Can I Use HighLevel to Send Cold Emails?

If you’re already using HighLevel for your CRM, email marketing and marketing automation, you might reasonably ask:

Can I use my HighLevel account to send cold emails?

The short answer is yes, technically HighLevel can send cold emails. But for most businesses, I wouldn’t recommend using your main HighLevel email infrastructure for cold email campaigns.

For serious B2B cold email prospecting, I recommend using a dedicated cold email platform for the initial outreach and then bringing interested prospects and leads into HighLevel.

This protects your main email infrastructure and lets you use HighLevel for what it does particularly well: managing, nurturing and converting genuine sales opportunities.

Can HighLevel Send Cold Emails?

Technically, yes.

However, there is an important difference between something being technically possible and it being the best way to structure your outbound marketing.

HighLevel’s email guidance recommends precautions around cold outreach, including:

• Validating email addresses before sending
• Using bounce protection
• Sending in smaller batches
• Warming your sending domain
• Separating cold outreach from your normal sending infrastructure
• Using a separate domain rather than risking your primary business domain

HighLevel has also recommended using purpose-built cold email tools to qualify prospects before importing them into HighLevel.

That’s essentially the same approach I recommend to HighLevel clients.

Why I Don’t Recommend Cold Emailing From Your Main HighLevel Setup

Your email reputation is valuable.

When you’re using HighLevel to communicate with customers, enquiries, subscribers and genuine sales opportunities, you want those messages reaching people’s inboxes.

Cold email introduces additional risk.

You’re contacting people who may never have heard of your business. That can potentially mean more bounces, lower engagement and more spam complaints.

Those signals can damage your sending reputation.

If your main business domain becomes associated with poor-quality or unwanted email, you could potentially affect the deliverability of the emails you actually care about.

That’s why I wouldn’t recommend simply obtaining a database of thousands of prospects, uploading them into your normal HighLevel account and starting a large automated cold email workflow.

There is a better way.

Use a Dedicated Cold Email Platform

For cold outreach, I prefer to separate your prospecting infrastructure from your CRM and marketing infrastructure.

There are specialist cold email platforms designed specifically for this job.

HighLevel itself has referenced platforms such as Instantly and Smartlead in its email guidance.

My personal favourite is QuickProsp.

Dedicated cold email platforms can provide functionality specifically designed for outbound prospecting, such as multiple sending mailboxes, mailbox rotation, email warm-up, sending sequences, bounce monitoring and personalised outreach.

That’s a different job from the one I primarily want HighLevel doing.

HighLevel is where I want to manage the relationship once somebody becomes a genuine lead.

Protect Your Main Business Domain

Another important part of a sensible cold email strategy is separating your cold outreach infrastructure from your main business email infrastructure.

Rather than conducting cold outreach through the same domain your team relies upon for everyday communication, dedicated secondary domains and sending mailboxes can be used for outbound prospecting.

Those mailboxes can be configured correctly and gradually warmed before significant outreach begins.

A specialist cold email platform can then distribute the campaign appropriately across those mailboxes.

Is Cold Email Legal in the UK?

Cold email is not automatically illegal in the UK.

However, the rules depend on who you’re contacting, what information you’re using and the circumstances surrounding the campaign.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) distinguishes between corporate subscribers and individual subscribers under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

Corporate subscribers include organisations such as limited companies and limited liability partnerships.

According to current ICO guidance, the PECR electronic-mail marketing rule does not require prior consent when sending B2B marketing emails to corporate subscribers.

However, you must not conceal your identity and you must provide a valid way for the recipient to opt out of future marketing.

Sole traders and certain types of partnerships are different.

They are treated as individual subscribers under PECR. Unsolicited marketing emails to them generally require consent unless the requirements of the soft opt-in are satisfied.

If you don’t know whether an address belongs to a corporate or individual subscriber, the ICO recommends treating it as an individual subscriber.

What About UK GDPR?

UK GDPR can still apply to B2B cold email where you are processing personal data.

For example, an email address identifying a particular employee or director can constitute personal data even though you’re contacting that person in their business capacity.

You therefore need an appropriate lawful basis for processing that person’s data and must meet the relevant transparency requirements.

Legitimate interests may sometimes provide an appropriate lawful basis for B2B direct marketing, but it isn’t automatic. You need to consider the purpose of the processing, whether it is necessary and whether the individual’s interests, rights and freedoms override your interests.

You should also honour objections to direct marketing and maintain an appropriate suppression or do-not-contact list.

You can read the current ICO guidance on B2B direct marketing here.

This article provides general information rather than legal advice. If you’re unsure about the legality of a particular campaign or database, take appropriate professional advice.

Does Cold Email Break HighLevel’s Terms of Service?

This needs a little more nuance than simply saying:

“Cold emailing is against HighLevel’s Terms of Service.”

HighLevel’s current Terms prohibit using the platform in violation of applicable laws or regulations and prohibit unlawful advertising, junk mail, spam and similar solicitation.

The Terms also make the user responsible for ensuring they have the necessary consents, permissions and authorisations required under the applicable law before contacting recipients.

So I wouldn’t interpret HighLevel’s ability to technically send a cold email as permission to upload any prospect database and start sending.

You are responsible for ensuring that your particular campaign complies with the applicable rules.

You can read the current HighLevel Terms of Service here.

Cold Email First. HighLevel Second.

This is the architecture I generally prefer:

For example, you might identify suitable B2B prospects and conduct your initial outreach through QuickProsp, Instantly, Smartlead or another specialist platform.

If somebody responds positively, requests more information, books a meeting or otherwise becomes an engaged lead, that’s when HighLevel can really come into its own.

The prospect can be brought into HighLevel automatically.

From there, we can:

• Create or update their HighLevel contact record
• Create an opportunity in the appropriate sales pipeline
• Assign the lead to a salesperson
• Notify the appropriate team member
• Trigger appointment booking
• Send appointment reminders
• Record calls and conversations
• Automate appropriate sales follow-up
• Move the opportunity through your sales pipeline
• Add longer-term nurture where appropriate

This gives you two systems doing what each is best at.

Your cold email platform starts conversations.

HighLevel manages and converts the opportunities those conversations create.

Don’t Just Build a Cold Email Campaign. Build a System.

This is where I think many businesses get cold email wrong.

They start with:

“We have a list of 10,000 email addresses. How do we email them?”

I would start somewhere different.

• Who are we trying to reach?
• Where has the data come from?
• Are these the right businesses?
• Are we contacting corporate subscribers, sole traders or individuals?
• What domains and mailboxes should we use?
• How do we protect our primary domain?
• How will replies be handled?
• What happens when somebody is interested?
• How quickly does a salesperson get notified?
• How do we follow up with somebody who doesn’t book immediately?
• How does all of that information get into HighLevel?

The cold email itself is only one part of the process.

Frequently Asked Questions About HighLevel and Cold Email

Can HighLevel send cold emails?

Technically, yes. HighLevel has the email functionality required to send outbound emails. However, for serious cold email prospecting I recommend using a specialist cold email platform and bringing interested prospects into HighLevel once they engage.

Is cold email against HighLevel’s Terms of Service?

It isn’t accurate to say that every cold email automatically breaches HighLevel’s Terms. However, HighLevel prohibits unlawful advertising, spam and similar solicitation and requires users to have the necessary permissions and authorisations required under applicable law. You are responsible for ensuring your campaign complies with the laws and regulations that apply to it.

Is B2B cold email legal in the UK?

B2B cold email is not automatically illegal in the UK. Current ICO guidance says that unsolicited marketing emails can be sent to corporate subscribers without prior consent under PECR, subject to requirements including identifying the sender and providing an opt-out. Different rules apply to sole traders and certain partnerships, and UK GDPR may also apply when personal data is being processed.

Should I use my main business domain for cold email?

I wouldn’t recommend it. Cold outreach carries additional deliverability and reputation risks. Using appropriately configured secondary domains and dedicated sending mailboxes can help isolate your primary business email infrastructure from your outbound prospecting activity.

What cold email software works with HighLevel?

There are several specialist cold email platforms available. HighLevel has referenced Instantly and Smartlead in its own guidance. My personal preference is QuickProsp. The important consideration is how the cold email system integrates with HighLevel when a prospect responds or becomes a genuine sales opportunity.

Can cold email leads be automatically added to HighLevel?

Yes. A properly designed setup can pass interested or qualified prospects from your cold email platform into HighLevel. From there, HighLevel workflows can create opportunities, notify salespeople, trigger follow-up, arrange appointments and manage the rest of the sales process.

We Can Help You Connect Cold Email With HighLevel

This is something we advise HighLevel users on and can help them implement.

We can look at your requirements and help you plan a sensible cold email setup, including your cold email platform, secondary domains, sending mailboxes and how interested prospects should flow into HighLevel.

We can then build the HighLevel side of the process so that when your cold outreach generates interest, the opportunity doesn’t disappear into somebody’s inbox.

The lead can enter your CRM, appear in the appropriate pipeline and trigger the next steps in your sales process.

The objective is to create a joined-up outbound prospecting system while avoiding unnecessary risk to the email infrastructure you rely upon for your normal HighLevel marketing and customer communications.