How to Use Reply.io to Run Outreach Across Channels

The short answer: connect each mailbox, publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC, add custom tracking links, warm the account and let ramp-up raise the volume, import contacts from a UTF-8 CSV, build a sequence from scratch with email, LinkedIn or call steps and conditions, set the daily limits and schedule, configure the opt-out, and launch.

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Reply's support centre condenses the start into three steps: connect an email account, import contacts, set up a sequence. Those three get you sending. The articles around them, on DNS, warm-up and ramp-up, decide whether the sending lands. This guide covers both. For what Reply.io is and how it prices, see the Reply.io glossary entry.

Have these in place

• An account. Signing up starts a 14-day trial with two mailboxes and 300 active contacts, per the trial article. The Email Volume plan then starts at $59 per user a month on monthly billing, per the pricing page (checked on 23 October 2026).
• A mailbox on your own domain, from Google, Microsoft, Exchange or any provider that supports IMAP and SMTP.
• Access to the domain's DNS, or the person who manages it.
• A lawful reason to contact each person. Reply itself recommends keeping an opt-out in every email to comply with CAN-SPAM. The FTC's compliance guide adds that a subject line must not mislead and that you may not sell or pass on the addresses of people who opted out. EU and UK rules start from consent for individuals and differ by country, so check each market.

Step 1: Connect the email account

Open Settings, then the Email Accounts tab, click New email account, choose the provider and click Continue, as the connection article describes. Gmail and Google Workspace connect with a single click, after which Reply sends through the Gmail API rather than SMTP; the article asks for two-step verification to be enabled. Outlook and Office 365 have a single-click option too, once IMAP is enabled. Exchange on private servers uses Autodiscover. For any other provider, enter the IMAP and SMTP hosts and ports, then click Test next to sending and receiving until both dots turn green.

Step 2: Authenticate the domain

Reply is not an email service provider, so it does not supply SPF or DKIM values; your mail provider does. Reply's authentication article has you test the domain first, with tools such as Mail-tester, then add the three records at your hosting provider's DNS. Its rules for SPF are specific: one record only, correct syntax, every sending tool included, and no more than 10 DNS lookups.

Step 3: Add custom tracking links

Open tracking is off by default for new sequences. If you switch it on, or use click tracking or an opt-out link, set custom tracking links under Settings, Custom tracking links, New link, per the tracking article. Choose which accounts the link covers, pick Opens, Clicks or Opt Out, choose a subdomain, then add the CNAME values Reply shows to your DNS. Each Reply user sets this up separately.

Step 4: Warm up, then ramp up

The two are different tools. Warm-up, run through MailToaster, builds reputation with simulated exchanges; you pick a profile for a new inbox or for protecting an existing one, and set a daily goal and increment, per the warm-up settings article. Ramp-up runs inside Reply and raises real sending gradually: by default it starts at 10 emails a day and adds 3 a day until 100. Find it under Settings, Email accounts, the account, Safety. Reply's new domain guide also suggests two to three weeks of ordinary correspondence with people you know before cold outreach from a new domain.

Step 5: Import contacts

Contacts go in through the People tab of a sequence. The import article sets the file rules: CSV in UTF-8 only, up to 100,000 rows per file, and a First Name in every row. Map the columns, choose a unique identifier such as email to avoid duplicates, and decide how to treat existing records and contacts without email. Ticking automatic time zone detection can add up to 30 minutes to the import.

Step 6: Build the sequence

On the Sequences tab, start from a template, from scratch, from Magic, which generates a sequence from a prompt, or from Jason, which needs an AI SDR plan. Building from scratch, the sequence guide lets you add steps for email, calls, SMS, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Zapier and tasks, plus conditions for branching. Each step type needs the matching data: an email address, a correctly formatted phone number or a LinkedIn URL. Set a subject on the first email and leave later subjects empty to keep the thread.

Step 7: Configure settings, sending and opt-out

In the sequence's Settings tab, connect the mailboxes and LinkedIn account. A sequence can use up to 100 email accounts and assigns contacts to them in turn, per the multiple accounts article, which reminds you to raise the daily limits when you add accounts. Under General settings, set the maximum new contacts per day, the daily email limit and the delay between emails. Pick a schedule, then decide what happens when someone replies or books a meeting. Plain text mode is on by default for new sequences.

For opting out, open the mailbox's Opt-out tab under Email Accounts and keep either the text or the link variant, as the opt-out article describes. A text reply to the opt-out line moves the contact to Do Not Contact; the link lets them leave in one click. Then turn on the List-Unsubscribe header in the sequence settings. Save, or launch.

Errors Reply's articles caution against

• Raising volume straight after warm-up. The ramp-up article warns this will likely cause deliverability issues.
• Removing the opt-out text. Possible, by leaving the fields blank, but Reply recommends keeping it.
• Forgetting the limits after adding accounts. The multiple accounts article says to raise the sequence's daily caps to match the mailboxes you add.
• Saving the import as Excel. Only UTF-8 CSV works.

If you are comparing tools, Reply.io vs Saleshandy puts Reply's per-user model next to flat plans with seats included.

FAQ

What does ramp-up do by default?

It starts a newly added mailbox at 10 emails a day and adds 3 each day until the account reaches 100, per Reply's ramp-up article. You can change the start and the increment.

Can one sequence send from several mailboxes?

Yes, up to 100. Reply assigns contacts round-robin, and each contact's follow-ups come from the same mailbox as their first email, per the multiple accounts article.

Does Reply add the opt-out link to test emails?

No. The opt-out article says the opt-out text or link is not added to test emails or to direct messages sent from a prospect's profile, so check a real sequence email to see it.