How-To

How to set up cold email from scratch. Complete beginner guide

day1_sender · 2026-04-04T00:00:00Z

I just went through this entire process from zero. Documenting every step so the next person does not have to figure it out alone. Step 1: buy domains. Ste

day1_sender · 2026-04-04 · 3,100 views

I just set up my entire cold email operation from zero. No prior experience. Took me about 3 weeks from "I should try cold email" to booking my first meeting. Here is every single step I followed.

Step 1: Buy domains. I bought 5 domains on Namecheap. All .com, all variations of my company name (getacme.com, acmehq.com, tryacme.com, useacme.com, acmeapp.com). Cost: about $60 total for the year. The rule is 3 inboxes per domain max, so 5 domains gave me room for 15 inboxes.

Step 2: Set up DNS. Each domain needs SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records configured before you create any email accounts. I was going to do this myself but honestly the DNS records confused me. I ended up ordering inboxes from PuzzleInbox and they handled all of this automatically. Every record was set up and verified before they delivered the accounts. If you are doing it yourself, use MXToolbox to verify everything is passing.

Step 3: Get inboxes. I ordered 15 pre-warmed Google Workspace inboxes from PuzzleInbox. 3 per domain. Cost was about $60 total. They were delivered in about 48 hours with DNS already configured and warmup already done. This saved me at least 2 weeks compared to setting up Google Workspace myself and warming from scratch.

Step 4: Connect to sending platform. I chose Instantly ($30/month Growth plan). Connected all 15 inboxes via OAuth. Took about 20 minutes. Instantly auto-detected the inboxes and confirmed DNS was passing for all of them.

Step 5: Warmup for 14 days. Even though my inboxes were pre-warmed, I ran Instantly's warmup for an extra week to be safe. Warmup sends emails between your inboxes and other Instantly users to build sending reputation. Some people skip this with pre-warmed inboxes. I wanted to be cautious since it was my first time.

Step 6: Build list with Apollo. Signed up for Apollo free tier (10,000 credits/month). Filtered by my ICP: Series A SaaS companies, 20-100 employees, US-based, VP of Sales or Head of Growth. Built a list of 300 prospects. Exported and verified emails through ZeroBounce ($15 for pay-as-you-go). 11 emails bounced in verification, so I removed those before uploading to Instantly.

Step 7: Write short emails. My first draft was 200 words. I cut it to 65. The final email had three parts: one sentence referencing something specific about the prospect's company (pulled from Apollo data), one sentence about the problem I solve with a specific number, and one question asking if they deal with that problem. No links. No images. No calendar link in email 1.

Step 8: Start sending at 10/day and ramp up. I started each inbox at 10 emails per day for the first 3 days, then ramped to 15 per day. Total daily volume went from 150 to 225 emails across 15 inboxes. Within the first week of sending, I got my first 4 replies. One booked a meeting. That first meeting felt incredible.

Total cost to get started: Domains: $60/year. Inboxes: $60 one-time. Instantly: $30/month. Apollo: $0 (free tier). ZeroBounce: $15. Total first month: about $135. And I booked 6 meetings in the first two weeks of actual sending.

The biggest thing I learned: infrastructure is the foundation. Get your inboxes and DNS right first. Everything else (copy, targeting, sequences) you can iterate on. But if your emails land in spam because of bad infrastructure, nothing else matters.