Your Hunter account comes with a free cold email tool—Campaigns.

But before you send cold emails at scale, you have to get your inbox set up.

Here are four tips you must follow before any campaigns go out. These tips are true whether you use Hunter Campaigns, a different cold email tool, or even if you manually send your cold emails.

Tip 1: Get a separate domain for sending cold emails
Sending cold emails via your primary domain (i.e., your website address) is not advised. If your initial campaigns generate spam complaints, every email you send from that domain will risk landing in spam.

And if you want to use a freemail inbox (like john@gmail.com)... Don't. Using a custom domain will get you more replies.

Use a different domain—or several—that references your brand (e.g. tryacme.com, goacme.com, and emailacme.com). Make sure you redirect them to your main domain so recipients can look you up.

To buy your new domains, use a domain registrar like Namecheap or GoDaddy.

Tip 2: Choose a reputable Email Service Provider (ESP)

Set up new mailboxes on the sender domain, and gradually warm them up by sending a low volume of cold emails at first.

A best practice is to create 3-5 email addresses per new domain.

Choosing a reputable ESP means you're less likely to run into technical issues.

We recommend using Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.

Connect these to Hunter to automate sending your campaigns.

Tip 3: Watch your sending volume

Every new email account needs to warm up before it reaches full sending capacity. If an ESP suddenly sees 100s of emails sent from one inbox, it'll harm your outreach.

Warm your inbox over 3-4 weeks before scaling. We recommend starting with 15 emails per mailbox by default, then raising the limit if you see good results. Of course, you can raise the limit at any time, but it may backfire if the domain and inbox aren't warm enough.

Tip 4: Get your email domains authenticated

Authenticating your email domains via SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial. Gmail and Outlook require these authentication protocols for optimal deliverability.

Follow these four tips and you'll increase the chances of your emails reaching the right person. If you need any help, let us know!

Gio Lepori
Head of Customer Success