Do I need SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for cold email?
SPF says which servers may send for the domain. DKIM signs the message. DMARC tells receivers what to do when those fail. This is baseline for any domain that sends mail, not a growth hack.
Set them up on the sending domain before warmup. A tool that "just works" without DNS is sending from someone else's reputation, or it will break.
Start DMARC in monitoring (p=none) until you know what is sending as you, then tighten. Do not jump to reject on a domain you do not understand. You can kill customer mail too if it is the same domain.
Alignment matters. If the visible From domain and the authenticated domain disagree, filters get suspicious. Keep them in the same family.
Authentication will not save a dirty list or a complaint spike. It is necessary, not sufficient. See why mail goes to spam.
Frequently asked questions
Personal Gmail is not a cold outbound system. Workspace domains still need the records. Do not blast from a free Gmail.
Minutes to a day. Send a test to yourself and check the headers. Do not start a 5,000-person campaign on hope.
LinkedIn DMs are not email. Different channel. If your sequence hops to email, that hop needs DNS.
Whoever owns the domain DNS. If that is not you, write the records down and sit with them. Guessing TXT records is how sites break.
Run the outreach from your own LinkedIn account
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