Why a normal mailbox is the wrong tool for outreach

Mailboxes such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are built for one-to-one email between people. Mailbox providers set daily sending limits for each account and watch for patterns that look like bulk sending. If you send outreach in volume from a normal mailbox, you reach those limits quickly, and the provider can restrict or suspend the account. Sending email in volume through SMTP from a normal mailbox also puts the reputation of your domain at risk, which can affect the delivery of your everyday business email.

This is why many outreach tools ask you to buy extra domains, create many mailboxes, warm each one up and rotate between them. LeadJabber does not need any of that.

What an email gateway is

An email gateway is a service built to send large volumes of email. Twilio SendGrid and Mailgun are two of the largest in the world, and they handle email for companies that send millions of messages every day. A gateway gives you sending infrastructure, delivery monitoring and authentication of your domain with SPF and DKIM. LeadJabber connects to your own SendGrid or Mailgun account and sends your sequences through it.

What LeadJabber uses your mailbox for

When you connect your email account to LeadJabber, the mailbox is used for two things:

• Sender identity: your emails are sent from your own address, so recipients see your name and can reply to you.
• Replies: LeadJabber collects replies from your mailbox and places them in the Engager. See How the Engager sorts replies.

Your mailbox does not send the outreach itself. The sending goes through your SendGrid or Mailgun account.

How much you can send with LeadJabber

Your sending volume is set by your plan with SendGrid or Mailgun, not by Google, Microsoft or any other mailbox provider. If you need to send more, you upgrade your gateway plan. You do not need more mailboxes or more domains.

Why LeadJabber uses a dedicated IP address

A dedicated IP address is used only by you. Its reputation is built by your own sending, and other senders cannot damage it. Shared IP addresses are used by many senders at the same time, and their reputation is often poor. LeadJabber therefore always recommends a dedicated IP. With SendGrid, the Pro plan is the first plan that includes one. See Create a SendGrid account for LeadJabber.

Do you need to warm up your mailbox or IP address?

No. You do not warm up mailboxes or domains with LeadJabber. A new dedicated IP address is warmed up automatically when you turn on automated IP warm-up in SendGrid or Mailgun, so you can start sending from day one. During the first weeks, the gateway controls the pace and gradually increases how much the new IP address sends.

Email gateways are built for volume, not for spam

SendGrid and Mailgun are built to send large volumes of email reliably. They are not a way around spam rules. Each has an acceptable use policy that every sender must follow, and accounts that break it can be suspended. You own your SendGrid or Mailgun account, so you are responsible for following its policy. Send only to relevant recipients, keep complaints low and honour every unsubscribe. See Manage your unsubscribe list. Read the Twilio SendGrid Email Policy and the Mailgun Acceptable Use Policy before you start sending.

Read more

For a longer discussion of the two approaches, read SMTP vs Gateway for Email Outreach in the Sales Academy.