Your main domain carries your invoices, your client threads and your password resets. When cold emails from that same domain start landing in spam, those important messages can follow them. A secondary domain gives your outreach its own reputation, so a bad week of prospecting does not hurt the email your business runs on.
This guide walks through the full setup in the order you would actually do it.
Step 1: Pick a domain that looks like you
The goal is a domain a prospect recognizes as your business, not a disguise. If your company is brightpixel.com, good options are:
- brightpixelstudio.com
- getbrightpixel.com
- brightpixel.co or brightpixelhq.com
Avoid hyphenated mash-ups, odd extensions that look spammy, and anything that hides who you are. Keep the same company name, address and signature you use everywhere else. Recipients should never feel tricked.
One domain is enough to start. Add more only when your sending volume truly needs it.
Step 2: Set up mailboxes on the new domain
Create real mailboxes with a real person's name, such as anna@getbrightpixel.com. A named sender reads like a person writing, which is what cold email should be. Use the same email provider you trust for your main domain, whether that is Google Workspace or another host with SMTP access.
Fill out the profile: photo, full name, signature with your main website link and a physical business address. Then send a few normal emails from it to colleagues and friends who will reply.
Step 3: Add the authentication records
This is the step people skip, and it matters most. In your domain registrar's DNS settings, add:
| Record | What it does | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|
| SPF | Lists which servers may send for your domain | Your email provider's help docs |
| DKIM | Signs each message so it can be verified | Generated inside your email provider's admin |
| DMARC | Tells receivers what to do if checks fail | You write it, start with p=none |
A simple starting DMARC record is a TXT record on _dmarc with the value v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:you@yourmaindomain.com. Once everything passes for a few weeks you can tighten it.
Also set up a redirect so anyone who types the secondary domain into a browser lands on your main website. A domain that leads nowhere looks suspicious to curious prospects.
Our Gmail sending setup checklist covers these records line by line if you send through Google.
Step 4: Warm it up slowly
A brand-new domain has no history, so blasting hundreds of emails on day one is the fastest way into spam folders. Build trust gradually:
- Week 1: normal conversations only. Email people you know and get replies.
- Week 2: start cold sending at a small daily number per mailbox, say 10 to 20. That is a cautious rule of thumb, not a magic figure.
- Weeks 3 to 4: raise the daily count in small steps, only if bounces stay low and replies come in.
Watch for warning signs: rising bounces, replies dropping to zero, or test emails to your own Gmail landing in spam. If you see them, slow down before going further. For a deeper look at causes, read why cold emails go to spam.
Step 5: Protect the domain with clean lists and sane content
A secondary domain is not a license to send carelessly. Its reputation can still be ruined, and then you are buying another domain and starting over. Keep it healthy:
- Verify emails before sending. Bounces are one of the clearest bad signals. In GetClient you can run email verification on a list before it ever reaches a campaign.
- Write to a specific, relevant audience. A dentist list should get a dentist-specific email. See how targeting looks for dentists for an example.
- Keep the first email plain. Few or no links, no attachments, no heavy images.
- Include an unsubscribe option and honor it. Our CAN-SPAM checklist for small teams covers the basics; check the rules that apply where you and your recipients are.
- Set daily and weekday limits so a campaign never sends more than the warm-up allows.
Step 6: Connect it and send your first small campaign
Once the domain has a week or two of history, connect the mailbox to the tool you send from. In GetClient you connect your Gmail account or any SMTP account, set send-day limits by weekday, and build follow-ups in a visual flow with delays. Leads you found with the Google Maps scraper go straight into the campaign, so there is no exporting between tools. The scrape to send workflow shows that path end to end.
Start with a short sequence: one opening email and two follow-ups spaced a few days apart. Personalize with merge tags like {{params.firstname}} and {{params.city}}, and preview every step before it goes out.
What to keep on your main domain
The split is simple. Cold first-touch outreach goes from the secondary domain. Once someone replies and becomes a real conversation or a client, it is fine to continue from your main address. Your website, invoices, client support and newsletters to people who opted in stay on the main domain.
Check your secondary domain monthly: confirm SPF, DKIM and DMARC still pass, send yourself a test, and look at bounce and reply trends. If replies are low but deliverability looks fine, the issue is usually the message or the list, and our guide to fixing a low reply rate is the next stop.