TL;DR
Most founders think cold email is dead. They’re wrong. It’s just that 99% of people do it terribly. This guide shows you how to build a cold email system that actually fills your pipeline. From buying the right domains to crafting emails, to then hopefully getting responses.
Cold email is easy ! You just need a good offer, a clean and targeted lead list, a verified inbox, proper deliverability setup, personalization, patience, and a minor miracle.
Okay, maybe it’s not that easy. But it’s definitely not impossible either.
The problem is that most people start with a broad lead list and send the same boring and probably salesy message to everyone, then wonder why their emails disappear into spam folders. Instead of fixing and improving, they decide “cold email is dead”.
Here’s the truth: cold email works when you do it right. The key is treating it like a system, not a one-size-fits-all campaign. You need proper infrastructure, quality data, personalized messaging, and enough patience to let the process work.
The Foundation: Getting Your Technical Setup
Before you write a single email, you need infrastructure that won’t get you blacklisted. This means buying additional domains similar to your main domain and setting them up properly.
Domain Strategy
Instead of using your main domain (like igtms.com), you need similar domains for cold outreach. Think try-igtms.com, get-igtms.com, or hello-igtms.com. This protects your main domain’s reputation if something goes wrong.
For domain registration, Porkbun is reliable and affordable. You can grab domains for around $10-15 per year, and you’ll want 3-5 domains minimum for serious campaigns.
Email Infrastructure
Setting up email deliverability is technical and time-consuming. Premium Inboxes (starting from $3.5/month per inbox) handles all the technical setup and connects directly to Smartlead, which is what we recommend for campaign management. Plus, it’s quite cheap!
They’ll handle:
- DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
- IP warming
- Domain reputation building
- Inbox authentication
Campaign Management Platform
Smartlead (starting from $39/month) is the platform we use for managing campaigns. It handles scheduling, personalization, follow-ups, and deliverability monitoring.
Alternatives include:
- Instantly (starting from $37/month) – good deliverability and automation
- Listkit (starting from $97/month) – strong data and campaign management
- Outreach (starting from $100/user/month) – enterprise-focused
- Reply.io (starting from $60/month) – good for smaller teams
- Lemlist (starting from $29/month) – strong on personalization
Fun fact: Sendkit is basically a white-label of Smartlead, so if you’ve used Sendkit, Smartlead’s interface will look familiar.
Building Your Email Lead List
Your campaign is only as good as your list. Garbage data equals garbage results, no matter how good your emails are. Simple as that
Lead Collection data
Apollo.io (starting from $49/user/month) is our go-to for prospecting. It has solid data coverage and decent accuracy rates. You can filter by company size, industry, job title, intent, and other criteria.
Plus, it allows you to easily collect leads while you are scrolling on LinkedIn.
Alternatives include:
- ZoomInfo (starting from $14,995/year) – premium data but expensive
- Lusha (starting from $29/month) – good for LinkedIn prospecting
- Hunter.io (starting from $49/month) – simple email finding tool
Custom Data Collection
We’ve built an AI agent that scrapes job posts across the internet to find companies actively hiring for roles we can help with. This gives us warmer prospects who have an immediate need.
Data Quality Checklist
You can write the most compelling subject lines and perfect follow-up sequences, but if you’re emailing people who left the company six months ago, you’re wasting everyone’s time. Plus every bounce could potentially affect your reputation
Make sure you:
- Verify email addresses before sending (use tools like ZeroBounce or NeverBounce)
- Remove role-based emails (info@, support@, etc.)
- Check for recent job changes on LinkedIn
- Ensure you have correct company names and titles
Campaign Structure
The 5-Email Sequence: Most successful campaigns use 4-6 touch points spread over 2-3 weeks:
- Initial email: Problem-focused, no pitch
- Follow-up 1 (3 days): Add credibility with case study
- Follow-up 2 (1 week): Different angle, same problem
- Follow-up 3 (1 week): Direct ask with clear next step
- Breakup email (1 week): Final attempt with scarcity
Intent-Based Personalization: Skip generic personalization. Focus on intent data that shows they might actually need what you’re selling:
- Recent funding rounds (they’re growing and need systems)
- New product launches (they need demand generation)
- Job postings for relevant roles (they’re building teams)
- Company expansions or office moves
- Recent press coverage or awards
Email Signature Strategy: Your signature matters more than you think. Include:
- Your name and title
- Company name with website link
- Phone number (builds credibility)
- One-line company description
- Optional: Calendar link for easy booking
Volume and Frequency: Send 30-50 emails per inbox per day maximum. Any more and you risk deliverability issues. With 3-5 domains, you can reach 150-250 prospects daily while maintaining sender reputation.
Subject Line Strategy: Keep it short (under 50 characters) and avoid spam triggers:
- “Quick question about [company]”
- “Thoughts on [specific challenge]?”
- “[Mutual connection] suggested I reach out”
The Dos and Don’ts
DO:
- Test different subject lines and messaging
- Keep emails under 100 words
- Include a clear, single call-to-action
- Warm up new domains for 2-4 weeks before campaigns
- Track opens, clicks, and replies (not just opens)
- Follow up consistently but respectfully
- Segment lists by industry, company size, or role
- A/B test everything: subject lines, messaging, send times
DON’T:
- Use your main business domain for cold outreach
- Send mass emails without personalization
- Include attachments in cold emails
- Use pushy, sales-heavy language in first touch
- Neglect mobile optimization
- Send more than 50 emails per day per inbox
- Ignore unsubscribe requests (illegal and bad practice)
- Buy cheap, unverified email lists
- Skip the unsubscribe link (required by law in most countries)
Advanced Strategies
Multi-Channel Approach: Combine email with LinkedIn outreach, phone calls, and direct mail for higher response rates. Tools like Outreach and SalesLoft can orchestrate multi-channel sequences.
Video Personalization: Record 30-second personalized videos using Loom or Vidyard. Even a simple screen recording mentioning their company can boost response rates significantly.
Social Proof Integration: Include relevant case studies, testimonials, or mutual connections in your sequences. Tools like Trustmary or Boast can help organize and deploy social proof automatically.
Alternative Approaches for Manual Outreach
If you prefer manual, one-to-one email outreach (common in link building and PR), BuzzStream (starting from $24/month) is the industry standard. It’s designed for personalized, relationship-focused outreach rather than mass campaigns.
Other manual outreach tools:
- Pitchbox (starting from $195/month) – advanced automation features
- NinjaOutreach (starting from $49/month) – influencer-focused
- GroupHigh (custom pricing) – blogger and influencer outreach
Measuring Success
Key Metrics to Track:
- Deliverability rate (aim for 95%+)
- Open rate (20-30% is good)
- Reply rate (2-5% is realistic)
- Meeting booking rate (0.5-2%)
- Pipeline generated
- Cost per qualified lead
Common Benchmarks:
- 1000 emails typically generates 20-50 replies
- 10-25% of replies are interested
- 2-5% book meetings
- 20-40% of meetings become opportunities
Troubleshooting Common Issues
Low Open Rates:
- Check spam folder placement
- Test different subject lines
- Warm up domains longer
- Verify email addresses
High Unsubscribe Rates:
- Improve list targeting
- Reduce email frequency
- Make value proposition clearer
- Check if emails sound too salesy
Getting Marked as Spam:
- Slow down sending volume
- Improve email content
- Check domain reputation
- Use different email providers
What Makes IGTMS Different
Most agencies treat cold email like a numbers game. Send more, get more responses, right? Wrong.
We focus on precision over volume. Instead of blasting 10,000 generic emails, we send 1,000 highly researched, personalized messages to companies that actually fit your ideal customer profile. We use our proprietary AI agent to identify companies actively hiring for roles we can impact, meaning we’re reaching prospects with immediate need.
Our approach combines technical excellence (proper domain setup, deliverability optimization) with strategic messaging that speaks directly to founder pain points. We don’t just generate leads; we start conversations that lead to qualified pipeline in 120 days or less.
Key Takeaways
Cold email works, but only when you do it systematically. The technical setup matters as much as the messaging. Quality data beats quantity every time. And patience beats desperation.
Start with proper infrastructure, invest in quality data, craft personalized messages that solve real problems, and follow up consistently. Most importantly, track everything and optimize based on data, not assumptions.
The founders who succeed with cold email treat it like a system, not a silver bullet. They understand it’s one part of a broader go-to-market strategy, not the entire strategy itself.
Ready to build a cold email system that actually generates pipeline? Book a strategy call to see how we can set up your entire outbound system in the next 30 days.
