Quick start: zero to first campaign
The six steps between creating a workspace and launching your first sequence, and how long each one really takes.
SendCanyon is deliberately opinionated about order: you can't launch a campaign until your domain verifies, and campaign sends stay gated until your mailboxes are warm. This guide walks the whole path once, with links into the detailed article for each step.
1. Create your workspace and invite your team
Everything in SendCanyon — domains, mailboxes, contacts, campaigns, API keys — lives inside a workspace. Sign up, name the workspace, and invite teammates under Settings → Team & roles. Four roles are available: owner (billing and everything else), admin (everything but billing transfer), member (build and launch campaigns), and viewer (read-only dashboards).
2. Add a sending domain
Use a dedicated domain for outreach — never your primary company domain. Under Domains → Add domain, enter the domain and SendCanyon lists the three DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) that authorize your mail provider to send for it — paste them at your registrar. Click Verify records once they're published; the domain flips to Verified, usually within the hour. Details in Add and verify a domain.
3. Connect mailboxes
Under Mailboxes → Connect mailbox, connect via Google, Microsoft, Amazon SES, or raw SMTP. Every connection ends with a Test connection check that sends and verifies a probe message before the mailbox is usable. Start with 1–3 mailboxes per domain. See Connect a mailbox.
4. Turn on warmup — today
Toggle warmup on each new mailbox immediately. The scheduler ramps daily volume from a trickle toward your target over several weeks, and campaign sending is gated until the ramp clears its early stages. This is the long pole in the tent, so start it before anything else. See How warmup works.
5. Import and validate contacts
Under Contacts → Import CSV, upload your list, map columns to fields, and let validation run. Addresses come back as valid, risky, or invalid — invalid ones are held out automatically. Add existing customers and past unsubscribes to your suppression list before your first launch, not after.
6. Build and launch a sequence
Under Campaigns → New campaign, write your steps (we recommend four, three days apart), set delays, enable stop-on-reply, pick the domain pool and sending window, and review the launch checklist. Press Launch and SendCanyon paces sends through your warm mailboxes automatically — no batch blasts, ever.