Domain hacks: Creative Cold Email Domain Variations to stand Out

If you've been diving into the world of cold emails and exploring ways to improve your deliverability, you've likely encountered the concept of setting domain variations for your cold email outreach.

In this article, we'll take a deeper look at what domain variation means and why it holds significance in your cold email campaigns, and we'll even walk you through a few creative examples that can elevate your brand's presence and make you stand out in the crowd.

What is a Cold Email Domain?

A cold email domain is a separate domain exclusively for sending cold emails. It's different from your main company domain. The idea is to keep the brand identity consistent, so the cold email domain should be similar to your main domain.

For example, if your main website domain is “Example.com,” your cold email domain variations could be “Example.io” or “Exampleapps.com.”

Using a domain name similar to your main one helps make the cold email look less noticeable to prospects. And when you send the right cold email to the right prospect, offering something valuable, the domain variation won't matter much.

These cold email domain variations are used as a trick to get past spam filters and increase the chances of the recipient opening the email.

Using different email addresses and subdomains, the emails appear to come from various sources, not just one person or company. This can make the emails more appealing and less likely to be marked as spam.

Why do you need a Cold Email Domain?

You might wonder, “Why should I get a new domain just for my cold email outreach?”

Well, using cold email outreach is a great way to reach out to potential customers and tell them about your business. 

But there's a problem.

Sending too many emails from your main domain can actually hurt your ability to deliver emails successfully, as there are chances that some people might even mark your cold emails as spam on purpose, which can damage your domain's reputation and overall email deliverability rate.

So If you've been using your main or primary domain for cold outreach, these problems can also affect your regular emails to clients and coworkers. This can create a lot of complications for your business.

Moreover, when you start sending cold emails, there's a high risk of getting blacklisted. Setting up a separate domain just for your cold email outreach efforts is important to avoid these issues.

This way, you can keep your main domain safe and ensure your emails reach the right people without problems.

How to create a Cold Email Domain?

We have understood why setting up a different domain for cold emails is important. Let’s talk about how to create a cold email domain. 

1. Select a domain

The most popular options for choosing a cold email domain are Google Workspace and Microsoft Office Outlook. Many people find Google Workspace easier to set up, so it's a top choice.

In the business-to-business (B2B)  world, most email addresses (over 80%) use Outlook and G Suite. Hosting your cold email domain on one of these email clients is recommended by default for better deliverability.

Some people choose not to buy their domain directly from Outlook or G Suite. Instead, they get it from other providers like GoDaddy or Namecheap and later connect it to Google Workspace or Outlook.

Personally, we recommend buying from Google Workspace because everything you need for your domain settings is right at your fingertips and easy to manage. It's convenient and hassle-free!

2. Choose the right TLD

Let us break it down for you in simple terms. TLD stands for Top-Level Domain, which is the part that comes after the dot in your domain name.

For instance, in “google.com,” the domain name is “google,” and the TLD is “.com.” TLDs are also known as domain extensions.

Choosing one with authority is crucial when picking a TLD for your cold email domain. Some TLDs have more authority than others, which can make a difference in your cold email deliverability and credibility.

Here are some examples of  popular TLDs:

Choosing a TLD depends on many factors you can choose a TLD“.com” TLD is the most popular and reliable TLD used by businesses, but it needs some time to get warmed up so that the ESPs can trust it. So you must warm up the accounts for 1-2 months before starting a bulk outreach.

The “.io” TLD is one of the good options, which is less used as it can be expensive, but the spammers avoid this TLD, making it trustable.

The ”.net” is also one of the most famous TLDs, usually used as a replacement for “.com.” This is also a good option, as many email providers use “.net.”

You should avoid TLDs like .xyz, .free, and .yx as they have a bad domain reputation and low authority making them worse for deliverability.

If you are warming up your emails, then TLDs don’t significantly impact your deliverability, but this is an important part to consider while creating a domain if you are serious about your cold email outreach.

3. Name your Cold Email Domain

Now comes the part of choosing the right domain name. This part is very important because this is the part where you have to create variations for your domain name, which is related to your main brand domain name to maintain the brand identity.

You can use the TLD for the variation or make it more creative by adding a Prefix or Suffix to your domain. To be more can also create a domain variation by using country-specific TLDs such as ‘.au’ for Australia and ‘.uk’ for the United Kingdom.

Below are some ideas for name variations for domains. We will create names for our domain “webdew.com” to give you an example you can replace it with your brand name.

Generic extension ideas

Region specific extension ideas

For targeting prospects in specific regions and countries, you can use region-specific extensions to make it feel more personalised.

Prefix/ Suffix Ideas

If you prefer “.com” TLD as it is more reliable and business specific. You can use certain prefixes and suffixes like “hi,” “try,” “go,” and “hub” to make it creative, but it should maintain your brand name identity.

How to set up your Domain Authentication?

Once you have created your domains, it’s time to follow the best sending practices and set up authentications for your email domains.

There are 3 main authentication records that you need to set up for your new domain: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Let's not delve too deeply into these now, but these are the email authentication protocols that ESPs (Email Service Providers) will always check when you send an email. Working with the best DMARC vendor ensures that your email systems meet industry standards and pass these checks smoothly.

If your recipient's email inbox notices that your records are not in place, there's a significant possibility that your email will end up in the spam folder.

You can learn more about how to setup SPF, DKIM, and DMARC here: “SPF, DKIM, DMARC explained: Enhancing email security and trust.”

How to warm up your Emails?

Now you have created a separate domain for cold emails and have all the basics in place. It's time to do an email warm up. You can do it by manually warming your email or using automated warmup services like MailToaster.

Warming up your email manually can be time-consuming, so it is better to use an automation tool so that you can focus on more important tasks. You must warm up your new emails for at least 2 weeks before starting your campaigns.

After two weeks, while continuing your warmup, you can start your cold outreach with 10 emails per day and slowly scale it.

How many Cold email Domain Variations do you Need?

If you plan to start a high volume of email outreach immediately, then one Cold email domain might not be enough for you, and you’ll need to create multiple domain variations.

In our personal opinion, it is better to create several variations and warm them up so that even if the sender's reputation goes bad for one, it won’t hinder your outreach efforts, as you can switch to another domain while taking the time to fix the other one. 

You can create unlimited email accounts from the email domains, but starting slow is recommended.

Creating 3 domain variations is enough for scaling your outreach to a higher level. You can create more according to your own needs and the volume of your campaigns.

Ready to use Cold Email Domain Variations to ace your Email Campaigns?

Using domain variations in your cold email domain can significantly improve the success of your email outreach campaign. The reason is that these variations can go around spam filters, which often block emails from well-known domains.

Customizing your email domain establishes trust between you and the recipient. To find what works best for your audience and goals, you can try different variations and see what clicks with them.

But no matter what you do, you must always be creative with cold email subject lines and email content, as that helps your cold emails stand out and not feel generic. By personalising each email for the receiver, you catch their attention.

Remember to follow all the rules and ethical practices when sending automated emails and boost your email marketing strategy, or your campaign could go wrong. Building meaningful relationships through personalised cold emails can be challenging, but the right strategies can lead to amazing results.

If you encounter any issues and require expert advice, don't hesitate to reach out to webdew. We're here to help!

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