Should I use a subdomain or separate domain for marketing emails and cold outreach?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Lemlist explains that one of the most important things to consider is your sender reputation, especially when it comes to cold emails. With the use of a separate domain you can make sure your primary domain reputation isn't at risk.
Email marketer from Sales Hacker Forum strongly advises against using the same domain for cold outreach as for regular business communications. They advocate for a separate domain with a different registrar.
Marketer from Email Geeks recommends warming up IPs and domains when starting new ones.
Email marketer from GMass Blog states that you should never send cold email from your primary domain. Use a separate domain name that’s similar to your primary domain. This protects your main domain’s deliverability and sender reputation.
Email marketer from Woodpecker Blog suggests that a poor domain reputation can result in emails being sent to the spam folder, that's why you should separate your cold and marketing emails from your transactional emails to protect your reputation.
Marketer from Email Geeks clarifies that cold emails should be set up on its own IP away from the root domains IP, but it doesn't necessarily have to be dedicated.
Email marketer from Reddit recommends using a completely separate domain for cold outreach. This user emphasizes the importance of protecting your primary domain's reputation, especially considering the risks associated with cold email.
Marketer from Email Geeks advises against using the same domain for cold emails as for corporate, marketing, or transactional emails. Suggests investigating and fixing the root domain's reputation, as it can affect subdomains. Also suggests to stop all cold emailing out of the root domain immediately.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that using a subdomain for marketing emails is generally a good idea to protect the main domain's reputation, especially if you're unsure about the list quality or sending practices.
Email marketer from MailerQ Blog explains that sender reputation is linked to the domain you use to send emails. If your marketing emails are causing problems for your transactional emails, you should consider using a separate domain. A separate domain can protect the main domain.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that using a subdomain allows for segmentation of email types, making it easier to track performance and manage reputation for each category.
Email marketer from Hunter.io Blog explains that for cold outreach, using a separate domain (or even multiple) is a best practice. This isolates the risk to the reputation of the cold email domain without negatively impacting the primary domain used for business operations.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that using a dedicated IP for cold emails will likely result in IP blocking. They note that many cold email products use O365 and Google Workspace plugins to avoid this.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that using a separate domain for cold outreach is essential because the sending volumes and content nature can drastically impact your primary domain's reputation. A lower volume of carefully targeted emails from a separate domain minimizes risk.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Steve Jones explains that you should think of a subdomain in almost the same way as you think of a completely different domain for deliverability.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that subdomains should have distinct content. Using different subdomains helps in segmenting your email traffic, which makes managing your domain reputation easier.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Mailchimp explains that using a dedicated sending domain, or authenticating your sending domain, helps improve email deliverability and protects your brand's reputation.
Documentation from SendGrid explains the importance of using dedicated IP addresses and domains for different types of email (transactional vs. marketing) to maintain a good sender reputation and improve deliverability.
Documentation from Google Search Central states that using subdomains can help organize your website content and that Google treats subdomains as part of the main domain, but they can still have their own rankings.
Documentation from SparkPost Support explains the benefits of dedicated sending domains, including improved deliverability and reputation management, which are crucial for both marketing and transactional emails.