appointments on demand.

To recap:

Get new domains from Google
Set up DKIM
Warm up new domains
Add custom tracking domain
Only outreach to verified email addresses
Start slow and then scale progressively if metrics are good
Make sure to follow the cold email deliverability best practices