Setting Up System: Campaign Setup in Instantly

Your sequences are written and your domain is warmed up this lesson gets the right emails to the right people at the right times automatically

The Two Options

Option A: Instantly.ai (Recommended)

Instantly is built specifically for cold email outreach. At $37 per month it gives you unlimited sending accounts and email addresses, built-in domain warmup with no separate tool needed, campaign sequences with automatic follow-up timing, reply detection that stops the sequence when someone replies, A/B testing for subject lines, and basic analytics covering sent, opened, and replied.

For solo operators running outbound email as part of a services business, Instantly is the cleanest option. It handles the infrastructure so you focus on the emails.

Option B: Gmail (Manual, Free)

For your first campaign of 10 to 20 prospects Gmail works. You send the first emails manually, add a reminder to follow up in 2 days, follow up in 4 more days, and so on.

This is slower and does not scale but it costs nothing and forces you to read every email before it goes out which is useful for your first campaign.

Limitation: Gmail flags accounts that send more than 500 emails per day. For cold outreach you should stay well below this, but manual Gmail has no built-in sequence automation or reply detection.

Setting Up a Campaign in Instantly

Step 1: Add Your Sending Account

Go to Accounts then Add New Account and connect your sending domain inbox from the infrastructure lesson, not your main business email. Confirm the warmup is still active. Instantly's warmup panel shows your domain reputation score and it should be in the green before you launch.

Step 2: Create a New Campaign

Go to Campaigns then New Campaign and name it by segment. Do not name it "Campaign 1." Use something like "UK Law Firms July" or "E-commerce Shopify August." You will have multiple campaigns running eventually and the names matter.

Step 3: Upload Your Contact List

Upload your verified CSV with these columns: firstName which Instantly uses for the firstName variable, email, company, and any custom variables you want to use in the email body. Map the columns when prompted. Confirm the preview looks correct before proceeding.

Step 4: Build the Sequence

Add each email in the sequence in this order.

Step 1 at Day 0 is the first email. Paste your subject line and email body. Use the firstName variable for the name. The hook should be in your CSV as a custom column and paste the unique hook for each contact in their row.

Step 2 at Day 2 is the different angle email. Set a 2-day delay. Paste the body. Use the same subject line as Step 1 to create a thread.

Step 3 at Day 6 is the value drop. Set a 4-day delay from Step 2. Paste the body. Same subject line.

Step 4 at Day 13 is the break-up email. Set a 7-day delay from Step 3. Paste the body. Same subject line.

Enable "Stop on reply" which is the critical setting. When someone replies at any step they immediately exit the sequence. Without this they receive follow-ups after they have already responded.

Step 5: Configure Sending Settings

Set sending hours to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9am to 11am in the prospect's timezone. Set the daily limit to 40 emails per day from this account. Set a minimum gap of 5 to 10 minutes between emails to avoid burst sending. For tracking, open tracking is unreliable so focus on reply tracking instead.

Step 6: Test Before Launch

Send a test email to yourself and check three things. Does it land in your inbox or spam? Do the variables fill in correctly? Does the formatting look right in Gmail and on mobile?

If the test passes, launch the campaign.

Custom Variables for Hooks

This is how you make 20 personalised emails send automatically without losing the personalisation.

In your CSV add a column called hook and paste the personalised hook for each prospect in their row.

In Instantly use the hook variable in the email body where you want the hook to appear.

When the campaign sends, Instantly replaces the hook variable with each prospect's unique first two sentences. The email looks personally written because the hook is personally written. You wrote it in the batch generation step.

What to Do When Someone Replies

Instantly shows replies in the Unibox which is a unified inbox for all your sending accounts. Check it daily. It takes 5 minutes. For each reply follow these rules.

Positive reply meaning they are interested, want more info, or ask a question: reply personally within the hour. Move this prospect into your SALES.md system. They are now a qualified lead.

"Not interested": reply once with "Completely understand — thanks for letting me know." Nothing else. Keep it professional. This protects your sender reputation.

Out of office: note the return date. Instantly can automatically resume the sequence when configured to handle out-of-office replies.

Unclear reply where the response does not give you a clear signal: ask a clarifying question. "Useful to know is this something on your radar or not a priority at the moment?"

Your Action Right Now

If you are using Instantly: add your sending account, create your first campaign, upload your verified list, build the sequence with the emails from the previous lessons, set the sending schedule, test, and launch.

If you are using Gmail: draft all four emails as unsent drafts for each prospect, send the first email today, and set calendar reminders for Day 2, Day 6, and Day 13 follow-ups.