How To Setup A Cold Email Infrastructure That Books 30 Calls Per Month From Steps 1-100
Why you should read this document
Cold email is the most basic form of outreach - everyone has an email.
Just like in sports, the best players master the basics before they do the advanced stuff.
In online business, the basics is cold outreach and the advanced stuff is paid ads and inbound leads.
Think about it.
If a good basketball player can dunk, which is an advanced move, he has most likely mastered the basics of passing, shooting, and defending.
So even if you're spending millions of dollars in ads, there is no reason why you should not be running a cold email system.
What is Cold Email?
At its core, cold email is the practice of sending emails to prospects without prior interaction or consent.
These prospects have not subscribed to your email list or expressed direct interest in your services or products.
The challenge and art of cold email lies in initiating a conversation and building a relationship from a cold start.
Why is Cold Email Effective?
1. Direct and Personalized Communication:
Cold email allows for a direct line of communication with your target audience.
Personalizing your message to address the prospect's specific needs or interests significantly increases the likelihood of engagement.
2. Cost-Effective Lead Generation:
Compared to traditional advertising or outbound marketing strategies, cold email is remarkably cost-effective.
It requires minimal investment while offering the potential for substantial returns in the form of new leads and customers.
3. Measurable and Scalable:
The impact of cold email campaigns can be directly measured through open rates, response rates, and conversion rates.
This allows for continuous optimization and scaling, making it easier to adjust your strategy based on what works best.
4. Speed and Efficiency:
Cold email campaigns can be launched quickly and reach a large number of potential leads in a short period.
This speed enables rapid testing of different approaches and messages to find the most effective way to connect with your audience.
What a cold email infrastructure can do for your business
Cold email is not free unless you want to send 10 emails per day all manually.
Time is money.
To do cold email properly at scale, there are some monthly tech costs.
Tech costs depending how many emails you want to send:
- Domains $10 each
- Email accounts: $8 each
- Lead list $179 for every 5000 prospects
- Sending tool $97/month
Which pill are you gonna take?
If you can't afford a couple hundred dollars per month to run a profitable cold email system that generates sales calls and clients, you should probably stick to cold dms or cold calls.
What is at risk by not taking action?
Unless you are booking 100+ sales calls per month using cold email, you should read this document.
This is important because you are potentially losing out on multiple clients every month leading to money in your bank account.
Even if you are booking 100+ sales calls through other methods, cold email is the only outreach method that directly reaches the decision makers of the business every time.
You don't want your competitors to steal your ideal clients from you, just because you were lazy and couldn't be bothered to set up and manage a cold email system.
Matteo Banzon
Matteo is a co-founder of Conquered Leads. He ran a lead generation company for real estate agents which he's gotten 95% of his clients through cold email and was consistently booking 25-35 calls per month. Now he does this for 10+ marketing agency owners.
Social media profiles
Matteo's Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatteoBanzon
Matteo's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matteo_banzon/
Matteo's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteobanzon/
Matteo's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MatteoBanzon
Matteo's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matteobanzonconqueredleads
Matteo's Newsletter: https://theleadgenletter.com/
Matteo's Best YouTube Videos
How To Build A Cold Email List in 11 Minutes: https://youtu.be/aZX0bL1i_9c?si=GV9bhSru0Hfc2n5a
How To Set Up Your Cold Email Domains: https://youtu.be/VzblrzH6cxs?si=NRqTIR21nrKdC-rB
How To Create A Cold Email Offer: https://youtu.be/F0ADu5SIat4?si=7085DfPtwpdP0NHt
Why purchase separate domains?
This ensures your regular business communication remains unaffected.
If you buy one domain, and it gets "burned" due to marked as "spam", that's your whole outreach system down the drain.
Cold email is a numbers game.
Since you're limited to 40-50 emails per day per domain before it gets flagged, use this calculator to decide how many domains you should buy.
Using separate domains for cold emailing protects your primary domain from potential blacklisting by email service providers (ESPs) due to the higher volume and risk associated with cold outreach.
Purchasing domain names
Select domain names that are closely related to your main domain by adding prefixes and suffixes.
For instance, if your main domain is example.com, you could choose variations like examplemail.com or getexample.com
This helps in keeping your cold emails recognizable to your audience.
Best Practices:
- Use only .com domains
- Do not use numbers or symbols
- Include your main domain
ChatGPT prompt to never run out of domain names:
Create a list of {{number of domains you want}} different variations of the following website domain, but only use ".com" domains. Only add prefixes before the domain. Do not use numbers or symbols. Do not use the same domain twice. {{domain}}
Where to buy domains?
This really doesn't matter so don't overthink this part.
Some like GoDaddy or SquareSpace, but we prefer Porkbun
porkbun.com
porkbun.com | An oddly satisfying experience.
Porkbun is an amazingly awesome ICANN accredited domain name registrar based out of the Pacific Northwest. We're different, we're easy, and we're affordable. Use us, you won't be sorry. If you don't use us we'll be sad, but we'll still love you.
Why Porkbun?
- It looks cleaner
- It is so easy and simple to use
- DNS records update instantly in real time
- It is cheaper than most
DO NOT USE NAMECHEAP AS THEY HAVE BLACKLISTED DOMAINS
Setting Up Email Accounts
For each domain, create specific email addresses that will be used exclusively for cold email.
Buy 2 email accounts per domain.
Best Practices:
- Your 2 usernames should be the exact same for each of your domains.
- Use your first name as one of the usernames, and a nickname for your second username
- Try not to use your first + last name (we want to avoid long usernames)
- Avoid using any numbers or symbols
For example:
My usernames are "Matteo", and "Matt"
Email Service Provider:
Until October 2023, we were using gmail because it was the most relevant, and easy to use.
Until they released a spam update and have more issues than ever.
For that reason we will be using Microsoft Outlook Workspace for our ESP:
- Create a Microsoft Admin account
- Buy a Business Basic account
- Enter details and pay
- Add domains to your admin account
- Go to Users → Active users → Add multiple users
- Type in the 2 usernames for each of your connected domains and buy the users.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF records help in verifying that the emails sent from your domain are authorized by you.
This is a DNS text entry that specifies which mail servers are permitted to send email on behalf of your domain.
Steps to set up SPF:
- Go to Porkbun
- Account → Domain Management
- Select All Domains → Bulk Manage
- Bulk Management options → DNS records
- Add a new record:
Record Type: TXT
Host: (Leave Blank)
Answer: v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
DKIM adds a digital signature to every email sent from your domain.
This signature is verified against a public cryptographic key in your DNS records, ensuring the email hasn't been tampered with in transit.
You will have to update these 1 by 1.
It is boring and tedious, but necessary for optimal deliverability.
Steps to set up DKIM:
- Click on your domain → Click DKIM keys
- Go to Porkbun
- Account → Domain Management
- Select Domain → Manage DNS Records
- Add a new record:
Record Type - CNAME
Host - selector1_domainkey
Answer selector2-{{domain}}-com_domainkey_{{microsoft_admin}}.onmicrosoft.com
TTL - 3600 (default)
7. Add a second new record
Record Type - CNAME
Host - selector1_domainkey
Answer selector1-{{domain}}-com_domainkey_{{microsoft_admin}}.onmicrosoft.com
TTL - 3600 (default)
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)
DMARC uses SPF and DKIM to provide instructions to the receiving mail server on what to do if neither of those authentication methods passes.
It also reports back to the sender about messages that pass and/or fail DMARC evaluation.
Steps to set up DMARC:
- Go to Porkbun
- Account → Domain Management
- Select All Domains → Bulk Manage
- Bulk Management options → DNS records
- Add a new record using your Microsoft Admin Account username:
Record Type: TXT
Host: _dmarc
Answer: v=DMARC1; p=none; pct=100; rua=mailto:username@{{microsoftadmin}}.onmicrosoft.com; ruf=mailto:username@{{microsoft_admin}}.onmicrosoft.com; fo=1"
TTL - 3600 (default)
Implementing these DNS records
Most email service providers offer detailed guides on how to set up these records.
Follow these guides closely to ensure correct implementation.
After setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, use online tools like Inboxy to verify that they are correctly implemented.
This can help you catch and rectify any issues before you start your cold email campaigns.
Keep an eye on the performance and deliverability of your emails.
Adjustments to your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings might be necessary over time due to changes in email policies or your own email strategies.
URL Forwarding
When someone sees your cold email, the first thing they will look at is the domain that sent the email.
For example: If a prospect sees that I emailed them from matteo@tryconqueredleadscom, they will copy and paste tryconqueredleads.com into their search browser.
If nothing comes up, they will mark as spam and move on.
That is why it is crucial to have URL forwarding.
Steps to set up URL forwarding on Porkbun
- Select all domains
- Click Bulk Actions → Bulk Manage → URL Forwarding
- Leave "Hostname" Blank
- Type your main website in "Forward Traffic To:"
Add a profile picture to your outlook accounts
From my experience, adding a profile picture makes a noticeable improvement when it comes to cold email.
Since we're using outlook, you're profile picture will only show to those using Outlook which is around 35-45% of prospects.
If they are using any other email service provider like google or yahoo, the profile picture won't show.
Having this profile picture could be the icing on a cake for a prospect to categorise your cold email as not a spam, so I always recommend it.
Steps for adding a profile picture
- Login to microsoft workspace admin panel
- Go to Users → Active users
- Select email account
- Change photo
- Upload your profile picture
Identifying Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
1. Understanding Your Audience:
Begin by analyzing your existing customer base to identify common characteristics and pain points.
Look for patterns in location, industry, company size, job title, number of employees, keywords, and technologies used.
2. Creating ICP Segments:
Segment your ICP based on specific attributes or challenges.
This allows for more personalized and targeted email campaigns, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of your messages.
3. Research and Validation:
Use tools like LinkedIn, industry reports, and your own network to validate your ICP assumptions.
The more you understand your ICP, the better you can tailor your messaging to meet their needs.
Verifying Tool (MillionVerifier)
Millionverifier is where you verify the emails you've scraped.
You can verify thousands of emails for a very cheap price.
You'll get a report of:
- Good emails (valid, existing emails, ok to use)
- Bad emails (don't exist, don't use)
- Risky emails (may not exist)
- Catch all (email server is set to accept all email but sometimes bounces)
- Unknown (can't tell if emails exists)
Verify Catch-Alls
A catch-all email account is an address that is specified to receive all messages that are addressed to an incorrect email address for a domain.
This means it can still bounce.
To increase our lead list with valid emails, we would need to verify these catch-alls.
There are 2 ways to do this.
- Google people chips - finds people with valid google email accounts via google sheets
- Scrubby.io or Listmint.io - sends emails to those catch-alls to check whether they bounce or not
Use Listkit.io if you can't be bothered verifying emails from Apollo.
Listkit serves the same function as Apollo except it triple verifies all the leads with a click of a button.
You don't have to spend the time to validate your emails on MllionVerifier, and you don't have to validate your catch-alls on Scrubby or Listmint.
You can export a list of verified emails in just minutes.
On top of this, they recently added phone numbers to their database which is very convenient when you want to warm call leads.
Listkit is more expensive than Apollo, but you pay for what you get.
Subject Line
Your subject line is the first impression.
Make it intriguing, clear, and relevant to the prospect. Avoid spammy words that trigger email filters.
Personalization, such as including the prospect's name or company, can increase open rates.
Here are some subject lines to test.
- Quick question for {{first_name}}
- {{first_name}} - question?
- {{first_name}}, your thoughts?
- {{first_name}}?
- Question for {{first_name}}
- {{first_name}}, thoughts?
- {{first_name}}, {{location}} connection?
- {{first_name}} - {{location}} area link?
Opening Line
Start your email with a statement that grabs attention and relates directly to the person or business
Personalization plays a key role here as well; showing that you've done your homework can make a big difference.
For example:
- This is a cold email that can help {{company_name}} get {{result}}
- I'm gonna cut the BS and get straight to the point
- This is a cold email trying to sell you something that would help your {{industry}} business
- Noticed you're the {{job_title}} of {{company_name}} and wanted to reach out
- Came across {{company_name}}'s website doing research and thought I'd send you an email
Value Proposition
Clearly articulate how your product or service can solve the prospect's problem or improve their situation.
Be concise and focus on benefits rather than features.
You can use offers, pain points, or both for your value proposition.
Offer
Your offer should include:
- Who you help
- Result you can get them
- Timeframe you can get that result
- Unique mechanism
- Risk reversal
Here is a good starting template for an offer:
We help {{niche}} get {{result}} in {{timeframe}} using {{unique mechanism}} with {{risk reversal}}
Mine is:
We help marketing agencies get 5-10 sales calls per month using our Lead Conquer System on a pay-after-show basis
Use Alex Hormozi's value equation to help this.
Example pain point:
"Saw your ad on the Facebook Ad Library & noticed you're overpaying for shared leads."
This would trigger the prospect's realisation that they are completely screwed and they must make a change now if they want to stop overpaying for shared leads.
Social Proof
Include a brief example or case study that demonstrates how you've helped similar companies or individuals.
This builds credibility and trust.
Here is an example:
We recently helped acqusition.com, a company just like yours, generate 20 sales calls last month which resulted in 5 new clients and $100k in revenue.
Best practices for including case studies in your email scripts
- Make it short and straight to the point
- Actually name the company you helped
- Have a tangible money result (not sales calls, leads, or pipeline value)
- Have a timeframe
- Make sure they are relevant to your prospect
Call To Action (CTA)
End your email with a clear, compelling CTA.
Whether it's scheduling a call, signing up for a demo, or simply replying to the email, make sure it's easy for the recipient to take the next step.
You should always A/B/C/D/ test these CTA's to find out which one you get the best results with.
Free work will always get the most positive replies, but you are trading your time and effort.
Pitching a call at the end of your cold emails will get the least positive replies, however that is the end goal.
Types of CTAs to use
- Book a call
- Send more info (landing page, vsl, case studies, sales assets, generic loom, lead magnets, etc)
- Personalised video
- Free work
As you go from 1-4, you should realise theres less sales resistance.
Choosing the right tool (Smartlead.Ai)
Efficient management and execution of cold email campaigns hinge on leveraging the right set of tools.
From automating email sequences to tracking campaign performance and improving deliverability, the technology you choose can significantly impact the success of your outreach efforts.
The best tool that we've found to use is Smartlead
Smartlead features:
- Automated email sequences
- A/B testing
- Unlimited mailboxes
- Unlimited campaigns
- Unlimited warmups
- Auto-mailbox rotation
- Master inbox
- Automated subsequences
- Multi-channel Outreach
- Advanced integrations
Setting Up Email Accounts in Smartlead
Connecting Email Accounts to Smartlead
We need to connect our email accounts to Smartlead through outlook authentication (do not use SMTP)
This is boring tedious work, but must be done - you can easily outsource to a VA.
I am not including a tutorial on how to connect email accounts because Smartlead make it so easy to do so.
It should look something like this:
Email account settings in Smartlead
We can select all email accounts and bulk update so we don't have to configure the settings of each email account 1 by 1.
We need to send a maximum number of emails per day with a minimum time gap between these emails to make it look like a real person.
On top of this, we will need a signature that identifies who we are but at the same time maximises our deliverability.
Steps for email account settings
- Select all email accounts → Bulk update → General
- Messages per day (Warmups not included) → 20
- Minimum time gap (min) → 7
Signature Template
"—
{{your_first_name}} {{your_last_name}}
{{your_job_title}} | {{your_company_name}}"
Custom domain tracking:
Turn this on, it is very important as it boosts deliverability by over 20%.
You will need to add a CNAME DNS record.
Record Type - CNAME
Host - emailtracking
Answer open.sleadtrack.com
TTL - 3600 (default)
On Smartlead, you would type "emailtracking.{{domain}}"
HERE is Smartlead's guide on custom domain tracking.
Warming Up Your Domains
Domain warming involves sending emails from a new domain at a low volume initially and gradually increasing the number over time.
This process helps Email Service Providers (ESPs) recognize your domain as a legitimate sender rather than a source of spam.
It's similar to building a credit score; you start small, prove your reliability, and gradually earn the trust to handle more significant volumes.
Spintax
Why use Spintax?
The goal is to improve your deliverability and avoid spam pockets.
The goal is to improve your deliverability and avoid spam pockets.
Sending “different” versions of the same text, prompts email service providers into thinking you’re sending a different email to different people vs the same email to 1000 people, in effect not treating it as a “mass” cold email.
The game of cold emailing is to “trick” ESPs into thinking you’re sending emails with genuine intention and looking to engage in conversation.
The game of cold emailing is to “trick” ESPs into thinking you’re sending emails with genuine intention and looking to engage in conversation.
So spintax allows for that as even though a percentage of the email will be the same, having microcopy differences improves the deliverability of your email with 0/minimal extra effort.
The other advantage is you get to see which copywriting format is converting the best for your audience for free.
The other advantage is you get to see which copywriting format is converting the best for your audience for free.
For starters, use spintax on for greetings and farewells.
Here is a ChatGPT prompt to generate spintax
Use spintax in this format {|} to generate me variations of "{{text}}"
Unsubscribe Link
We do not recommend to include an actual unsubscribe link.
The reason for this is that it is a link which affects deliverability.
To be compliant with CAN-SPAM laws, there is a way around this.
Simply adding an unsubscribe message at the end of your emails works the same way.
You can add something like "Reply and I'll stop sending you more emails :)"
This not only gets people to unsubscribe but improves deliverability since people are replying to the emails.
Creating The Campaign
Once we are done with the 14-day warmup phase, we can launch our campaign.
Smartlead will tell you once your email accounts are done with the warmup phase.
There are lots of settings and this has worked best for us and our clients:
Steps to create campaign
- Create a campaign and name it as specific as possible
- Import your lead list and map out fields.
- Set up Sequences
- Send a total of 3 emails, A/B Testing all of them
- Email 1 → wait 4 days
- Email 2 → wait 5 days
- Email 3
- Each email should start with a greeting → body → farewell → signature → unsubscribe message
Set up "Setup"
- Select all sender accounts
- Schedule campaign
- Choose your timezone
- Send on Monday - Friday
- Time period Between sequences → From 09:03 - 18:07
- An email will be sent every: 7 minutes
- Set campaign start date or leave blank if instant
- Max Number Of New Leads Reached Per Day Per Campaign → 10% of total number of leads
Set up campaign settings
- Stop sending messages when your lead → replies to a message
- What shouldn't we track
- Track email opens for the first week, and if > 50% then lead list is good, turn off email open tracking since it improves deliverability
- Don't track link clicks
- Prioritise sending pattern → 50% follow ups, 50% new leads.
- Intelligent AI Lead Categorisation
- Select the categories: Interested, Not interested, Do not contact, and Out of Office
- Ignore the auto-categorised OOO reply from the reply %
- DO NOT include unsubscribe link
BONUS Step: How To Optimise Cold Email Results
Have A Social + Company Presence
- Have a good landing page
- Have a VSL with your face on your landing page
- Have case studies on your landing page
- Have video testimonials on your landing page
- Have optimised social media profiles and actually post content
- Set up Google My Business and have reviews
Get Good At Response Handling
- Use multi-channel outreach (send them a dm, engage with their content, etc)
- Warm call positive replies
- Reply in < 5 minutes after every response
- Follow up until you get a clear "yes" or "no"
- Use automated subsequences so you don't have to manually follow up.
- Use webhooks and automations to get notified when a lead replies
Use A Proven Sales Process
- Use a scheduling software like calendly to book in calls
- Have a pre-call flow with email and sms reminders
- Have a "Thank you" landing page + VSL for leads who book a call
- Send case studies to your leads before the call, after they book
- Use a CRM to track and manage leads
- Take your sales meeting through a video call
- Have a sales script and stick to its process no matter what
Free Custom Cold Email Strategy
I will tell you what domains to buy, how to set up DNS records, and write you 7 cold email scripts.
Fill out this 30 second form: https://conqueredleads.com/free-cold-email-system
Once filled out, I will send you:
- 30x Custom Domain Names
- Full DNS record Setup Guide
- 5x Testable A/B Scripts
- 2x Unique Follow Up Scripts
All for free with no strings attached.
Conquered Leads
Conquered Leads is a done-for-you lead generation company that helps marketing agencies and b2b companies book more sales meetings on their calendar on a complete performane basis (through cold email outreach).
If you feel like:
- You don't generate enough leads
- You only get clients from referrals (and don't generate any on your own)
- There is high competition in saturated markets
- It is difficult to reach out to decision makers of your ideal client
Then Conquered Leads is for you.
