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Cold email is email to people who never asked to hear from you. It can work, and in the US it is legal, but it needs its own setup: a cold email platform you subscribe to, sending inboxes on separate domains, and a way to opt out in every message. This page shows how to tell a cold list from a permission list, what to set up first, and how Hiveku’s Outbound page runs the campaign.

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First: is your list cold?

Ask one question: how did these people come to be on the list? Permission (they asked to hear from you):
  • they signed up on your website, a form, a newsletter box, or at checkout with marketing consent;
  • they bought from you;
  • they asked you to get in touch: a quote request, an enquiry, a booking;
  • they are in a conversation with you: they replied, called, or met you and agreed to follow up.
Cold (they did not ask):
  • members of an association, chamber, club or directory you belong to;
  • people from an event you did not run, or badge scans without a “yes, contact me”;
  • bought, rented or traded lists, and data providers such as Apollo or ZoomInfo;
  • addresses scraped or found online: websites, Google Maps, LinkedIn.
Sharing an association or an industry with someone is not permission. A list that is “not technically cold” is cold.

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Which tool for which list

Hiveku email marketing is only for people who signed up or are customers. Never import a cold list into it: its email provider forbids cold lists, and the complaints put your sending at risk.Every Hiveku import asks where the contacts came from. Email marketing refuses a cold source. The CRM import accepts one, for sales follow-up and your cold email platform, and marks those contacts so email marketing never sends to them. The same goes for contacts that first came to you through Outbound, unless they later opt in themselves.

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Before your first cold campaign

  1. A cold email platform. We recommend SmartLead or Instantly. You subscribe to the platform directly; it is not part of your Hiveku plan. Hiveku’s Outbound page connects to SmartLead today. Instantly works on its own and is not connected to Hiveku yet.
  2. Separate sending domains, for example getacme.com beside acme.com. Never send cold email from your main domain: if it gets flagged, your everyday email and invoices start landing in spam, and security tools may warn people about your website.
  3. Two or three inboxes per sending domain, which you buy through your platform, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365.
  4. Warm-up. Give new inboxes two to three weeks of warm-up before the first campaign, then send about 30 to 50 emails a day per inbox.
  5. The legal basics. Every email needs your real name and business, an honest subject line, your postal address and a clear way to opt out, and you must honor opt-outs within 10 business days (US CAN-SPAM). Canada (CASL) and much of Europe require permission first: check before you email anyone there.
Want to reach the members of your association? Ask the association to send it for you. Many sell a sponsored email or a newsletter spot to their members, which reaches the same people with permission.

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Run it from Hiveku’s Outbound page

Outbound is an add-on at $125 a month, by request; it isn’t part of any plan. To add it, write to hello@hiveku.com. It runs your SmartLead campaigns and replies inside Hiveku.
1

Connect SmartLead

Go to Outbound > Cold Email > Settings and paste your SmartLead API key. Hiveku checks the key before saving it.
2

Check your sending accounts

Accounts lists the inboxes in your SmartLead account with their warm-up status. Add inboxes and turn on warm-up in SmartLead.
3

Add your leads

Add leads under Leads, or push a saved audience into a campaign. Keep lists small and specific: 50 to 200 well-chosen people beat 2,000.
4

Build the campaign

Under Campaigns, write the steps: a short first email, then one or two follow-ups a few days apart. Personalize with variables such as {{first_name}} and {{company}}. Hiveku sends the steps to SmartLead. Write plain text, put your opt-out line and postal address in every step, and leave open tracking off: the tracking pixel hurts delivery.
5

Test, then start

Send the sequence to yourself first and read every step. Then start the campaign; SmartLead sends it on its schedule.

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Replies

Inbox gathers the replies from every campaign. Draft an answer with AI suggestions and approve each one before it sends. A reply that asks to stop is recognized and the lead is suppressed.

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Keep your sending healthy

  • Bounces. Outbound’s health checks warn when bounces pass 2% and 5% and flag 10% as a blocker. Pause and clean the list long before that, and verify addresses before you upload them.
  • Unsubscribes. More than 2% means the list or the message is off: tighten the targeting.
  • Blocklist. Suppress addresses or whole domains you must never email: competitors, current customers, anyone who opted out.
  • Opt-outs carry over. Before a lead reaches SmartLead, Hiveku leaves out anyone who opted out of your email: unsubscribed, bounced, complained or marked Do Not Contact. A US opt-out covers cold email too.

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Common questions

No. You subscribe to SmartLead or Instantly directly and buy your sending inboxes and domains. Hiveku’s Outbound add-on ($125 a month, by request) connects the platform you already pay for.
Hiveku’s CRM sequences send from your connected Gmail or Outlook, and they are for people who know you. Use them for cold outreach only from an inbox on a separate domain, and only a few hand-written emails a day. Anything bigger belongs on a cold email platform.
SmartLead and Instantly connect sending inboxes over SMTP and IMAP, so most providers work. Use inboxes on a separate sending domain, never your main address or an alias of it.
Usually one of three things: the subject line, personalization that feels fake, or the wrong people on the list. Fix the targeting before you add volume.
Replies arrive from SmartLead every few minutes. If one is missing after 10 minutes, check that the inbox it went to is still connected in SmartLead.

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What’s next?

Email Marketing

Newsletters and campaigns for people who signed up or are customers

CRM Contacts

Keep leads who reply in your CRM for the longer relationship