Boost Your Cold Email Strategy to Send 10k Emails a Month Safely - Secrets to Scalability & Compliance

By
Frank Bacon
May 6, 2024
5 min read
Table of contents
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Congratulations! 🎉

Why, though? Well, you're reading an article about scaling cold email meaning you're probably at a steady growth curve with your agency.

Fear not, padawan! We're here to decipher how to scale your cold email without wrecking your sender's reputation.

The key to this process is understanding and setting new sending limits that align with technological capabilities and regulatory requirements.

This involves increasing the volume of emails sent and ensuring that each message adheres to high standards of relevancy and personalization.

However, the actual test lies in implementing these strategies - how can organizations effectively adjust their tech stack and processes to handle 10,000 emails monthly while maintaining a robust sender reputation?

This question begins a deeper exploration of sustainable email marketing growth mechanics.

So, what do we mean when we say “SCALEcold email campaigns

These are the factors to take care of to scale cold email campaigns to grow at a unicorn company’s pace:

  1. Increase email-sending capacity
  2. Expand lead acquisition
  3. Verify leads
  4. Ensure inbox delivery
  5. Implement scalable personalization strategies
  6. Utilize virtual assistants for inbox management
  7. Train internal staff for meeting handling, onboarding, and service.

Step 1: Determine Your New Sending Limits

Establishing your new sending limits is an essential first step in effectively scaling your cold email campaigns. Calculating how many emails each email inbox can handle daily sets a foundation for sustainable growth without risking your sender's reputation.

For instance, with 36 email inboxes, each capable of sending 30 emails a day, your total daily sending capacity reaches 1080 emails. Oh! And to have 36 email inboxes, you need at least 12 domains where you can create three emails for each domain.

These initial emails help to establish a reliable sending pattern and warm up your domains, which are key tactics in preventing your messages from being flagged by email service providers.

This careful planning guarantees your emails reach your recipients' inboxes, not their spam folders.

Step 2: Build Your Tech Stack To Send 10k Emails Monthly

Constructing a spam-proof tech stack is essential to safely scale to sending 10,000 emails monthly.

This includes acquiring additional domains and securing email inboxes from reputable providers like mailforge.ai or Google Workspace, ensuring a foundation that supports expanded outreach without compromising deliverability.

Additionally, selecting a cold email tool that offers scalability, inbox rotation capabilities, and the precise setup of email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is vital to maintaining high deliverability and sender reputation.

1. Purchase More Domains

Selecting and purchasing additional dedicated domains is critical in building a robust email infrastructure capable of sending 10,000 emails monthly.

This strategy enhances your email operations by segregating bulk email activities from your core business communications, safeguarding your primary domain's reputation.

Here are some key considerations:

  • Branded Domains: Choose variations of your leading brand to maintain consistency and recognition. (hey, hello, hi, team, go, tech. E.g., heyyourdomain.com)
  • Different Domain TLDs: Use these exclusively for your email campaigns to minimize the risks of blacklisting. (.co, .net, .io, .digital, .info, .org)

2. Buy Email Inboxes From Reputable Email Service Providers

We all know Google Workspace is the gold standard. But it also comes with some serious baggage of technical setup.

Selecting the appropriate Email Service Provider (ESP) is crucial for establishing a strong technical infrastructure capable of sending 10,000 emails monthly. 

Reputable email service providers like Google Workspace and Outlook offer robust systems that support high volumes of emails while maintaining the sender's reputation.

how to create domains with mailforge.ai
Mailforge.ai

A trusted ESP like Mailforge.ai guarantees you have the necessary support to effectively handle various aspects of your campaigns, such as instant scaling capabilities, ai-led domain name generation, auto setup technical aspects, and maintaining compliance with email-sending practices.

Thus, you can safeguard your ability to reach your audience effectively and efficiently.

3. Choose a Cold Email Tool with Easy Scalability

Small cold email software tools on the market could be better for scalability. For instance 

  • Their plans won't let you connect multiple emails
  • Their pricing is based on emails you connect, not prospects you send to
  • They don't have inbox rotation, which is a system that supports multiple sending inboxes to a campaign that protects your sender reputation, allows easy scalability

Choosing a cold email tool that offers easy scalability and inbox rotation is essential for managing large-scale email campaigns effectively. When scaling up your email operations, you need a system that can handle increased volume without compromising email deliverability or sender reputation.

4. Ensure Email Tech (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) Set up Is on Point

After considering how to choose a cold email tool for scalability and inbox rotation, it's essential to focus on setting up the correct email technologies, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, to guarantee the trustworthiness and security of your domain.

These protocols, essential for email authentication, enhance deliverability and sender reputation. SPF verifies that emails are sent from authorized IP addresses, while DKIM adds a secure signature to each email, thwarting spoofing attempts. DMARC aligns these technologies, providing instructions on handling emails that fail authentication tests, protecting against phishing, and improving security.

For SPF:

how to setup SPF records
  • Open up the DNS editor
  • Add TXT record with 3600 TTL 👇
  • v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

For DKIM:

how to setup DKIM records
  • Get your DKIM from Google Workspace admin
  • Apps > Google Workspace > Settings for Gmail > Authenticate Email
  • Generate New Record
  • Open up your domain DNS editor
  • Add the key as a TXT record with 3600 TLL

For DMARC:

how to setup DMARC records for your mailbox
  1. To create your DMARC
  2. Open up your domains DNS Editors
  3. Add new TXT record with name _dmarc
  4. Insert TXT value and this 👇with 3600 TTL

    v=DMARC1; p=reject; rua=mailto:youremail@johndoe.com, mailto:youremail@johndoe.com.com; pct=100; adkim=s; aspf=s

Don't forget to change youremail@johndoe.com to your target email

Proper setup of these protocols is not just recommended; it's imperative for maintaining domain integrity and ensuring email reliability.

This entire tech setup is completely automated in Mailforge.ai, making it the perfect email hosting partner for scalability.

5. Keep Your Email Sending Volume in Check

Maintaining a daily sending volume of 50-60 emails per account is essential for optimizing email deliverability and avoiding spam filters. Only half should be unsolicited emails to prospects; the rest must be in warm-up. So, there are 25 new sends per inbox and 25 in warm-up or 30:30.

a meme about sending too many emails per inbox

Consider using multiple email accounts effectively to manage a larger outreach, like 10K emails monthly, without harming your sender's reputation.

This approach enhances email deliverability and aligns with best practices for cold emailing.

  • Stagger the sending schedule across different accounts to distribute the load.
  • Monitor each account's performance for bounces and engagement rates.

Step 3: Ensure You Get Enough Verified Leads

To ensure a substantial influx of verified leads, we must focus on building a highly targeted prospect list.

Selecting the best lead generation tool can significantly enhance the efficiency and quality of your outreach efforts.

Additionally, verifying email addresses before dispatch is vital to maintain high deliverability and minimize bounce rates, ensuring your cold email campaigns hit the mark.

1. Build a Hyper-Targeted Prospect List

Creating a hyper-targeted prospect list is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of your cold email campaigns. When well-crafted, this list aligns with your cold email outreach strategy, ensuring higher engagement and response rates. Utilizing cold emailing platforms effectively starts with who you are emailing.

  • Research and Define Ideal Customer Profiles: Understand your potential customer's needs, interests, and pain points.
  • Segmentation: Group prospects based on industry, role, or behavior to tailor your messaging precisely.
  • Continuous Refinement: Regularly update and refine your list based on campaign feedback to keep it relevant and effective.

Is that paragraph too long, or what? Just get LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Clay to build a hyper-targeted prospect list, and you'll be among the popular sales kids.

2. Choose The Right Lead Generation Tool

Everyone likes Apollo, but we don't. Why? Apollo is just pointlessly expensive. So many tools can get you a lot more prospect emails at a much cheaper price.

But we don't stop there. We like the waterfall lead generation mechanism. This process involves inserting a bunch of lead information and using multiple sources, such as Hunter, Snov, Findymail, Apollo, and Datagma, to get their emails.

So, what's the best tool for that? Better Contact Rocks! Just insert your scraped leads information from LinkedIn, and they will use 20 different email finders to find your prospect's emails.

Opt for a tool that seamlessly integrates with your marketing stack for better reply rates, ensuring efficient campaign management. Remember, your cold email campaign's success depends on content quality and technological support.

Choose wisely to maximize impact.

3. Verify Email Addresses Before Sending

Just stick to these two tools!

  1. Neverbounce
  2. Scrubby

Some lead generation tools already provide you with verified email addresses of your prospects.

However, we used a tool that required us to verify the emails again before starting our cold email campaign.

Scrubby and Never Bounce combination is like Batman & Robin; these take care of any email you encounter. If these two cannot verify your list, just don't send it.

Step 4: Make Sure Emails Keep Landing in Inboxes

As we move to step four in scaling your cold email campaigns safely, we must focus on ensuring your emails consistently land in the recipient's inbox.

This involves several key practices, such as gradually warming up new email accounts, avoiding spam-triggering words, and minimizing links in your email content to maintain a low spam score.

Additionally, always include a clear unsubscribe link to comply with regulations and respect recipient preferences, thereby helping sustain your sender's reputation and deliverability rates.

1. Warm Up Your New Email Inboxes

To ensure consistent deliverability, it is vital to thoroughly warm up both your new domain and email address using specialized warm-up modes tailored to each. When utilizing email warmup tools, it's essential to understand the process involves more than just sending emails. These tools engage your email, simulating fundamental interactions that help establish your domain's reputation.

  • Gradual Increase in Email Volume: Start with a few emails and slowly increase the quantity over time.
  • Engage in Normal Email Activities: Send, receive, and respond to emails to mimic typical user behavior.
  • Monitor Feedback: Monitor critical metrics like bounce rates and spam reports to adjust your approach as needed.

2. Do Not Use Spam-trigger Words

Using spam-trigger words in your email content can significantly increase the likelihood of your messages being filtered into spam folders, undermining your deliverability efforts. To maintain a high deliverability rate, it is essential to understand and avoid these problematic words and phrases.

Here are a few examples:

  • Buy
  • Dollar
  • Free
  • Buy one, get one
  • Exclusive offer
  • Buy direct
  • Buying judgments
  • Order
  • Order Status
  • Orders shipped by shopper

Implementing solid email authentication practices such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC can also help verify your emails' legitimacy, further aiding in avoiding spam filters.

By carefully crafting your email content without spam-trigger words, you substantially enhance the effectiveness of your cold email campaigns.

3. Reduce Links in Your Emails Copy

Another effective strategy for guaranteeing that your messages consistently reach the inbox is to minimize the number of links in your email copy.

  • Your email signature might contain multiple links.
  • You might send all your prospects a specific link (case study, social proof).
  • You might be using Cloaked links in your copy.

Reducing links improves deliverability rates and helps maintain compliance with sending limits, ensuring better engagement with your audience.

  • Avoid triggering spam filters: Multiple links can appear suspicious and increase the likelihood of being flagged by spam filters.
  • Enhance deliverability rates: Fewer links contribute to a cleaner, more professional email appearance, boosting the chances of landing in the primary inbox.
  • Stay within sending limits: Excessive links can increase email service providers' scrutiny, potentially impacting your sender's reputation and deliverability.

4. Keep Unsubscribe Link

Here's what a lot of people do

-sent from my iPhone

They like to pretend the email is handwritten from their phone without adding an actual unsubscribe link.

Just don't, please…don't do that. People know you're using a cold email tool, and you don't want to get sued by angry prospects who know their way around GDPR.

Including a visible unsubscribe link in your emails is vital for compliance with anti-spam laws and maintaining a positive sender reputation.

It ensures recipients can easily opt out of receiving future communications; you uphold respect for user preferences, which is essential for sustaining trust and engagement.

The presence of an unsubscribe link not only adheres to the legal requirements of the CAN-SPAM Act and GDPR but also demonstrates a commitment to transparency and user control, enhancing the overall effectiveness of your email campaigns. 

5. Maintain Your High Deliverability & Low Bounce Rate

An accessible unsubscribe link supports sustained email deliverability and a low bounce rate, ensuring ongoing compliance and user satisfaction. To keep your emails landing in recipients' inboxes consistently, focus on critical factors that influence email deliverability:

  • Monitor Spam Complaints: Regularly assess feedback and adjust your strategies to minimize negative interactions.
  • Maintain Sender Reputation: Use best practices like email authentication and sending from a consistent IP address.
  • Adhere to Email Sending Limits: Respect daily and monthly sending thresholds to avoid being flagged by ISPs.

Step 5: Personalize at Scale for Better Responses

Fun Fact! Did you know with our tool Salesforge, you can generate AI personalized sentences super fast? 

a screenshot of Salesforge and the AI generated emails it can create

Personalization means more than just inserting {First_Name} and {Company_Name} or using a lot of spintax. It is more about segmenting the list, connecting with them, referencing recent events within their industry, pressing on their pain points, and offering a bespoke solution.

Personalization at a scale enhances the effectiveness of cold email campaigns and fosters stronger connections with potential clients.

Apart from Salesforge, another great tool for creating personalization at scale is Clay.

Step 6: Build & Train the Team to Handle the Growth

As your cold email campaign scales, it becomes essential to build and adequately train a team capable of managing this growth effectively. This guarantees that your email list is well-managed and response rates remain high, even as the volume increases.

  • Recruit Specialized Roles: Hire dedicated personnel for tasks like inbox management, meeting scheduling, and client onboarding.
  • Comprehensive Training: Provide thorough training on the nuances of your cold email campaign, focusing on maintaining high engagement and minimizing unsubscribes.
  • Continuous Improvement: Implement regular reviews and training updates to adapt to changing dynamics and improve team performance.

Proper team development and training are vital to sustain and enhance the effectiveness of your scaling cold email efforts.

To Wrap It All Up

Effectively scaling cold email campaigns requires a strategic approach, combining technological infrastructure with best practices in email marketing.

Businesses can significantly enhance their outreach efforts by determining proper sending limits, securing a robust tech stack, ensuring a supply of verified leads, maintaining inbox deliverability, and personalizing content.

Impressively, studies show that personalized cold emails can boost response rates by up to 140%, underscoring the importance of customization in achieving successful campaign scalability.

We'll see you in the next article!

Frank Bacon
CEO