Cold Outbound Setup Protocol

Thinking back, I should have written this piece when I first learned about cold email protocols and how to set up your cold email tech stack. However, I, like most people who have a skill or who know how to do something, don’t realize that there are people out there who don’t know how to do what we know. Cold email and the setup protocols aren’t complex, and it doesn’t take a genius to understand them. However, they are still largely unknown for most business owners outside of the software as a service space. So, to save you many headaches by reading endless sponsored posts, I decided I would explain exactly from start to finish how to set up your cold email campaign to ensure the highest degree of success.

I have a mate who is building out the sales process for a new start-up, he asked me, “What are some tips you can give me on how to reach corporate clients?” I told him, “Create a cold outbound campaign consisting of calling, email, and LinkedIn outreach.” He responded with, “Lol, that didn’t help whatsoever.” See, the truth is that everyone is looking for a magic bullet; there is none. If you want to sell your product, you need to get in front of as many qualified buyers as possible, and today, I will be helping you set up the tools you need to get in front of these people.

The absolute required tech stack:

• Hubspot or Pipedrive - client relationship management tool (the heart and soul of the sales org).

• Apollo.io and LinkedIn Sales Navigator - prospecting and lead data tools.

• Smartlead - outreach platform and email warmer.

• CloudTalk or any other suitable VOIP - international calling.

• Octopus CRM - LinkedIn automation.

• Cloudflare, Godaddy, or Domain.com - domain host.

• MS 365 or Google Workspace - inbox licenses.

Estimated monthly budget (if no annual subscriptions)

Hubspot - $20 per month.

Apollo.io - $99 + $150 for extra mobile credits per month.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator - $98 per month roughly, depending on your region.

Smartlead - $99 per month.

CloudTalk - $39 per month.

Octopus CRM - $21.99 per month.

Domain averages - $5-15 for one year, no option for one month.

MS 365 - $6 per month for business basic.

Total: $766.99 per month + the once-off cost of the domains $100-300.

Expensive, you say? If this is expensive, you need to consider returning to work at a 9-5 until you have enough saved up where you can afford this. Or you better hope you can raise funds or that your network will be willing to buy your product so that you can afford the outbound costs.

Let’s get into the process of setting things up:

Step 1:

Go to domain.com, GoDaddy, or Cloudflare and purchase 10-20 domains, the more you have, the better. I always suggest 20. You want to ensure that the domains you purchase resemble your main domain. For example, mgmagency.net is my main domain; I also own mgmgrowth.net, growthmgm.io, salesmgm.com, etc. Once you have purchased the 20 domains, head over to Microsoft 365 and purchase 40 basic business licenses. You could buy 20 Microsoft 365 and 20 Google Workspace licenses. However, Google inboxes are far more likely to get flagged as spam than MS 365. After buying the licenses, create mailboxes for each and connect one domain to 2 licenses. The name for the inbox should be yours as the founder or whoever will be in charge of your outbound. Make sure they aren’t generic like sales@mgmagency.net. In the process of connecting your domains, you will get to the point where you have to add the DNS records. If you are using Cloudflare, this will be automatic, if you are using any other domain host, this will be done manually. MS 365 does a great job of explaining how to do it. Once this is complete, your domains will be set up, and now you can create the inboxes for them. The setup will be complete the moment you have logged in and changed the password.

Step 2:

The SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. This step should technically be part of step 1 because it’s part of the overall domain setup. However, it is such a crucial and often forgotten step that I thought to add it separately. Think of these records as your passport, which, without it, you wouldn’t be able to leave your country or enter any other country. These records are safe entry to other mailboxes and prove the legitimacy of your inbox and domains. MS 365 has a great guide to setting them up, including the exact record types and links. Don’t skip this step; it is very manual and will take a lot of time for 20 domains, but if you skip it, then you might as well cancel your domains now because it’s only a short matter of time before they will be flagged as spam and be disabled. Go on Upwork and pay someone $50 to do it for you if you don’t feel like the manual labor.

Step 3:

Open a Smartlead.ai account, and add your domains in the mailboxes or inboxes tab. In the configuration, make sure that you set the daily email send to no more than 30 but preferably 20. After this, enable warmup in the following tab; this will warm up the email inboxes. Another crucial step! If you thought the records would screw you over, if not set up, then this is a suicide note if you ignore the warming process. I have had a client tell me to ignore this step because their inboxes will never get flagged. Yup, you guessed it, barely a day into the campaign, most inboxes got restricted. What is inbox warming? Let’s say you are a police officer, what will catch your eye is unusual activity. A brand new inbox that sends a large volume of emails to strangers without receiving any emails in response is unusual, and email hosts pick this up and ban those inboxes. Therefore, these mailboxes need to be warmed. A warming software automatically sends and receives emails to the mailbox it is busy warming using internal mailbox IPs to allow for this. The warming period takes about 14 days, and you shouldn’t send any mail from the domains being warmed until the 14 days are over, with no exceptions. You can use your LinkedIn account and cold call to reach out to people during the 14 days. After the warming period, make sure to keep the warmer on so that the inbox activity still looks normal.

Mailbox and domain rules:

• Domains need to be warmed.

• The warming period is 14 days; don’t send any emails from the inbox during this period.

• No more than 30 emails per day per inbox.

• SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records need to be set up correctly.

• Maximum of 2 inboxes per domain.

• Mailboxes need to have a person’s name, not generic titles.

• Domains should resemble your main domain.

Step 3:

Create accounts on both Apollo and Hubspot. Once you have done this, go to the integrations tab on Smartlead and integrate Hubspot. Then, do the same on Apollo and integrate Hubspot. Once this is complete, make sure that sending to and syncing to Hubspot is on for both Apollo and Smartlead. You want to integrate everything and ensure the syncing is on because this will automatically allow everything that happens to be recorded in Hubspot. The moment you create a lead list, it gets sent to Hubspot, the moment an email is sent to a lead or an email is opened, Hubspot records that. If there are replies or meetings booked, Hubspot will have this tracked. See what I meant when I said Hubspot is the lifeblood of the sales organization? If you want to further enhance email tracking abilities, I’d suggest adding your inboxes to Hubspot as well and turning on inbox tracking and automation.

Step 4:

Sign up for a VOIP; you can choose any tool that suits your needs. However, I do suggest CloudTalk or any other VOIP that can natively integrate with Hubspot. You can find which ones integrate with Hubspot by going to the app marketplace. What does VOIP stand for? Voice over internet protocol. These VOIPs are used for international calling and are a crucial element in the outbound sphere, as they allow you to cold call any region you can think of.

Step 5:

Create an account with Octopus CRM and link your LinkedIn account to it. LinkedIn automation tools aren’t a necessity. However, they do enhance the outbound process, allowing the SDR or BDR to focus more on the work that can’t be automated. A general rule of thumb with LinkedIn is that it should never be treated like cold email or even cold calling. It is a different ball game. LinkedIn is very much social selling and relationship building. I often try to spark as much conversation plus sharing value to engage with a prospect long before I slip in my pitch. Remember this when starting out using LinkedIn or LinkedIn automation. Octopus CRM, like all the other tools, will need to be integrated with Hubspot in order so that the Hubspot platform can track LinkedIn messages.

In conclusion, setting up a cold email campaign may initially seem like a complex task, but with the right tools, proper protocols, and attention to detail, you can create a highly efficient and scalable system. From purchasing and configuring multiple domains to setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, every step is vital to ensuring your outreach remains credible and avoids spam filters. Tools like Hubspot, Apollo.io, and Smartlead streamline the process while integrating VOIP and LinkedIn automation enhances your ability to connect with prospects across multiple channels.

Remember, success in outbound isn’t about finding a magic bullet—it’s about consistency, preparation, and volume to get in front of the right people. By following the steps in this guide, you’ll not only set up a campaign that gets results but also build a robust system that can grow with your business. Outbound success starts with a strong foundation, and now you’re ready to take action and achieve it.

In my next post, I will discuss setting up an effective outbound campaign.

To be continued….