Cold Email Starter Kit

A complete system for running cold email. Follow it top-to-bottom and you will have purchased domains, created warmed inboxes, built a lead list, written a campaign, and sent your first emails. Designed for beginners — no prior cold email experience required.

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What you'll build

By the end of the flow you'll have:

• 10-20 throwaway sending domains purchased on Dynadot
• 20-40 warmed sending inboxes on Zapmail
• A 2,000-person lead list from Prospeo
• A 4-step email sequence with variants and personalization
• A live campaign in Smartlead or Instantly sending daily
• Analytics and reply handling set up

Total cost month 1: ~$186. Recurring: ~$126/mo. See references/00-getting-started.md for breakdown.

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The end-to-end flow

1. Deliverability basics → understand why we buy domains + inboxes (read once)
2. Strategy → pick your offer and ICP
3. Copywriting → write the sequence
4. Infrastructure → buy domains, create inboxes
5. List building → pull prospects from Prospeo
6. Enrichment (optional) → add personalization data
7. Launch → upload to Smartlead or Instantly
8. Analyze + iterate → pull metrics back, tweak

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Before you start: prerequisites

Technical:

• Node.js 20+ (node --version should print v20 or higher) → install from nodejs.org
• tsx (npm install -g tsx)
• Terminal comfort (you know what cd and cp do)
• A text editor (VS Code recommended)

Accounts (sign up before continuing):

• Dynadot (domain registrar)
• Zapmail (inbox provider)
• Prospeo (lead source)
• Smartlead OR Instantly (sending platform — pick one)

Budget: ~$200 for your first campaign.

If any of the above is missing, start at references/00-getting-started.md. It has exact signup links and API-key retrieval instructions.

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Recommended entry point: /cold-email-kickoff

Before reading this tutorial, invoke /cold-email-kickoff from Claude Code. It's a shorter, guided flow that orchestrates ICP onboarding + lead magnet + campaign strategy + a consolidated campaign plan — and hands you to the right next skill based on whether you have infrastructure already. Most users should start there.

This starter kit is the deeper manual tutorial for learning each step in detail. Use it if you want to understand what's happening under the hood, or if you want to wire up a specific step manually.

One-hour quick start

If you just want to launch your first campaign in a single session, stop reading this file and open references/14-60-minute-tutorial.md. It's a step-by-step walkthrough that assumes zero context and gives you exact commands to run.

Fast path — skip manual juggling once you've done it once

If you already have inboxes set up and just want a campaign to run automatically, invoke /auto-research-public. It does all of this in one flow: scrapes the target company → Claude generates an ICP → Prospeo pulls leads → emails are verified → Claude personalizes each lead via parallel Task sub-agents → Smartlead campaign launches. ~20 minutes end-to-end, no skill-juggling.

Prerequisites for the fast path:

• Ran /icp-onboarding once (produces client-profile.yaml)
• Ran /zapmail-domain-setup-public + /smartlead-inbox-manager to have active inboxes
• Have SMARTLEAD_API_KEY, PROSPEO_API_KEY, MILLIONVERIFIER_API_KEY in .env

The walkthrough below is for manual first-timer learning. If you've done a campaign once before, jump straight to /auto-research-public.

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Reading order (for understanding)

The references/ folder is numbered in the order to read them the first time:

#	File	What it covers
00	00-getting-started.md	Accounts, API keys, .env, verify, cost breakdown
01	01-deliverability-fundamentals.md	SPF/DKIM/DMARC, warmup, domain strategy, volume math
02	02-campaign-strategy.md	Generate 15-20 campaign ideas from your website
03	03-campaign-copywriting.md	Stepwise copywriting: direction → subject → body → final
04	04-sequence-structure.md	Timing, follow-ups, threading, A/B testing, spintax
05	05-domain-and-inbox-setup.md	Dynadot purchase, Zapmail inboxes, export
06	06-list-building-prospeo.md	Prospeo filters, state-by-state crawling, full-export
07	07-enrichment-library.md	Optional enrichments + pricing
08	08-smartlead-api.md	Smartlead API reference
09	09-instantly-api.md	Instantly API reference
10	10-reply-handling.md	Positive/negative/OOO/bounce playbook
11	11-legal-compliance.md	CAN-SPAM, GDPR, unsubscribe requirements
12	12-launch-checklist.md	Pre-flight QA
13	13-troubleshooting.md	Error matrix
14	14-60-minute-tutorial.md	Literal step-by-step first campaign

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Decision tree — where am I and what do I read?

If you're at this point...	Read this
"I don't know what cold email even is"	01-deliverability-fundamentals.md, then 02-campaign-strategy.md
"I have a product, need campaign ideas"	02-campaign-strategy.md
"I have a campaign, need to write emails"	03-campaign-copywriting.md + 04-sequence-structure.md
"I need inboxes but don't have them"	05-domain-and-inbox-setup.md
"I need a lead list"	06-list-building-prospeo.md
"My emails need personalization"	07-enrichment-library.md
"Ready to upload to Smartlead"	08-smartlead-api.md
"Ready to upload to Instantly"	09-instantly-api.md
"Got my first replies, now what?"	10-reply-handling.md
"Am I legal? GDPR? CAN-SPAM?"	11-legal-compliance.md
"Something's broken"	13-troubleshooting.md

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Choose your sending platform: Smartlead vs Instantly

Criterion	Smartlead	Instantly
Entry price (2026)	~$39/mo, 2K leads	~$37/mo, 1K leads
Free trial	14 days	14 days
Inboxes	Unlimited on paid plans	Unlimited on paid plans
API auth	Query param (?api_key=)	Bearer token header
API endpoint count	~50	~150+
Master inbox	Yes (strong)	Yes (Unibox, strong)
Built-in warmup	Free	Included
AI reply categorization	Yes	Yes (lead-labels)
Branching follow-ups	Limited	Yes (Subsequences, first-class)
Inbox rotation	Yes	Yes
Deliverability testing	External tools	Built-in (inbox-placement-tests)
Done-for-you inboxes	No	Yes (DFY orders)
Built-in lead enrichment	No	Yes (SuperSearch)
Smartlead-exclusive	Simpler for beginners	—
Instantly-exclusive	—	Subsequences + Inbox Placement + SuperSearch

Default recommendation for first-time users: Smartlead. Simpler mental model, cheaper at small scale, enough power for your first 6 months. Migrate to Instantly if you outgrow Smartlead's advanced features.

You only need one. Pick now so you know which API reference to read later.

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Eric-proven defaults for your first campaign

Use these unless you have a specific reason to deviate:

• 20 domains × 2 inboxes = 40 sending inboxes — enough to warm 2 weeks then send ~1,200/day
• 30 emails/day/inbox (post-warmup) — never exceed
• 2,000 leads per campaign — good statistical size to learn from
• 4-step sequence — Day 0, Day 3, Day 7, Day 11
• 2-week warmup minimum before any real sending
• .com domains (~$10-14 each on Dynadot) — default choice. Fall back to .co if .com is taken. Avoid .info, .xyz, and other cheap TLDs — they hurt deliverability.
• 2 inboxes per domain max (above that hurts reputation)
• 50-90 word emails — extend to 125 only if AI personalization justifies it
• Preview email to yourself first before any real send
• Reply within 30 seconds when a positive reply comes in — this looks 10x more human than replying hours later

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Common beginner mistakes (avoid these)

1. Sending from your main domain. Instant risk of blacklisting your real business mail. Buy lookalike throwaway domains (e.g. trygrowth.co to send on behalf of growth.com).
2. Skipping warmup. New inboxes sending cold = instant spam folder. Minimum 2 weeks warmup.
3. Buying one $30 domain. Buy 10-20 .com / .co lookalike domains instead. Diversity = deliverability.
4. Writing emails longer than 90 words. Nobody reads long cold emails.
5. Using em dashes (—). Gmail spam filters flag these. Use periods or commas.
6. Sending without SPF/DKIM/DMARC. Zapmail sets these automatically if you connect domains through it. Verify with dig.
7. Treating a 0% reply rate in week 1 as failure. Expect 2-5% reply rate over the full sequence; wins compound over follow-ups 2-4.
8. Buying a list from a random "lead seller." Use Prospeo — verified, legal, clean data.
9. Emailing EU consumers. B2B to EU is generally fine under legitimate interest, but consumer addresses are off-limits. See 11-legal-compliance.md.
10. Not handling replies fast. Replies that sit for hours go cold. Set up notifications.

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When something breaks

Open references/13-troubleshooting.md. It has an error matrix keyed by symptom → cause → fix, plus diagnostic dig/curl commands for verifying setup.

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Next steps after your first campaign

Once you've shipped and have ~2 weeks of data:

• Read 10-reply-handling.md and set up unified inbox monitoring
• Run scripts/smartlead-pull-analytics.ts (or the Instantly equivalent) to get a CSV of daily stats
• Rewrite the worst-performing email variant
• Launch campaign #2 in parallel (different targeting, same infrastructure)
• Study what's working and compound it

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Scripts included

All in scripts/. Run with npx tsx scripts/<name>.ts.

Script	Purpose
setup-env.sh	Interactive .env bootstrap
verify-credentials.ts	Ping all APIs, print ✅/❌ table
dynadot-generate-domains.ts	Generate + availability-check domain candidates
dynadot-bulk-purchase.ts	Purchase a batch of domains
zapmail-full-setup.ts	NS switch → connect → inboxes → export (4-phase)
prospeo-full-export.ts	Full paginated Prospeo search to CSV
smartlead-create-campaign.ts	End-to-end campaign creation
smartlead-add-leads.ts	Batch lead upload
smartlead-pull-analytics.ts	Daily stats to CSV
instantly-create-campaign.ts	Instantly campaign creation
instantly-add-leads.ts	Instantly batch lead upload
instantly-pull-analytics.ts	Instantly daily stats to CSV
enrichments/company-phone.ts	Blitz company phone enrichment
enrichments/ai-company-analysis.ts	OpenRouter GPT-4o-mini company analysis
enrichments/company-news.ts	OpenWebNinja recent-news enrichment
enrichments/linkedin-profile.ts	RapidAPI LinkedIn profile enrichment

Every script:

• Reads .env from the skill root
• Is safe to re-run (idempotent where possible)
• Confirms before spending money (domain purchases)
• Writes structured output to CSV/JSON you can inspect
• Fails loudly on errors, never silently

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Getting help

• Check 13-troubleshooting.md first — it covers 90% of issues
• Re-read the platform comparison if you're on the wrong tool
• For copy: run the QA checklist in 03-campaign-copywriting.md
• For lists: re-read filter advice in 06-list-building-prospeo.md
• Cold email subreddits (r/coldemail, r/salesdevelopment) are friendly if you post redacted details

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A note on ethics

Cold email works best when it's actually useful. Skip consumer addresses, honor unsubscribes promptly, include a real address in your footer, and write something the recipient is glad they got.

That's most of what compliance comes down to in practice.

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What to do next

If you're new to cold email: run /cold-email-kickoff instead of going through this tutorial manually. It orchestrates the entire setup (ICP + lead magnet + strategy + plan) in one flow.

If you want to do it manually: follow references/00-getting-started.md through 14-60-minute-tutorial.md in order. Each document points at the next.

Or wait: this is a tutorial. Either you're ready to learn, or you're not — no waiting.