Set Up Free Cold Email System to Start Your Campaigns

You have collected emails and now want to set up a cold email marketing campaign. Read on because I'll tell you how to create your own cold email system for almost free.

In this tutorial, you'll also get to know how to install the Mautic email marketing application. Also, you'll get your hands on how to install an SMTP server on your hosting platform.

I'll use Postal because it's the best SMTP for cold email campaigns. Why? Because it's open-source and you don't really need to pay for it on the monthly basis. 

Sounds exciting? Let's get geared right now. But first, let’s get to know why setting up a cold email marketing campaign is important for your business. 

Why Set Up Cold Email Marketing Campaign

Sending an email marketing campaign that is successful will help you get more customers and leads. People are still using email widely, which is one of the benefits of email marketing. And for every dollar in the marketing, you get the ROI of $44.

But why should you set up your emailing system to start your campaigns? Of course you could use the services like GSuite and others. But then you need to pay on the monthly basis. And it can get heavy on your pocket, especially if you’re just starting out. 

With the method I’ll let you know, you can set up your own cold email system using Postal SMTP and Mautic. Don’t spam! But with this system, you can really send bulk emails for up to 1 million. And that’s phenomenally huge. Isn’t it? 

Furthermore, have a look at 5 solid reasons to start your email marketing system. Let’s get started right now. 

How to Set Up Simple Free Cold Email Outreach System

Every email marketing system comprises the sending software (SMTP) and the managing service (EMS). I’ll talk about both parts now. In the process to set up your system for outreach, you will learn:

1. How to Install Mautic Email Marketing Application

2. How to Install Postal SMTP Server

3. How to Connect Mautic with Postal SMTP Server

After completing these steps, you can set up your own cold email system to start your campaigns. Let’s jump onto the first step now. 

1. Install Mautic Email Marketing Application

Mautic is a brilliant open-source marketing automation software widely used as a self-hosted email marketing solution. Yes, you’ll host the Mautic application on your server. Let me walk you through step-by-step process to install Mautic and send bulks emails in this video:

You need two things to use Mautic:

• VPS Server
• Domain Name

Go get the VPS hosting from top providers like DigitalOcean or Contabo. And then get the domain name from registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap if you don’t already have it. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go to DigitalOcean (Or any other VPS hosting provider)

2. Click on “Create” and then “Droplet”

3. Go to Marketplace and choose ‘LAMP’ as your new droplet.

4. Point your domain or subdomain to VPS using an SSH client like PuTTY. 

5. Install Apache, PHP, and MySQL to install Mautic on your VPS hosting. Now go to the WinSCP app and enter your username and password. You’ll see a new Window where you can enter commands. 

6. Install Apache2 Web Server on the droplet you’ve just created on DigitalOcean. For that, you need to enter these commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install apache2

7. Install MariaDB (MySQL) which is a database server to save your data. Use these commands if you’re on Ubuntu 16 LTS.

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common gnupg-curl
sudo apt-key adv --fetch-keys 'https://mariadb.org/mariadb_release_signing_key.asc'
sudo add-apt-repository 'deb [arch=amd64,arm64,i386,ppc64el] http://mirrors.piconets.webwerks.in/mariadb-mirror/repo/10.5/ubuntu xenial main'
sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install mariadb-server

The database installed? Awesome! Now that you’ve created the Mautic database, download and install Mautic on it. Look at this post to go step by step to install Mautic on your VPS server. 

2. Install SMTP Server in 2021

Postal is a brilliant SMTP server you can use to automate your cold email system. And it needs multiple applications to work as a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Install all these frameworks on Ubuntu. 

To keep up with any changes done on the installation of Postal, we have made a thorough walk-through step-by-step guide to install the SMTP. You can check the guide and learn how to install it. We will constantly upgrade the guide for any changes.

Everything is configured to get your cold email system up and running. You can also hire us to install your Postal SMTP and not worry about any technical stuff in the installation.

Do you want everything in detail? Enjoy the top-rated on Udemy titled Build Your Own SMTP and Send Unlimited Emails. 

3. Connect Mautic With Your SMTP Server

Follow these steps for manual installation of SMTP:

After you have install postal, it is not time to connect it to the Mautic application.

To do so, log in to the Postal server. If you haven't made a user, do so by running the below command:

Make Postal admin user using the command : postal make-user

Start Postal using sudo -u postal postal start

After you log in, you’re ready to go.

Go to the credentials tab and create a new credential to use inside Mautic.

Go to Email Setting in Mautic dashboard and connect your SMTP server. Look at this post to have a detailed tutorial on creating SMTP manually. 

You can also check our service where we can build this whole setup for you.

Summarizing Setting Up Simple Cold Email System

With way less amount of money than traditional bulk emailing software, you can set up your simple system for email outreach. All you need is a VPS hosting and domain name. Buy Mautic’s license and connect it with the Postal SMTP server. 

For that, go to Mautic’s Configuration, Email Settings, and then change it with Postal’s SMTP server. I’ve also given the demo in this video. You might find some changes in the video in the way to install Postal, but the concept is still the same.

I hope you like my tutorial to set up a simple free cold email system to start your campaigns. Let me know in the comments below if you’ve any questions.