Who owns the domains, inboxes and data when you hire a cold email agency?
The short answer
You should. The sending domains, inboxes and contact data belong in your company's name and stay yours if you part ways. Ask before you sign, because some agencies send from domains they control, and when the contract ends the reputation, the history and the data leave with them.
Why does ownership of the sending domains matter?
The domains carry your name to every buyer you email, and their reputation takes weeks to build.
Every cold email goes out from a domain your buyers connect with you. If the agency owns that domain, you are renting your own name.
Reputation takes time. A domain that has warmed up and sent well for months is an asset, and starting over with new domains means another 21 days before the first email.
What should be in your name?
The domains, the inboxes, the software accounts you pay for, and every contact and reply.
If you can log in and export it yourself, it is yours. If you have to ask the agency for it, it is theirs until they say otherwise.
- Sending domains registered to your company
- Inboxes created under your company's account
- Sending software on your own card, so you see the bills and keep the access
- The buyer lists and every reply, exportable at any time
- The CRM records of each contact and conversation
What does the agency keep?
Its methods. The process, prompts and software it built stay with the agency, usually under a license you can use.
A good agreement draws the line clearly. Your assets stay yours, the agency's way of working stays with the agency, and you get a license to use what was built for you.
That is how our agreements work. Clients keep their domains, inboxes and data, and the systems we build are licensed to them for their own use.
What happens when the contract ends?
If the domains and inboxes are already yours, you can keep sending the next day.
Ending a contract then only changes who writes and runs the campaigns. Your domains keep their reputation, and your data stays where it is.
Ask for a handover plan in writing: what you will receive, in what format, and how long the agency will help your team take over.
Which ownership questions should you ask an agency?
Five questions settle it before you sign.
- Whose name are the sending domains registered in?
- Whose account are the inboxes and the sending software under?
- Can I export every contact, reply and campaign at any time?
- What happens to the domains if I cancel?
- What do I keep from what you build, and under what license?
Frequently asked questions
Is it bad if the agency owns the domains?
It is a real risk. You pay to build a domain's reputation and lose it when the contract ends. If an agency insists on owning them, count that loss in the decision.
Can an agency send from my main domain instead?
It should not. Cold email from your main domain puts your everyday business email at risk of landing in spam.
Who pays for the sending software?
In our setups the client pays for sending software and inboxes directly, at cost, so the accounts are theirs from day one.
Tell us about your market and we will show you what we would build.