Cold email outreach can be the secret weapon that skyrockets your business from $0 to $1M ARR in just a few months. But let’s face it — most cold emails fall flat. Why? Poor targeting, uninspired messaging, and a lack of strategy.
Writing emails that strangers actually respond to — and doing it at scale — is no small feat. Personalizing outreach, driving sales, and building a pipeline worth millions sounds daunting, but here’s the truth: it’s not impossible.
This playbook will equip you with proven cold email outreach tactics, combined with the power of EngageBay, a tool designed to simplify, optimize, and rev up your outreach efforts.
Ready to turn cold leads into hot opportunities? Let’s get started.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Setting up your domain and email address
- Warming up your email address
- Preparing for a cold email campaign
- Crafting high-converting cold emails
- Sending and managing your campaign
- Automating follow-ups
- Measuring and optimizing performance
- Staying compliant and ethical
Section 1: Setting Up Your Domain and Email Address
Before sending your first cold email, getting the technical foundations right is crucial. Because your domain setup directly impacts email deliverability, reputation, and how likely your emails are to land in the inbox — not the dreaded spam folder.
1. Buying custom domains
While you can always use [email protected], it won’t help establish your brand’s credibility. Plus, free email providers like Gmail or Yahoo often flag bulk outreach emails as spam, which harms your email deliverability.
Buying a custom domain is simple and affordable. You can purchase one from popular registrars like GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Bluehost — hundreds of domain registrars exist. On average, domains cost between $10–20 per year, though prices can vary based on the registrar, registration period, the domain name chosen, and additional features.
If you plan to send cold emails at scale, buying multiple domains is a good idea to protect your main domain’s reputation and avoid being flagged as spam. However, these domains should be closely related to your business. For example, our main domain is engagebay.com, so similar domains will be: getengagebay.com or withengagebay.com.
Your recipients will see your domain in the sender’s email address, so choosing a domain that aligns with your brand and doesn’t raise suspicions is crucial. Once you’ve bought your domains, set up a 301 redirect to your primary domain.
This will help streamline your outreach and ensure you build the right digital presence.
While choosing a reputable domain registrar, ensure they have admin settings. It’s essential to manage your domain, update contact info, set DNS records, and configure security features.
2. Setting up a professional email address
The next step is setting up your email inboxes — a critical move for optimizing deliverability and ensuring your cold emails reach the recipient’s inbox. You have several trusted options for setting up professional email inboxes:
- Google: Set up Gmail accounts with Google Workspace, starting at $6 per month when billed annually.
- Microsoft: Set up Outlook accounts with Microsoft 365, available for $6.99/month or $69.99/year.
- Other trusted ESPs: Options include Zoho Mail, ProtonMail, Maildoso, and more.
The most important factor when choosing an ESP is trustworthiness. Private IPs from lesser-known ESPs are often flagged as spam and may even be blocked by companies like Google.
As a result, sending mass cold outbound emails through a trusted ESP network is crucial to ensure your emails land in the inbox — not the spam folder.
How to set up your inbox
Setting up a professional inbox is easy — follow the ESP’s clear guides and instructions.
For example, you can follow Google Workspace’s setup guide for step-by-step instructions on configuring a Gmail inbox for your domain. Taking the time to configure your inbox properly will set the stage for a successful cold email campaign.
3. Email authentication for better deliverability
Before optimizing inboxes and emails for deliverability, many people make the mistake of skipping domain optimization.
Deliverability ensures your email lands in the recipient’s inbox — not the dreaded spam folder. Optimizing deliverability at the domain level means strengthening your authentication to ensure email servers trust your domain.
Here’s a breakdown of the key protocols:
What is SPF?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email authentication method that prevents unauthorized servers from sending emails on behalf of your domain. It acts as a “permission list,” letting email servers know which mail servers are authorized to send emails from your domain.
Without SPF, your emails are more likely to be flagged as spam, and your domain is vulnerable to spoofing and phishing attacks.
To set up your SPF, follow these steps:
Step 1: Locate DNS Settings
You need to go to the DNS (Domain Name System) settings. You will find this wherever you purchased your domain from.
Step 2: Create an SPF TXT Record
Add a TXT record with the following details:
- Name/Host: enter @ (or leave it blank, depending on your registrar).
- Type: TXT
- Value: enter your SPF record
A basic SPF record looks like this: v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
Now, replace _spf.google.com with the appropriate mail server for your provider, e.g., Microsoft 365, Zoho Mail, etc.
Step 3: Save and test your SPF Record
Save the changes, and use tools like MxToolbox or SPF Record Checker to verify that your SPF record is active and configured correctly.
Note: If you use multiple email providers, ensure they are all added to your SPF record.
What is DKIM?
DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail. It’s an email authentication method that confirms your emails haven’t been altered during transit.
It helps protect your domain from being spoofed by spammers and ensures your emails land in your recipient’s inbox.
Setting up DKIM is fairly simple:
Step 1: Log in to your email provider and generate DKIM Keys
Most email providers let you generate a DKIM public-private key pair. For instance, Google Workspace generates keys in its Admin Console under Gmail settings. Zoho Mail provides DKIM keys under Email Authentication settings.
The private key stays with your email provider to sign outgoing emails, and the public key is added to your domain’s DNS as a TXT record.
Step 2: Add a DKIM Record to your DNS settings
Log in to your domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains) and add a TXT record with the following details:
- Host/Name: It typically looks something like google._domainkey or selector1._domainkey
- Value/Content: This will hold the public key provided by your email service.
Step 3: Activate DKIM
Go back to your email provider’s admin panel and enable DKIM.
The provider will verify the DNS records and activate the feature. Once you’ve set up DKIM for your domain, you can verify its status using free tools like MxToolbox DKIM Lookup and DKIM Validator.
What is DMARC?
DMARC stands for Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance. It is an email authentication protocol designed to protect your domain from being used in phishing or spoofing attacks.
It works by building on two other protocols — SPF and DKIM — to ensure that unauthorized senders cannot impersonate your domain.
Here’s how to do it:
Step 1: Generate a DMARC Record
Use a tool like DMARCian or MxToolbox DMARC Generator to create your DMARC TXT record.
Step 2: Add the DMARC TXT Record to your DNS
- Host/Name: _dmarc
- Value: Paste the DMARC record generated in step 2.
- TTL: Set it to 1 hour or use the default value.
Step 3: Test and verify the setup
Use tools like MxToolbox or DMARC Analyzer to verify that your DMARC record is correctly configured.
Step 4: Monitor reports
Check the reports sent to your specified email address to track any unauthorized use of your domain and refine your DMARC policy over time.
Section 2: Warming Up Your Email Address
Once your inbox is set up, it’s tempting to jump straight into sending cold emails at scale.
However, this critical mistake could sabotage your entire outreach strategy. Sending hundreds of cold emails right away raises immediate red flags with email service providers (ESPs).
Why?
ESPs assume that humans don’t send such large volumes daily, and the typically lower engagement rates (like opens or clicks) further signal that your activity might be spam.
What is email warmup?
Email warmup refers to the practice of gradually increasing the number of emails sent from a new or inactive email account with the goal of improving email deliverability and reputation with email service providers.
Here’s how you warm up your email:
1. Start slow and steady
To build trust with ESPs, you need to start small:
- Send 5–10 emails per day initially.
- Gradually increase the volume by 10–15 emails daily until you reach your desired sending rate.
This slow ramp-up helps establish your reputation as a legitimate sender.
2. Focus on engagement
During the warm-up phase, ensuring that your emails are opened, replied to, or otherwise engaged with is crucial. This signals to ESPs that your emails are relevant and valuable.
Here’s where email warm-up tools come into play.
3. Use a good warm-up tool
Warm-up tools like Lemwarm, Mailwarm, and Warmbox simulate real engagement by managing thousands of email accounts that interact with your inbox. They send emails from your account and manufacture engagement to mimic human-like behavior.
Key features to look for in warm-up tools:
- Warming frequency: A quality tool adjusts the frequency of emails to align with your cold outreach schedule, maintaining consistent engagement rates.
- Relevant copy: Instead of sending generic templates, the email copy should resemble the tone and topics of your actual cold campaigns to avoid suspicion from ESPs.
4. Track your progress
Monitor your email reputation and deliverability throughout the warm-up process using these tools:
- Google Postmaster Tools: Tracks domain reputation, especially for Gmail users.
- MxToolbox: Provides insights into blacklist status and domain health.
Section 3: Preparing for a Cold Email Campaign
The first step is to create a detailed buyer persona and then identify people who fit that persona across different companies. These are the people you want to email.
Ask yourself, “Who is currently feeling the pain my product or service is designed to solve?”
But before you proceed, always confirm they’re experiencing the pain you think they are rather than just assuming. The goal is to identify prospects who are actually struggling with the problem your product solves. Focusing on people who might find your product useful is less effective than targeting those who genuinely need it.
This approach ensures you build a highly targeted list for your cold email campaign.
1. How to find the correct email addresses of your prospects
Once you’ve identified your ideal prospects, finding their email addresses becomes much easier. Various lead generation tools can help you build and verify your email list.
Recommended lead generation tools
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: It helps you find and connect with decision-makers on LinkedIn.
- Starting price: $79.99/month.
- Hunter.io: It allows you to find professional email addresses associated with a specific domain.
- Starting price: Free for up to 25 searches/month; $34/month for the Starter plan.
- Apollo.io: It provides verified email addresses and allows you to enrich your prospect lists with detailed insights.
- Starting price: Free for limited features; $49/month for the Basic plan.
These tools help you discover prospects and verify emails, which is an essential step.
2. The importance of verifying email addresses
Before launching your cold email campaign, verify every email address on your list. Why? Sending emails to invalid addresses can lead to high bounce rates, which is a red flag for ESPs.
A high bounce rate can damage your sender’s reputation, making it harder to land in inboxes.
3. Organize your leads with EngageBay
Once you’ve gathered and verified your email list, the next step is to organize your leads for seamless outreach. EngageBay makes this process simple and efficient.
It lets you import contacts via a CSV file or directly integrate your lead generation tools with EngageBay. This saves time and ensures your lead data stays accurate and up-to-date. You can watch the video here to learn how to import contacts on EngageBay in three simple steps.
At the same time, you might target different segments of people, such as decision-makers, marketers, managers, etc., across various industries.
A cold outbound campaign doesn’t mean sending the same email to everyone! Instead, you need to build a targeted list using different tags and filters and categorize prospects based on their persona, pain points, and the solution you’re offering.
To achieve this, EngageBay’s CRM platform allows you to easily categorize your leads with tags like “High Priority” or “Follow-Up Needed” to organize your outreach. You can also divide your leads into targeted lists based on factors like job title, company size, or location.
You can even customize these filters to suit your campaign’s specific needs. Watch the video here to learn how — it’s pretty simple!
EngageBay helps streamline your lead management process, keeping you organized and focused on sending personalized cold emails to the right audience.
Section 4: Crafting High-Converting Cold Emails
There are plenty of online courses that promise to teach you how to write the perfect cold email.
So why should you read this guide? I’m sharing strategies that have worked for our customers — tested and proven.
Of course, you’ll still need to experiment and find what resonates best with your audience, but the foundation remains the same, and that’s exactly what I’m sharing with you.
1. The first rule of cold emails
The first rule of writing an effective cold email is clarity. Be absolutely clear about what you’re selling and why. Your prospects should immediately understand how your product or service will improve their life or business. This clarity sets the foundation for not just your first email but your entire sequence.
An effective email sequence typically revolves around four key characteristics.
– Acknowledge their problem: Let them know you understand the challenges they face and how they impact their business growth or daily operations. For example, highlight how missed opportunities or inefficiencies cost them time or money.
– Make a compelling claim: Tell them exactly what you offer and how it can solve their problem. Be specific, clear, and confident — show that your solution is tailored to address their needs directly. Without a strong claim, your email will lack the impact needed to grab their attention.
– Show them evidence: Claims without proof hold no weight. Use case studies or concrete data to demonstrate the success your solution has brought to others with similar problems. Show them why they should trust you over the hundreds of others making the same promise.
– Focus on the result: Many companies recognize their issues but fail to see the potential impact of solving them. Paint a vivid picture of the transformation they can expect — whether it’s increased efficiency, higher revenue, or saved time. Show them why taking action is worth their investment.
2. Key elements for writing cold emails
Once you have this foundation, you can refine your email with a few critical elements.
– Set your campaign goal: Why are you sending this campaign? Define your objective clearly: Are you aiming to create brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sign-ups for a demo? Knowing your objective will shape your messaging and call-to-action.
– Set the style and tone of the email: Your email needs structure and a tone that resonates with your audience. While structure ensures clarity — think of a strong hook, a concise body, and a compelling CTA, the tone will depend on your audience.
For example, a friendly, approachable tone might work best if you’re addressing a casual B2C or eCommerce brand. On the other hand, when targeting decision-makers in the B2B space, a slightly formal tone can be more effective. You need to strike a balance between professional and conversational, ensuring your email feels relatable without being too informal.
3. Leverage EngageBay’s email creation tools
EngageBay’s versatile and user-friendly tools take the hassle out of email creation.
Its 1,000+ customizable email templates with placeholders for dynamic personalization allow you to insert recipient-specific details like their name, company, or even recent interactions with your brand. This level of personalization makes your emails feel tailored and engaging, which can significantly improve open and response rates.
Besides, its intuitive drag-and-drop editor enables you to create visually appealing emails without design expertise. With this tool, you can easily arrange elements like images, text blocks, buttons, and dividers to craft a professional-looking email.
Whether promoting a product or sending a personalized follow-up in your cold email outreach, you can create layouts that suit your campaign’s goal.
The editor also lets you preview your email in different formats — desktop, tablet, or mobile — ensuring it looks great across all devices.
4. Additional tips for crafting effective cold emails
– Personalization: Remember that personalizing your email is more than just adding the recipient’s first name. Reference something specific to them, like their company’s recent achievements or challenges, to tailor the email.
– Subject line: Your subject line also plays a crucial role. It should be powerful, personalized, and relevant to your content. Avoid clickbait — it might temporarily increase open rates but will disappoint recipients if the content doesn’t deliver.
– Email length: The ideal length for a cold email is no more than 300 words, and follow-ups should be even shorter — around 200 words. Keeping it brief and to the point shows that you respect your recipient’s time while maintaining their attention.
Section 5: Sending and Managing Your Campaign
The next step is to set up your cold email outreach campaign on EngageBay for maximum impact. EngageBay simplifies this process with its intuitive interface and robust features.
Here’s how to do it:
- Step 1: Log into your EngageBay account, and go to the Marketing Dashboard.
- Step 2: Select Campaigns and choose the type of campaign you want to run — send a broadcast email, build email sequences, or set up a triggered email campaign.
- Step 3: Customize the campaign settings as per the on-screen instructions. Add your email list and design your email using EngageBay’s drag-and-drop editor or pre-made templates.
For more detailed steps, click here.
1. Scheduling your emails
When configuring your campaign, take advantage of EngageBay’s scheduling feature to ensure your emails reach recipients when they’re most likely to engage.
After composing your email, choose the Schedule Later option. You’ll be prompted to enter the desired date and time for sending. Once you’ve completed this step, click the Schedule button to finalize.
2. Testing your emails
Craft different email variants to test messaging, tone, and structure at each stage of your campaign.
Start by A/B testing elements such as subject lines, CTAs, and content variations to determine what resonates best with your audience. For instance, try a question-based subject line instead of a direct one, or experiment with different placements for your CTAs.
Use tools like GlockApps ($59/month) or Mail Tester (Free) to prevent your emails from landing in spam folders.
These tools assess your email’s spam score and provide actionable feedback, such as identifying spam-triggering words, missing DKIM records, or an unbalanced image-to-text ratio. Apply the recommended changes to improve deliverability.
3. Scaling up gradually
When scaling your campaigns, resist the urge to email your entire list at once.
Start with smaller, targeted segments to properly warm up your email address.
Monitor key engagement metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates. Use these insights to refine your email content and targeting strategy. Gradual scaling safeguards your sender reputation and ensures your message resonates with your growing audience.
Section 6: Automating Follow-Ups
If you think one email is enough to close a deal, think again.
Statistics show that most responses come after the second or third follow-up. People often miss the first email, don’t have time to respond, or need more convincing. A well-timed follow-up ensures your message isn’t forgotten, but overloading the recipient with irrelevant or repetitive emails can harm your reputation.
Effective follow-ups are concise and tailored to the recipient’s needs or behaviors.
For example, reference a previous email, provide additional value like a case study, or highlight a special offer to rekindle their interest. Each follow-up should add something new while maintaining a professional tone and respecting the recipient’s time.
1. Using EngageBay’s automation features
EngageBay simplifies follow-up management with robust automation tools, ensuring no lead falls through the cracks.
Create automated workflows for follow-ups
Start by creating a workflow that triggers follow-up emails based on predefined conditions.
For instance, if a recipient hasn’t opened your email within three days, EngageBay can automatically send a polite reminder. These workflows eliminate manual tracking and ensure consistent engagement with your audience.
Adjust timing based on recipient behavior
One of EngageBay’s standout features is its ability to personalize follow-up timing. For instance:
- If a recipient opens your email but doesn’t reply, schedule a follow-up to acknowledge their interest and invite them to take the next step.
- If someone clicks on a link but doesn’t respond, use the follow-up to provide additional details or incentives related to that link.
- For unopened emails, consider tweaking the subject line or content and resending after a few days.
With EngageBay, you can set up dynamic rules that adapt your follow-up strategy to each recipient’s actions, ensuring your emails are timely and relevant.
2. Tips to write effective follow-ups
- Be brief: Don’t overwhelm the recipient with lengthy emails. Aim for a maximum of 2-3 sentences per follow-up.
- Add value: Offer something new, such as a resource, a discount, or unique insight.
- Maintain professionalism: While follow-ups can be less formal than the initial email, always maintain a polite and respectful tone.
Section 7: Measuring and Optimizing Performance
Your email marketing tool should provide in-depth insights into your campaigns’ performance, enabling you to refine and optimize as you go.
Tracking primary metrics like open rate, click-through rate (CTR), and reply rate at both individual and sequence stages is crucial for understanding what’s working and where improvements are needed.
EngageBay simplifies this process with its robust suite of tools and analytics that help you track your progress and refine your strategies for maximum effectiveness. It enables you to track essential metrics, such as:
- Open rate: Gauge how effective your subject lines and sender name are.
- Reply rate: Understand the relevance and appeal of your email content.
- Bounce rate: Identify deliverability issues affecting your sender’s reputation.
- Click-through rate (CTR): Evaluate how engaging your CTAs and email content are.
Use this data to pinpoint which emails in your sequence are performing well and which need adjustments.
Optimize your emails
– Refine subject lines: Use A/B testing to experiment with subject lines, and analyze the open rate data to identify trends. Short, curiosity-driven, or personalized subject lines perform well.
– Identify high-performing segments: Analyze your audience data to find segments with the highest engagement rates. Study what worked for these segments — such as tone, timing, or offers—and replicate those strategies for other groups. For example, if younger professionals respond better to casual tones and early morning emails, replicate these strategies for similar demographics.
– Adjust timing and frequency: Determine the best times and days for sending emails to your audience. Track engagement patterns and optimize your timing to align with when recipients are most active. For instance, if your data shows higher engagement on Wednesdays at noon, prioritize this time slot for future campaigns.
Section 8: Staying Compliant and Ethical
Compliance with relevant regulations is essential when sending cold email campaigns.
This is to meet legal requirements and maintain a good reputation. Adhering to ethical practices ensures your emails are well-received and reduces the likelihood of penalties or deliverability issues.
Before launching your email campaigns, familiarize yourself with the major regulations that govern email marketing practices worldwide.
Here’s an overview of key laws:
– GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): Applicable to the European Union, GDPR mandates that businesses obtain explicit consent before sending marketing emails to individuals. It also requires clear data collection policies, and recipients must have an easy way to opt out.
– CAN-SPAM Act: This U.S. regulation requires marketers to include accurate sender information, avoid misleading subject lines, and provide a clear way for recipients to unsubscribe. It also mandates that commercial emails be identified as advertisements.
– CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation): Similar to GDPR, CASL emphasizes obtaining consent before sending emails and providing transparency about who contacts recipients and why.
– Other regional regulations: Countries like Australia (Spam Act) and Brazil (LGPD) have email marketing laws that businesses must comply with when targeting those markets.
EngageBay’s compliance features
EngageBay simplifies compliance by offering built-in tools to help you adhere to email marketing regulations seamlessly.
Every email sent through EngageBay automatically includes an unsubscribe link. This ensures recipients can easily opt out of future communications, keeping you compliant with regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.
It also allows you to suppress certain contacts from your campaigns.
This is particularly useful for ensuring that individuals who have opted out or whose data cannot be used due to GDPR or CASL regulations are excluded from your lists.
And, if you’re collecting email addresses via forms or landing pages, EngageBay enables you to configure explicit consent checkboxes to meet GDPR and CASL requirements. You can store proof of consent and retrieve it if ever required.
Wrapping Up
Now, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and launch your outbound email campaign!
This playbook has armed you with the knowledge to craft compelling emails, set up campaigns in EngageBay, measure performance, and stay compliant. But the magic happens when you get on the field and start experimenting.
While this guide provides a solid foundation, every audience is unique. You’ll only discover what works by testing, tweaking, and learning from the results. From refining your subject lines to perfecting your email timing, the key is to stay agile and data-driven.
