Why You Need a Separate Domain for Outbound Sales Emails

If you’re sending outbound sales emails from your main company domain, you’re taking a huge risk—one that could hurt your email deliverability, response rates, and even your entire company’s ability to send emails.

A separate domain for outbound prospecting helps protect your main domain while increasing your chances of landing in inboxes instead of spam folders. It’s a simple but essential step for any sales team running outbound campaigns at scale.

Why a Separate Domain is Non-Negotiable for Outbound Sales

Using a dedicated domain for outbound sales has four major benefits:

Protects Your Primary Domain: Cold outreach carries the risk of high bounce rates and spam complaints. If you use your main domain, this can affect everyone at your company, not just your sales team.
Improves Email Deliverability: A new, properly warmed-up domain can help you avoid email providers flagging your messages as spam.
Prevents Blacklisting: If your outbound emails get flagged too often, your domain could end up blacklisted—shutting down your ability to reach clients.
Allows for Scalable Outreach: Multiple domains allow you to send a higher volume of emails while spreading the risk across different inboxes.

Now that you know why it’s important, here’s a simple step-by-step guide to setting up a separate domain for outbound prospecting.

How to Set Up a Separate Domain for Sales Prospecting

Setting up a new outbound sales domain is a simple process that takes about 30-60 minutes if done correctly. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown:

Step 1: Choose a Similar, But Slightly Different Domain

Your sales prospecting domain should closely resemble your primary domain while being different enough to separate it from your official business emails.

Examples:

If your primary domain is yourcompany.com, consider:

Pro Tip: Avoid using random-looking domains (e.g., yourcompanysales.net) as they can appear spammy and reduce trust.

Step 2: Purchase & Set Up Your New Domain

Buy your domain from a reputable registrar like Google Domains, Namecheap, or GoDaddy.
Set up your domain in Google Workspace (recommended) or Microsoft Outlook to enable email hosting.

Step 3: Authenticate Your Domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are email authentication protocols that prevent your outbound emails from being marked as spam.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) – Tells email providers which servers can send emails on your behalf.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) – Adds a digital signature to verify the legitimacy of your emails.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) – Prevents email spoofing and phishing attacks.

How to Set It Up:

Go to your domain’s DNS settings in your registrar (Google Domains, Namecheap, etc.).
Add SPF, DKIM, and DMARC TXT records (your email provider will give you these).
Use a free tool like MXToolbox to verify everything is set up correctly.

Pro Tip: If you skip this step, your emails may land in spam or never get delivered.

Step 4: Warm Up Your New Domain

New domains are not trusted by email providers, so you can’t immediately start blasting cold emails.

Warm-up process (takes ~3-4 weeks):

Send small batches of emails (5-10 per day) to real contacts.
Gradually increase volume each week (e.g., Week 2: 20 emails/day, Week 3: 50 emails/day).
Engage in normal conversations—reply to emails, avoid sending identical templates.

Use a warm-up tool like Mailwarm, Warmbox, or Lemwarm to automate this process.

Step 5: Set Up a Professional Sales Email Address

Your new domain needs to look credible and professional.

Example Sales Email Formats:

Avoid spammy emails like:

Step 6: Implement Email Sending Best Practices

Once your domain is warmed up, follow these best practices to keep your deliverability strong:

Use a reputable cold email tool – Lemlist, Instantly, or Apollo.io.
Keep emails personalized – No generic, spammy templates.
Limit daily sending – Stay under 50-100 emails/day per inbox to avoid being flagged.
Monitor bounce rates – Keep it under 5% (use email verification tools like ZeroBounce).