Technical Setup 🛠

Tech setup – the most boring but absolutely critical part of doing cold email outreach.

You can do every aspect of cold emailing perfectly, but if you do not have your domains and emails set up perfectly you will face major deliverability issues that can ruin your whole outreach.

On top of covering how to set up your domains and email accounts for sending, we will also tell you why these things matter, so you can understand their importance.

We will go through:

1. Buying domains and creating email accounts.

2. Setting up SPF, DKIM & DMARC.
3. Setting up your own Custom Tracking Domain.

4. Setting up forwarding to your main domain.

The good thing about the technical setup is that you can automate it now with our DFY service, in just a few simple clicks.

If you are setting up infrastructure manually, once you understand it yourself, you can delegate it to VA’s who can just follow guides and set this up for you while you work on other tasks like copywriting, lead sourcing and campaign optimization.

Let’s get into it.

Buying domains and creating email accounts.

Before getting into the actual technical specifics, we strongly advise you to go with the DFY setup with Instantly, to save hours of your personal time setting up your email accounts and domains – all you have to do is:

1. Choose domain names you want to use

2. Select the number of email accounts you want

We will automatically buy the domains, add MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC, create email accounts, connect them to Instantly and start the warmup process.

The detailed instructions are in this article.

If you are manually setting up infrastructure, we strongly advise you to go with the biggest and most popular domain and email service providers. Keep reading to understand how to properly set up your sending accounts.

Time and time again we see people trying to save money by opting for alternative services only to face problems and lackluster support, making the already daunting process of technical setup much more difficult and sometimes even impossible.

We recommend getting your domains from Google or Godaddy and your email accounts from Google or Microsoft. We consistently see cold emailers face the least amount of problems using these providers.

Now let’s go over how many domains you should buy and how many email accounts you should create.

The first thing you should ask yourself is how many cold emails per day you would like to send. This usually comes down to how many leads you think you can find and how much resources you have at hand to deal with replies, meetings and potential customers.

A person with a lead list of 100,000 people will need to send more emails per day to cover the list in a reasonable amount of time compared to someone who only wants to reach out to 1000 people.

Here’s a general guideline:

1. The recommended amount of emails you can send per day per email account is about 50.

2. If you want to send 1000 emails per day, you will need 1000/50=20 email accounts.

3. It is recommended to create 3-5 email accounts per domain, which means for 20 email accounts you need about 4-7 domains.

This means that the generic formula to calculate how many email accounts and domains you need is:

Total required emails per day / 50 = Number of needed email accounts

Number of needed email accounts / 5 = Number of needed domains

Keep in mind that these numbers are not set in stone, that’s why we are giving you a range of 3-5 email accounts per domain. Lower end numbers are always safer.

Here’s 3 examples of how you can approach this:

However, it is always recommended to buy extra domains and create extra accounts just in case. If you want to increase your sending volume, you can do it right away. If something happens to your existing domains/accounts, you can swap them out right away.

SPF, DKIM & DMARC

If you have any previous experience with cold emailing then you have probably heard these terms a million times, but barely anyone knows what they mean and what they actually do. They are all entries in your domain’s DNS settings, which can be accessed in your domain provider’s settings.

The most popular domain providers are:

GoDaddy
Squarespace
Namecheap

Understanding the importance of SPF, DKIM and DMARC requires you to also understand what they are.

What is SPF?

SPF stands for “Sender Policy Framework” and it is used to specify which servers are allowed to send emails on your domain’s behalf. It is simply an entry in your domain provider’s DNS records.

If you are using Google Workspace as your email provider, having Google’s SPF records set up for your domain will signal that Google’s servers are authorized to send emails on your domain’s behalf. This assures other email servers that emails from your domain coming through Google’s servers are legitimate and should be put into the main inbox for the recipient to see.

What is DKIM?

DKIM stands for “Domain Keys Identified Mail” and it is used to ensure that an email was sent and authorized by your domain by adding a signature to all of your emails. Again, DKIM is simply an entry in your domain provider’s DNS records.

Once your recipient’s email servers verify that your email is signed with a valid DKIM signature, it is then more likely to be put into the inbox as it is seen as low risk.

What is DMARC?

DMARC stands for “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance”. A DMARC record allows a sender to indicate that their messages are protected by SPF and DKIM and remove the guesswork from your recipient’s email servers, making them more likely to be put into the inbox.

Put simply, you need all four of the above records for your email account to function well. As a matter of fact, email providers like Google may scrutinize your account if you don’t have those set up.

How to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC?

Here are the guides including videos on how to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for the most widely used domain and email service providers:

GoDaddy:

2. Setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for Godaddy & Microsoft/Office 365

NameCheap:

1. Setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for NameCheap & Google Workspace
2. Setting up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for NameCheap and Microsoft/Office 365

Custom Tracking Domain

Now you need to set up your own custom tracking domain, which is your personal domain (or sub-domain) used to track opens and clicks in your emails. This is super important in order to protect your email deliverability.

If you do not set up your own custom tracking domain, a public tracking domain will be used which is much like sharing a toothbrush with everyone else sending out emails. This is obviously not good for the health of your domains and deliverability.

Just like SPF, DKIM and DMARC, your custom tracking domain can be set up with a simple DNS record entry in your domain provider’s settings.

Here’s how to set it up:

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 inst
Insert your custom tracking domain in Instantly, it will be formatted as inst.yourdomain.com

Here are guides on how to do it with the most popular domain providers:

1. Setting up custom tracking domain with GoDaddy

2. Setting up custom tracking domain with NameCheap

For other sending accounts with the same domain, you can go ahead and update Custom Tracking Domain settings by entering the same tracking domain that you’ve just created.

For instance, use inst.domain1.com for all sending accounts with domain1.com.

If you have sending accounts using other domains, you will need to repeat the process above to set up custom tracking domains separately for separate domains, so that domain2.com sending accounts will use inst.domain2.com as their custom tracking domain.

Domain Forwarding

Lastly, you want to make sure that all of your sending domains are forwarded to your main domain. This is the easiest part of the technical setup process, you are almost done!

The main reason for setting up forwarding is that when people manually check where your email came from, they will be forwarded to your main business domain where they can find out more about you and see that you are legitimate. The other reason is that a permanent (301) forwarding links your secondary domains to your main domain.

Forwarding, just like previous steps, is also set up in your domain provider’s settings. Here’s how you do it with GoDaddy and NameCheap.

Making sure that the technical setup has been done correctly

After connecting your sending accounts to Instantly, you can check if SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up correctly by clicking on the “Test Domain Setup” button.

If everything is done correctly, you will see a confirmation message pop up.

You can make sure that your custom tracking domain works by clicking “Check status” in each of your sending account’s settings. If everything is correct, you will see green check marks next to CNAME verified and SSL verified.

To check if your forwarding works, simply visit the webpage of your secondary domain and see if it automatically forwards you to your main business website.

Connecting email accounts to Instantly (10 mins)

Then you want to make sure that all of your email accounts are connected to Instantly.

Here’s the step by step guide:

Connecting Google Workspace email accounts to Instantly

Once you have connected your email accounts to Instantly, then you want to enable warmup by clicking on the flame icon and letting the system automatically warm up your email accounts for at least 2 weeks before sending out any emails.

Here’s how you enable warm-up.

After connecting your sending accounts to Instantly, you can check if SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up correctly by clicking on the “Test Domain Setup” button.

Get 1 domain

We want to buy alternative domains for cold emailing so we don’t damage the reputation of your main domain. And for each domain we want to create max 2-3 email accounts. From each email we’re going to be sending only 30-50 emails a day to not get stuck in spam.

Buy .com domains that are similar to your main domain, avoid special characters & numbers in your domain names.

Get your domains with Instantly’s DFY email setup. It handles everything from purchasing domains and setting up DNS records, to creating inboxes, all while being more cost-effective than doing it yourself.

If your business is called shrimp.com, then buy domains like:

getshrimp.com

tryshrimp.com

Tastyshrimpapp.com

Create 3 Email Accounts

Creating email accounts

DFY email setup by Instantly

After selecting the domain name and setting a forwarding domain, you can create email accounts in just a few clicks.
First, type in your desired account name and our system will generate the addresses. You can delete and retype names if needed. You can create up to three inboxes per domain. For example, selecting five domains will give you 15 inboxes.

Then, review the accounts, and once satisfied, click “Place Order” and complete the payment process. In 24-48 hours, your new accounts will be connected to Instantly, and warmup enabled!

Using other email providers

If you created a google workspace account go to https://workspace.google.com/ and click Get Started. Follow the on-screen instructions until your Google Workspace account is set up.

Then add all of your domains to the Google Workspace account.

You can safely create 2-3 emails (users) per domain (by adding users in your Google Workspace admin).

Here’s Google’s step by step guide on how to add users to Google Workspace:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/33310?hl=en

Setup SPF, DMARC & DKIM

If you are using DFY (Done-For-You) email setup by Instantly, you can skip this step.

If you’re setting up domains and email accounts manually, you need to create some DNS records.

Now before we talk about how you should set them up, let’s talk about what they are and why you need them.

What are MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records? 🤔

MX records: Put simply, MX records tell the internet where to deliver your emails. Without them, you won’t receive any emails. 🙁
SPF record: The SPF record tells the internet which domains are allowed to send an email on your behalf.
DKIM record: Think of DKIM as a signature that gets added to every email so that it’s easy to prove the origin of the email and prevent spoofing.
DMARC record: DMARC essentially tells the world that you want your email to be authenticated. This is how you let people know that the email was sent from a legitimate source.

👉 Put simply, you need all four of the above records for your email account to function well. As a matter of fact, email providers like Google (GSuite) may scrutinize your account if you don’t have those set up.

Do they impact deliverability? 🤔

Yes!

Well, without an MX record, you won’t even be able to receive replies.

As for the other 3, they totally do impact your account’s performance.

You can check your deliverability score (and if everything is set up correctly) by going to your sequence editor, clicking on ‘preview email’, then on ‘check deliverability score’.

Using GoDaddy as a domain name provider? Here are some specific guides:

Using Namecheap as a domain name provider? Here are some specific guides:

In general or if you’re using any other domain name providers you can use the resources below to set it up.

1) Set up MX records

Setting up the MX record is critical – you should refer to your email provider’s official guide for the latest information.

Google workspace: link
Office 365: link

2) Set up SPF

Google/GSuite SPF guide: link
Office 365 SPF guide: link

You can check if your SPF is set up properly using this tool, or your Instantly dashboard.

3) Set up DKIM

Again, assuming you are using Google Workspace you can follow this guide to set up DKIM.

Google/GSuite DKIM guide: link
Office 365 DKIM guide: link

PS: Make sure to use your service provider recommended DKIM Selector:

Google/Gsuite – “google”
Office 365 – “microsoft”
Other service providers – “default”

You can check if your DKIM is set up properly using this tool, or your Instantly dashboard.

4) Set up DMARC

Important: Configure DKIM and SPF before configuring DMARC. DKIM and SPF should be authenticating messages for at least 48 hours before turning on DMARC.

Assuming you are using Google Workspace you can follow this guide to set up DMARC.

You may also choose to use a third-party DMARC provider like that from Postmark [link].

You can check if your DMARC is set up properly using this tool, or your Instantly dashboard.

Optional: Set up Forwarding

Also, you want to forward the new domains to your main domain. This can be done in the settings of your domain provider. If you are using GoDaddy, you can follow this guide.

Domain Forwarding

You want to make sure that all of your sending domains are forwarded to your main domain. This is the easiest part of the technical setup process, you are almost done!

Forwarding, just like previous steps, is also set up in your domain provider’s settings. Here’s how you do it with GoDaddy and NameCheap.

If you are using DFY Instantly email accounts, you just need to enter your primary domain once when submitting your order, and it will be set for all domains you purchased.

Custom Tracking Domain

Just like SPF, DKIM and DMARC, your custom tracking domain can be set up with a simple DNS record entry in your domain provider’s settings.

Here’s how to set it up manually:

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 inst
Insert your custom tracking domain in Instantly, it will be formatted as inst.yourdomain.com

Here are guides on how to do it with the most popular domain providers:

1. Setting up custom tracking domain with GoDaddy

2. Setting up custom tracking domain with NameCheap

There is no need to create a Custom Tracking Domain in your DNS records if you purchased Instantly’s DFY sending accounts. You just need to update it in the account settings, as explained below.

For sending accounts with the same domain, you can go ahead and update Custom Tracking Domain settings in Instantly, by entering the same tracking domain that you’ve just created.

For instance, use inst.domain1.com for all sending accounts with domain1.com.

Check Technical Setup

Making sure that the technical setup has been done correctly

After connecting your sending accounts to Instantly, you can check if SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up correctly by clicking on the “Test Domain Setup” button.

If everything is done correctly, you will see a confirmation message pop up.

To check if your forwarding works, simply visit the webpage of your secondary domain and see if it automatically forwards you to your main business website.

Connect Email Accounts To Instantly

Connecting email accounts to Instantly

If you purchased your email accounts via DFY setup, you can skip this step as the accounts will be connected automatically.

If you purchased them from a different provider, you want to make sure that all of your email accounts are connected to Instantly.

Here’s the step by step guide:

Connecting Google Workspace email accounts to Instantly

Activate Email Warmup

To enable the warmup functionality go to your Email Accounts section and click on the flame icon on the right-hand side for each email account.

1. By clicking directly on the warmup enable/disable button

Warmup not yet enabled

When you click it, it will turn green which means that it is enabled.

The flame icon is green. Warmup is enabled.

2. Through Account Settings

How to change the warmup settings

You can change the warmup settings of each email account by clicking on the ‘Settings’ icon.

The warmup settings are already pre-filled with the recommended values. If you’d like to change them click in the field and change the number for Increase per day, Daily limit, and the Reply rate %. And don’t forget to click the blue ‘Save’ button once you’re done.

Below the ‘Increase per day’ field you also have the option to Disable slow warmup. This option we only recommend for older email accounts that are already warmed up. Don’t use this for new accounts. Newer accounts should be warmed up slowly and gradually (something Instantly automatically takes care of for you when you enable Warmup).

Cold Email Technical Setup Masterclass

Technical Setup 🛠

Buying domains and creating email accounts.