Using a Separate Domain
If you're sending large monthly volumes, we recommend using a separate domain for your outreach. Here's why and how to do it.
Many Organizations send out a lot of different types of email messages, business emails, marketing emails, prospecting emails, etc. etc.
Business emails are your day-to-day individual messages, sent by your team to other departments, your clients, your suppliers, and so on. These are generally time-sensitive, and it's important that they reach the receiver's inbox and are not filtered by any spam software.
Marketing and prospecting emails are more likely to be being sent to people you might not have a relationship with (yet!) and so are more likely than business emails to be picked up by spam filters and for receivers to complain that the email is unwanted (rather than click the unsubscribe link!)
Over time this can cause email servers to start blocking your emails.
While you can't avoid the potential for this to happen, you can stop any complaints being made against your main business domain by using a separate domain for your marketing and/or prospecting activities.
Let's break this down.
If you're on the Sell More Plan, sourcing 2,500 prospects per month, with a campaign that sends an initial email and three follow-ups. Taking into account our average response rates at each stage of the sequence and accounting for unsubscribes, you are still likely sending over 9,000 emails per month through Outbase!
And that's a lot of emails to be sent through one domain, particularly when you will still be sending your normal day-to-day business emails as well!
Although buying a separate domain might sound difficult and technical, it's actually very common practice. We've provided some details below (with as little technical jargon as possible!) to help get you started.
Your Organization already has a domain, so probably someone already knows how to do this and might be able to help.
You can buy domains directly from domain name registrars, some well-known examples are GoDaddy, Domain.com, or Namecheap, but you may choose to use others, or the same company you bought your Organizations domain through.
If your Organization uses a hosting provider such as A2 Hosting or cybersecurity software such as Cloudflare, you may also be able to buy your separate domain directly through them and then manage all your domains in one place!
So you're all ready to buy your new domain, but now you have to choose the name...
A good place to start can be just putting your current domain into the search box and seeing if there are any similar domains. For example, if your Organization domain is eg-marketing.com you might get suggestions of:
- egmarketing.com
- eg-marketing.co.uk
- eg-marketing.com.au
Some of these might not be of interest (you might not want to use a .co.uk domain if you're not contacting the UK), but something might catch your eye.
Another way to go about the process is to choose something that shows what your Organization does or is offering. For example:
- wedomarketing.com or justmarketing.com - tell the prospect what your Organization does
- b2bmarketingexperts.com - tells the prospect what your offering is
- eg-marketing-outreach.com - tells the prospect directly that they are part of your outreach
Either way, our top tips are:
- Make sure it reflects your Organization's brand and identity
- Keep it short
- Use an appropriate extension
- Take a second look - if you're putting words together, check them and get a second opinion if possible. Let's not forget when #nowthatchersdead started trending in 2013, which had Cher fans taking to socials to express their condolences when it was in fact Margaret Thatcher who had passed away.
Now've got a new domain you're going to want to redirect this domain to your existing domain. This means if someone tries to go to the domain you have just bought, they will be immediately transferred to your main domain. The most common way to do this is with a 301 redirect.
Not sure how to redirect your domain? The steps will vary depending on your hosting provider, but most will be found in the domain's DNS settings. For more information:
⢠Godaddy support: Forward my GoDaddy domain
⢠Cloudflare support: Configuring URL forwarding or redirects with Page Rules
⢠A2 Hosting support: How to configure redirects in cPanel
⢠Domain.com support: How to Create a 301 Redirect - Video
⢠Namecheap support: How to redirect a URL for a domain?â
Or search your providers' support center for more assistance.
Want to see how this works in practice? Click on any of the below links and see what happens in your web browsers address bar:
As with buying a new domain, your Organization will already have email accounts set up, so someone should already know how to do this and might be able to help.
Providers such as Gmail, Outlook, and Office 365 will allow you to manage multiple domains on one account (depending on your plan type), see the below links for more information:
So it may be worth first checking if you can add the domain and additional email accounts through your current provider. Otherwise, you may want to use a different provider to create email accounts. The provider you used to buy the domain from may offer email packages directly through them, which can make life easier, or you may choose to use a free provider, such as Zoho Mail.
When creating new email accounts, we recommend keeping the format as close to the format of your main email accounts as possible.
For example, if your primary email account is: [email protected], set up your new email account as [email protected]
Depending on how you create the new email accounts, you may want to set up email account forwarding so, instead of managing 2 inboxes, any replies to your Outbase campaign are forwarded directly to your main email account, so you can pick up the conversation quickly and easily. The links below explain how to do this through Gmail or Microsoft, if you are using a different provider, consult their support documentation for further assistance:
Once you've bought your new domain and set up the new email accounts, all that's left is to add those accounts to Outbase, and your campaigns can continue, safe in the knowledge that your main domain is safe and protected!
Can't remember how to add an email account to Outbase? The Add an Email Account section of Getting Started has all the information you need as a reminder.