How do you set up cold email without burning your domain?
Never send cold email from the domain your customers know. Buy a few look-alike sending domains, set up a handful of inboxes on each, warm them up for two to three weeks, then send a small number of emails per inbox per day to lists built from real buying signals. Your main domain stays clean, and if a sending domain gets hurt, you replace it.
The setup, step by step
- Separate sending domains. Variations of your brand name, each pointing to your real site. Your main domain never sends.
- A few inboxes per domain, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up on every one.
- Warmup first. Two to three weeks of automated warmup before any real email goes out, and keep warmup running after launch.
- Start low. A handful of emails per inbox per day, spread across many inboxes, and only raise it when replies and bounces stay healthy.
- A real footer. Your company name, a postal address and a simple way to opt out, like 'Reply no and we'll stop'.
Lists and copy
- Build lists from signals: a recent raise, a hiring post for the role your product helps, a new leader in their first 90 days, a launch.
- Verify every address before it's sent to. Bounces are what hurt a domain fastest.
- Keep emails short, tied to the signal, and give something first: an audit, a teardown, a free setup.
- Remove anyone who says no, straight away.
What to measure
Not opens. Measure replies, positive replies and booked meetings, then cost per meeting against what a customer is worth. That's the same payback line you use for ads.
Illustration only. Big Shorter Media does not guarantee growth, revenue or results.