DNS Automation Tools for Scaling Cold Email Outreach
Scaling cold email outreach without automating DNS setup is a massive challenge. Manually configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for multiple domains is time-consuming, error-prone, and limits scalability. DNS automation tools solve this by streamlining record management, improving email deliverability, and saving hours of work.
Key Takeaways:
- Why It Matters: Proper DNS setup ensures emails avoid spam folders and maintain sender reputation.
- The Problem: Manual DNS setup is slow, error-prone, and doesn’t scale for campaigns with multiple domains.
- The Solution: Automation tools like Mailforge and Infraforge handle DNS configurations in minutes, not hours.
Benefits of DNS Automation:
- Saves time: Configure hundreds of domains in minutes.
- Reduces errors: Automated systems ensure accurate SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup.
- Scales easily: Manage bulk updates and monitor domain health effortlessly.
- Boosts deliverability: Proper configurations improve inbox placement rates.
Top Tools:
- Mailforge: Simplifies shared DNS setups with bulk updates and low costs ($2–$3 per mailbox/month).
- Infraforge: Offers private infrastructure with dedicated IPs for better control.
- Primeforge: Optimized for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 users, priced at $3.50–$4.50 per mailbox/month.
- Warmforge: Helps build domain reputation through gradual email warm-up.
- Leadsforge: Generates and verifies lead lists to reduce bounces and complaints.
DNS automation is essential for scaling outreach efficiently while maintaining email deliverability. Without it, businesses risk wasted time, damaged sender reputation, and missed opportunities.
DNS Records Required for Cold Email Deliverability
When it comes to cold email campaigns, three DNS records - SPF, DKIM, and DMARC - play a critical role in ensuring your emails are authenticated and your domain remains trustworthy. These records work together to verify your identity as a sender and protect recipients from spoofing or phishing attempts.
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: What They Do and Why They Matter
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): This record specifies which mail servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. When a receiving server gets an email, it checks the SPF record to confirm that the sending server is on your approved list. This prevents spammers from forging emails that appear to come from your domain.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails using cryptographic authentication. The receiving server validates this signature against a public key stored in your DNS records. A valid signature confirms that the email hasn’t been altered during transit and genuinely originates from your domain.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance): DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM by telling receiving servers what to do if an email fails authentication. It also provides detailed reports so you can monitor and manage who’s sending emails using your domain.
These records are essential for ensuring your emails reach inboxes instead of getting flagged as spam. Properly configured records signal to email providers like Gmail and Outlook that you’re a legitimate sender, which is critical for maintaining deliverability in cold email campaigns.
Problems Caused by Incorrect DNS Records
Mistakes or omissions in your DNS records can wreak havoc on your cold email efforts. Without proper authentication, emails are often flagged as spam or outright rejected, leading to a damaged sender reputation. Over time, this makes it harder for your emails to reach recipients, even if they’re legitimate.
Here’s how misconfigurations can impact your campaigns:
- SPF Issues: If your SPF record is incorrect, receiving servers won’t recognize your mail server as authorized, leading to failed authentication.
- DKIM Problems: Emails without valid digital signatures appear suspicious, raising concerns about their integrity.
- DMARC Errors: Without a proper DMARC policy, receiving servers don’t know how to handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks, leaving your domain vulnerable to abuse.
These issues can tank your sender reputation with major providers, resulting in lower open rates, higher bounce rates, and long-term damage to your domain. Recovery often takes weeks or months, requiring careful domain warming and reputation management.
Even small errors - like a typo in an SPF record, an incorrect DKIM key, or a missing DMARC tag - can render your authentication efforts useless. Copying and pasting long strings of text across registrar interfaces makes these mistakes all too common, especially when managing multiple domains.
Why Automating DNS Setup Makes Sense
Manually setting up DNS records is time-consuming and error-prone, especially when managing multiple domains. Automation tools simplify this process, ensuring accurate configurations in just minutes.
| Feature | Manual DNS Setup | Automated DNS Setup |
|---|---|---|
| Time to Configure | Hours per domain | Minutes for multiple domains |
| Error Rate | High (prone to mistakes) | Low (system-validated) |
| Scalability | Challenging for 10+ domains | Handles hundreds of domains |
| Consistency | Varies across domains | Uniform across all domains |
| Technical Knowledge Needed | Advanced expertise | Minimal to none |
Automation offers several advantages:
- Time Savings: Setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC manually for multiple domains can take hours. Automated tools handle this in minutes, freeing up time for other tasks.
- Consistency: Every domain in your portfolio gets the same properly configured records, removing the variability that comes with manual setup.
- Ease of Use: With minimal technical knowledge required, teams can focus on creating impactful campaigns instead of troubleshooting DNS issues.
- Proactive Monitoring: Automated systems provide ongoing oversight, sending alerts for configuration changes or authentication failures. This ensures potential issues are addressed before they harm your campaigns.
Problems with Manual DNS Setup for Cold Email
Setting up DNS records manually might seem manageable when you're dealing with just one or two domains. But as your cold email campaigns grow, this approach quickly becomes a roadblock.
Here’s a closer look at why manual DNS configuration doesn’t cut it for larger operations.
Manual Setup Takes Time and Leads to Errors
Configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records by hand is a tedious process. It involves copying long strings of text and navigating through different registrar interfaces. For a single domain, this can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. Now imagine doing this for multiple domains - those hours add up fast.
The real problem? Mistakes are almost inevitable. A single typo in an SPF record, a misplaced character in a DKIM key, or a missing tag in a DMARC policy can completely derail your email authentication.
When DNS errors occur, your emails fail authentication checks, which directly hurts deliverability and damages your sender reputation. And fixing these mistakes isn’t quick - it often takes weeks of careful domain warming and reputation recovery. For businesses running time-sensitive campaigns, these delays mean missed opportunities and lost revenue.
On top of that, keeping up with ever-changing email authentication standards becomes a constant challenge. Manually managing configurations across multiple domains makes it nearly impossible to ensure compliance, leaving you vulnerable to deliverability issues and potential security gaps.
And this is just the beginning - scaling these manual processes brings even bigger challenges.
Managing DNS for Multiple Domains Doesn't Scale
The inefficiencies of manual DNS setup become glaringly obvious when managing more than a handful of domains. Cold email campaigns at scale often require hundreds or even thousands of domains to maintain sending volume and protect your primary domain’s reputation. Doing this manually? It’s simply not feasible.
Let’s break it down: setting up DNS for 100 domains can take over 70 hours. For 1,000 domains, you’re looking at nearly 750 hours. That’s time you could be using to grow your business instead of wrestling with DNS records.
Making updates only adds to the headache. Whether you’re switching email providers, rotating DKIM keys for security, or updating your DMARC policy, you’ll need to log into each registrar, locate the relevant records, make changes, and verify propagation - one domain at a time.
And here’s the kicker: every registrar has its own interface, terminology, and quirks. What works on one platform may not translate to another, forcing you to relearn the process repeatedly. This inconsistency slows you down and increases the chances of mistakes.
"Operating in a high-growth startup environment requires speed, scalability, and operational efficiency. We needed to build an outbound motion that didn't break as we scaled - and Mailforge gave us that foundation." - Isabella L., Founder, Let's Fearlessly Grow
Maintaining Consistent DNS Configurations
Consistency across all your domains isn’t just a nice bonus - it’s critical for protecting your sender reputation and ensuring email deliverability. Providers like Gmail and Outlook look at your sending patterns across domains. If some domains are properly configured while others aren’t, it raises red flags that can hurt your entire operation.
Manual setups make achieving this consistency almost impossible. Even with detailed documentation and checklists, human error creeps in. Small variations in configurations can lead to big problems, undermining your reputation.
The challenge multiplies when multiple team members are involved. Without a centralized system to enforce standards, each person might interpret best practices differently or rely on outdated configurations. This lack of uniformity only increases the risk of errors.
Then there’s the issue of monitoring. DNS records can drift over time - whether due to unexpected changes or simple oversights. Without automated monitoring, you might not realize something’s wrong until emails start bouncing or landing in spam folders. By then, the damage is already done.
And if you ever need to make bulk updates - say, to rotate DKIM keys across all your domains due to a security issue - manual processes turn into a nightmare. Logging into hundreds of registrar accounts and updating records one by one can take days or even weeks, leaving your infrastructure exposed in the meantime.
Automation solves these problems, ensuring efficient, error-free DNS management for growing email campaigns.
DNS Automation Tools for Cold Email Outreach
DNS automation tools take the hassle out of manual configurations, reduce errors, and let you scale your cold email campaigns more effectively. Below, we’ll explore tools specifically designed to streamline your cold email infrastructure.
Mailforge: Simplified DNS for Shared Infrastructure
Mailforge handles the heavy lifting for you. It automatically sets up SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and custom domain tracking for every domain you add - no technical know-how needed. Once you add a domain, Mailforge applies email best practices instantly.
One standout feature is its bulk DNS update capability. Instead of logging into multiple registrar accounts to update records one at a time, you can modify DNS settings for hundreds of domains in just a few clicks.
"Procedures that usually took hours (setting DKIM, SPF, etc. records) for multiple domains, now take a few minutes. Mailforge is also cost-efficient since you spend per mailbox ~3 times less than with Gmail." - Danny Goff, Director of Sales, Propeller
Domains and mailboxes can be fully set up in under 10 minutes. The platform supports scaling to thousands of mailboxes with distributed email infrastructure, making it ideal for high-volume campaigns.
Mailforge also includes SSL & domain masking for added security and better deliverability. This feature protects your sending infrastructure while ensuring professional email authentication across all domains. Transferring domains is just as seamless - you can add or move domains without disrupting your campaigns.
Managing domains and mailboxes is made easier with multiple workspaces, allowing you to organize projects or clients separately. You can even move domains and mailboxes between workspaces, making performance tracking more efficient as your operations grow.
Pricing: Mailforge costs $2–$3 per mailbox per month (minimum 10 mailboxes). Domain costs depend on the TLD, with five ".com" domains priced at $70 per year. SSL & domain masking is available as an add-on for $2 per domain per month or $6 per domain annually.
Mailforge integrates with Salesforge and other cold email tools, giving you flexibility in executing campaigns. It’s trusted by over 10,000 businesses, from solo entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies, thanks to its infrastructure built for reliable email deliverability.
For businesses that need dedicated infrastructure, Infraforge offers an alternative.
Infraforge: Private Infrastructure with Full Control
Infraforge is designed for organizations that need private, dedicated infrastructure. It provides exclusive IP addresses, ensuring your deliverability isn’t affected by other users' practices.
One of its key features is multi-IP provisioning, giving you control over your sending reputation. Dedicated IPs belong solely to your organization, which is critical for managing large-scale outreach effectively.
Infraforge also offers API access, making it easy to integrate DNS automation into your existing workflows. This is especially useful for development teams looking to automate complex processes or build custom solutions.
Another notable feature is whitelabeling, which allows agencies to rebrand the infrastructure as their own. This is particularly helpful for agencies running campaigns for multiple clients who want to maintain consistent branding.
Infraforge uses a modular, slot-based pricing model that adjusts to your specific needs, offering flexibility as your campaigns grow.
For businesses targeting U.S.-based prospects, Primeforge might be a better fit.
Primeforge: Optimized for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
Primeforge is tailored for businesses using Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailboxes in their cold email campaigns. It automatically configures essential DNS records, adhering to email best practices.
One of its standout features is the use of US-based IP addresses, which can improve deliverability when sending emails to American recipients. Email providers tend to favor messages sent from IPs within the same geographic region as the recipient.
Like Mailforge, Primeforge supports bulk DNS updates, allowing you to apply changes across multiple workspaces with ease.
Pricing: Primeforge is priced at $3.50–$4.50 per mailbox per month, making it a premium option for businesses scaling cold email campaigns. Its seamless integration with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 makes it particularly appealing to organizations already using these platforms.
Even with advanced DNS automation, ensuring your emails land in inboxes requires proper warm-up and testing.
Warmforge: Building Reputation and Testing Deliverability
Warmforge is designed to help new domains build their reputation. It gradually increases sending volumes from new accounts while simulating natural email activity, helping you establish positive sender reputation with email providers before launching full campaigns.
The platform also provides deliverability testing, showing you how different email providers handle your messages. This allows you to identify and fix issues before they impact your campaigns.
Warmforge works alongside DNS automation tools to ensure your emails not only authenticate properly but also reach the intended inboxes. It includes monitoring for SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and MX records to keep your email health in check.
Warmforge is included for free with any Salesforge subscription, making it a cost-effective addition to your cold email setup.
Leadsforge: Generating Verified Lead Lists
No matter how well-configured your DNS or warmed-up your mailboxes are, sending emails to invalid addresses can ruin your sender reputation. That’s where Leadsforge comes in. It generates verified lead lists tailored to your campaigns.
Using a simple chat interface, you can describe your ideal customer profile, and Leadsforge will create a list for you - no need to wrestle with filters or complex search operators. Built-in email verification ensures you’re only sending to valid addresses, reducing bounces and spam complaints.
Leadsforge integrates seamlessly with other Forge Stack tools, allowing you to export verified lists directly to your sending platform. This ensures your DNS-authenticated domains deliver messages to real, active recipients.
| Tool | Infrastructure Type | Automated DNS | Bulk Domain Management | Dedicated IPs | Integration | Pricing Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailforge | Shared | Yes | Yes | No | Any | $2-$3 per mailbox/month |
| Infraforge | Private | Yes | Yes | Yes | Any | Modular, slot-based |
| Primeforge | Shared | Yes | Yes | No | Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 | $3.50-$4.50 per mailbox/month |
| Warmforge | N/A | Monitoring | N/A | N/A | Any | Free with Salesforge |
| Leadsforge | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Any | Separate subscription |
Each tool in the Forge Stack is designed to address a specific part of cold email outreach. Mailforge is a great choice for scaling campaigns with shared infrastructure, while Infraforge offers enterprise-level control with private infrastructure. Primeforge caters to businesses using Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, particularly those targeting U.S.-based audiences. Warmforge and Leadsforge round out the suite, ensuring your emails reach valid, engaged recipients.
How to Implement DNS Automation for Cold Email
With the challenges of manual DNS setup already discussed, let’s dive into how you can streamline the process using DNS automation. This involves setting up dedicated outreach domains, automating authentication records, and keeping a close eye on domain health.
Setting Up Dedicated Outreach Domains
Your main business domain is precious - it’s tied to your brand and all essential communications. Using it for cold email outreach is a risky move. If your sending reputation takes a hit, it could disrupt everything from transactional emails to internal communications.
The solution? Register separate domains specifically for outreach. These domains should resemble your primary domain but remain distinct enough to shield your brand. For instance, if your main domain is "acmecorp.com", you could register alternatives like "acmecorpmail.com" or "tryacmecorp.com."
Domain costs are fairly reasonable. A standard ".com" domain typically costs around $14 per year. For example, Mailforge offers a package of five ".com" domains for $70 annually.
When planning your outreach, consider how many mailboxes you’ll need. To maintain good deliverability and minimize risks, it’s smart to spread your emails across multiple mailboxes and domains. Also, register these domains weeks in advance to help establish credibility with email providers. Be sure to keep WHOIS details accurate across all domains. Once your domains are set up and aged, automate their DNS configurations to save time and ensure compliance.
Automating SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Configuration
Setting up DNS records manually can be a headache - errors are easy to make, and the process can be painfully slow. Automation solves these problems, ensuring your domains are configured correctly from the get-go.
Platforms like Mailforge simplify this process. When you add a domain, the platform automatically sets up SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and custom domain tracking records based on industry standards. What normally takes hours can be done in just minutes.
Here’s what these records do:
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Specifies which mail servers can send emails on behalf of your domain.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a digital signature to your emails, verifying they haven’t been altered during transit.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance): Tells receiving servers how to handle emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks.
For businesses juggling multiple domains, bulk DNS updates are a game-changer. They let you make changes across all domains from a single interface, which is especially useful when updating authentication policies or sending infrastructure. Automation also extends to custom domain tracking, replacing generic links with branded ones to boost click-through rates and maintain a consistent brand image.
Monitoring Domain Health and DNS Configuration
Once your DNS records are automated, keeping an eye on domain health becomes crucial. Regular monitoring helps you catch issues before they snowball into bigger problems.
DNS records can change unexpectedly due to registrar updates, expiration, or errors. Monitoring tools can send real-time alerts when something goes wrong, allowing you to act fast. Platforms like Mailforge include ongoing DNS monitoring, so you don’t have to rely on manual checks. This ensures your domains stay in good standing.
Your sender reputation is just as important. Email providers track how recipients interact with your messages - low engagement or high complaint rates can hurt your deliverability. Automated tools can help you spot these issues early.
Blacklist monitoring is another critical step. If your domain or IP ends up on a spam blacklist, your emails might not reach their destination. Automated tools can scan major blacklists and notify you immediately, giving you a chance to resolve the issue before it affects your campaigns.
Additionally, monitoring tools often provide insights into your domain reputation scores. These scores are influenced by factors like bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement metrics. Tracking them over time can help you fine-tune your outreach strategy and address any red flags.
If you manage multiple domains, centralized monitoring is a must. Dashboards that consolidate all your domains’ statuses make it easy to spot patterns and prioritize fixes. Even with automation, periodic audits are a good idea to ensure your DNS configurations meet current best practices and evolving email authentication standards.
Conclusion
Trying to scale cold email outreach without DNS automation is not just slow - it’s a logistical nightmare. Manually setting up DNS for dozens or even hundreds of domains creates endless opportunities for errors and makes maintaining deliverability a daunting task.
With DNS automation tools, you can slash configuration time by up to 90% compared to doing it manually. Tasks that used to take hours can now be completed in minutes. This means businesses can scale their outreach infrastructure without running into technical roadblocks.
The cost savings are just as compelling. For instance, Mailforge charges $484 per month for 200 mailboxes, while Google Workspace costs $1,680, and Microsoft 365 comes in at $1,200. These numbers highlight a major shift toward more affordable and scalable email outreach solutions.
But speed and cost savings alone aren’t enough if your emails don’t land in inboxes. That’s where automated DNS tools shine - they ensure your authentication records are properly set up from the start. By adhering to industry best practices, these tools help maximize deliverability and eliminate common mistakes like typos, missing DMARC policies, or inconsistent setups across multiple domains.
When choosing a platform, prioritize features like bulk DNS updates, centralized monitoring, and seamless integration with your existing outreach tools. Whether you go for shared infrastructure with Mailforge, private setups using Infraforge, or specialized configurations for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 with Primeforge, pick a solution that aligns with your technical needs and scale.
Ultimately, the success of your cold email campaigns depends on a strong infrastructure. DNS automation isn’t just a convenience - it’s the backbone of scalable and efficient outreach. Without it, you risk getting bogged down in endless manual work and troubleshooting. Start with the right tools, and you’ll set yourself up for long-term success.
FAQs
How can DNS automation tools enhance deliverability for cold email campaigns?
DNS automation tools, like the ones provided by Mailforge, make setting up key DNS records - SPF, DKIM, and DMARC - a breeze. These records play a critical role in verifying your emails, helping to keep them out of spam folders and boosting their chances of reaching inboxes.
With Mailforge, the entire process is automated, allowing businesses to easily configure and manage numerous domains and mailboxes without breaking a sweat. This not only saves valuable time but also helps maintain a solid sender reputation - something that's essential for scaling cold email campaigns effectively.
What are the risks of not automating DNS management for email outreach at scale?
Managing multiple domains manually for email outreach can be a risky and time-consuming process. One of the biggest issues is the potential for configuration errors - like setting up SPF, DKIM, or DMARC records incorrectly. These mistakes can hurt your email deliverability and even increase the chances of your messages landing in spam folders.
On top of that, manually managing hundreds or even thousands of domains can quickly become overwhelming. It’s not just inefficient - it also opens the door to human error, slowing down your ability to scale and pulling resources away from other important tasks. By automating DNS management, you can ensure accuracy, save time, and make it much easier to scale your cold email campaigns without unnecessary headaches.
What should businesses look for in a DNS automation tool to support their cold email outreach?
Mailforge makes scaling cold email campaigns easier with its automated DNS setup, cutting down on time and minimizing mistakes. It also helps businesses figure out the right number of domains and mailboxes needed to keep strong deliverability rates while steering clear of common issues.
Key features like bulk DNS updates and SSL & domain masking streamline the management of large campaigns, making it a smart choice for businesses, whether small or large.