The key to improving deliverability and hitting that inbox is proper email setup. In this guide, I’ll walk you through how to set up your email accounts correctly for cold outreach, so you can maximize conversions and see big bucks in your bank account.

The five reasons below are some of the most common pitfalls I’ve seen. Keep these in mind as you review your outreach strategy.

What Is Cold Email Setup?

Cold email setup means the technical configuration of your email accounts. This includes which provider you use, how you've configured your DNS settings, whether you've forwarded accounts, and other technical details that affect deliverability.

With so much fluff around this topic, it’s easy to get lost. Some tools promise "unlimited email accounts in minutes," but these quick solutions often do more harm than good. Many of these tools use custom SMTP servers to automate setups quickly. However, sending emails through such questionable servers makes it unlikely that your emails will land in trusted inboxes like Gmail or Outlook.

This isn’t just a theory—we’ve seen it all. As Co-Founder of Leadsify, I’ve set up thousands of email accounts and sent hundreds of millions of emails. We know what works.

You don’t need to go to extremes. We're giving you a proven, effective setup strategy for free. Follow the SOP below to get started on your email outreach journey the right way.

Let's dive in!

How To Set Up Cold Email Accounts the Right Way

1. Go your GoDaddy account

2. Search .com domains and add them to the cart

It’s best to go similar to your main domain:

• try______.com
• get_____.com
• email___.com
• visit___.com
• meet___.com
• the____.com
• only____.com
• mail____.com

It’s best to get domains ending in .com since these don’t have any extra restrictions.

Domains ending with .eu for example have restrictions that hurt deliverability.

3. Go to this - Workspace order sheet

Create a new sheet. Follow the steps and fill in the information.

After completing filling out the workspace order sheet, start the order process with us. We have a direct connection with a Google Reseller. You don't need to spend your valuable time going back and forth with the reseller, signing contracts, and dealing with unnecessary hassles.

Click here to buy your accounts - after subscribing, you will be redirected to a form page where you can submit your sheets file that contains sending account information.

• After payment, the workspace reseller will create admin accounts
• After receiving the workspace sheet from us, start logging in to the admin accounts
• Go to “Manage Domains” in Admin

• Click on “Add domain” on the top right

• Enter the domain you bought from GoDaddy
• Select “Secondary domain”
• Click “Add domain & start verification”

4. Click “Sign in to verify” to verify your GoDaddy domain

• Wait a few minutes (your screen should look like this)

• Under where it says “Verified” – click “Activate Gmail”

• Select “Set up MX record” and click “Next”

• Wait 5 minutes

Go to the DNS settings of that domain in your GoDaddy account

• Modify the “v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all” SPF record — change Name to just “@“

• Modify the “v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all” SPF record — change Name to just “@“
  

• Click “Save”
• Delete the other SPF record — should be something like v=spf1 include:dc-aa8e722993._spfm….”

• Before deleting, you need to change the Value to “v=spf1”
• Make sure you only have 1 SPF record:

6. Go to https://admin.google.com/ac/apps/gmail/authenticateemail

• Select the domain you want to create the record for
• Click “Generate new record”
• Click “Generate”
• Copy the values and add a new TXT record in your GoDaddy DNS settings

• Wait ~15 minutes then click “Start authentication” in the admin

This could take up to 48 hours. You can move on to the next steps but keep the tab open and come back to it before finishing these steps.

7. Go to https://easydmarc.com/tools/dmarc-record-generator?domain

• Enter your domain where it says “Domain”
• Enter your new email address tied to the domain where it says “Reports send to”
• You haven’t set up an email address yet, so enter what it will be for example: “firstname@newdomain.com”
• Select “none (monitoring)” for Subdomain policy
• Select “Relaxed” for SPF and DKIM identifiers
• Click “Generate”
• Copy the value and add a new TXT record in your GoDaddy DNS settings

The “Name” for this one should be “_dmarc”

• Click “Save”

8. Forwarding domain to website

• Copy and paste this link in your browser, but replace “newdomain” with your new domain:

https://dcc.godaddy.com/manage/**newdomain**/setup/forwarding?itc=mya_vh_buildwebsite_domain&postForwardExp=true

• Scroll down to “Forward To Any Site” and enter your main website URL
• Click “Next” then click “Finish”
• Test it by going to your new domain and seeing if it takes you to your main website

9. Adding Users

• Go back to https://admin.google.com/ac/domains/manage
• Next to your domain, confirm it says “Verified” and “Gmail activated”
• Click “Add Users”
• At the top of the page, click “Add new user”
• Enter the first and last name of the new email user
• Use the user’s first name where it says “Primary email”
• Choose your new domain from the dropdown menu across from “Primary email”
• Add a secondary/backup email address and phone number
• Click “Manage user’s…” to expand the options
• Upload the user’s profile image
• Copy your new password and log in here
• Click “I understand”
• Create a new password

10. Add email forwarding and enable IMAP:

Open Gmail → Settings → Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab → Add forwarding address → enter conformation code → tick forwarding a copy → On the same page “Enable IMAP” → Save Changes

11. Authorize Smartlead/Instantly:

Hamburger icon → Show more → Security → Access and data control → API controls → Manage 3rd party apps access → add app → OAuth app → paste code → search → select → Select → Trusted → ConfigureRemove email acc from Instantly if necessary.

12. Add account to Smartlead/Instantly:

Add new → Google → yes IMAP enabled → Option 2 OAuth → Login → select acc (login if necessary)

Repeat this process for at least 10 total new GoDaddy domains. Add up to 3 users per domain for double the amount of email accounts to send from.

13. Enable warm-up and wait for 14 days to use your accounts

After the warm-up is completed, you can start sending 15 emails per day per sending account.

Conclusion

Here you have it - how to set up cold email accounts in the right way. I laid out the instructions in the best way possible.

This setup takes approximately 12 hours. If you don’t have the time to invest but still want to maximize your revenue through cold outreach, we can handle it for you.

I want to let you handle this, so I can focus on growing my business

Once you’ve made the payment, you’ll be redirected to a form where you can provide the necessary information for us to set up your accounts.

The subscription covers 10 domains, 30 accounts, and weekly domain health audit checks.

If you’d like to discuss this before committing, feel free to reach out to us or email info@ecomleads.io.