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Sending infrastructure

8 min readSetup

Kai writes the sequences. Lemlist executes them. But the email actually sends from a real inbox, on a real domain, with your name on it. Getting the sending infrastructure right is what keeps you out of spam and keeps your domain reputation clean.

The sending domains

Outbound email should never send from your primary company domain. If something goes wrong with deliverability, you do not want it to affect your main company email. Use dedicated sending subdomains instead.

The standard setup for Foleon uses three subdomains, one per vertical:

Domain	Vertical	Inboxes
`growth.foleon.com`	Media and Publishing	2
`connect.foleon.com`	Fintech and Financial Services	2
`hello.foleon.com`	Reserve / Vertical 3	2

Each subdomain has 2 inboxes, giving a total capacity of around 1,800 to 2,000 emails per month at safe sending volumes.

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

These three DNS records are non-negotiable. Without them, your emails will land in spam or be rejected outright by most mail servers.

SPF tells receiving mail servers which servers are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. Set this up in your DNS provider with the sending IPs from Lemlist and Google Workspace.
DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to every outgoing email, proving it was not tampered with in transit. Lemlist generates a DKIM key for each sending domain. Add the corresponding TXT record to your DNS.
DMARC tells receiving servers what to do if an email fails SPF or DKIM. Start with p=none to monitor without blocking, then move to p=quarantine after a few weeks once you can see your legitimate emails are passing.

Lemlist walks you through this. In Lemlist under Sending Settings, there is a domain authentication wizard that generates the exact DNS records you need to add. Follow that guide for each sending subdomain before starting warm-up.

Inbox warm-up

A brand new inbox has zero sending history and zero reputation. Major mail providers (Gmail, Outlook) treat email from new inboxes with suspicion. Warm-up builds that reputation gradually by sending low volumes of legitimate emails and getting them opened and replied to.

Lemlist has a built-in warm-up feature. Enable it for every new inbox before sending any real outreach. The recommended timeline:

Weeks 1 to 4: Warm-up only. No real outreach. Let Lemlist's warm-up tool run in the background, gradually increasing daily send volume from a handful of emails up to 30 to 40 per day per inbox.
Week 5 onwards: Begin live outreach. Keep daily volume per inbox at 30 to 50 to stay well inside safe limits. Never turn off warm-up while active campaigns are running.

Google Workspace inboxes

Set up each sending inbox as a Google Workspace account on its sending subdomain. For example, roell@growth.foleon.com on the growth.foleon.com domain. Connect each inbox to Lemlist under Sending Settings by authorising with Google OAuth. Lemlist then sends from that inbox directly.

Use real names, not generic addresses. Email from roell@growth.foleon.com lands better than email from hello@growth.foleon.com. Replies and follow-ups feel more personal when there is a real person's name on the sender line.

What can go wrong

The most common deliverability issues and their causes:

Emails landing in spam: Usually SPF or DKIM is missing or misconfigured, or you skipped warm-up and sent too fast too early.
Low open rates: Could be subject lines, or could be that emails are being delivered to promotions tabs. Check Lemlist's deliverability dashboard to see if it is a placement issue.
Domain blacklisted: Happens when bounce rates or spam complaints are too high. Keep your contact list clean, remove bounces immediately, and never buy lists. Run contacts through an email verifier before uploading.