Migrate from Instantly to Smartlead: Full Playbook

If your sending domains are starting to soft-fail, your open rates have cratered over the last 30 days, or you just got the “your account has been flagged” email, you already know why you are here. The trigger for most Instantly to Smartlead migrations is not a feature gap. It is a deliverability crisis you need to get ahead of before it bleaches your entire domain reputation. This playbook covers the exact sequence: what to export, what to pause, how to transfer mailboxes, and how to rebuild warmup on Smartlead so you are not starting from zero.

Before you migrate

Do not pull the plug on Instantly the moment you decide to move. A rushed cutover is the fastest way to damage domains that are already stressed. The prep phase is where the migration actually succeeds or fails.

I’d argue most teams underinvest here and then wonder why deliverability dips post-launch. Spend the time. Here is the pre-migration checklist to run through before touching anything in Smartlead:

• Pause all active sequences in Instantly. Do not let contacts receive step 3 from Instantly while you are importing them into Smartlead.
• Export all active campaign data (Instantly Settings > Campaigns > Export). Grab the analytics CSV for each campaign you want to preserve.
• Export your lead lists. From each campaign, export the contact CSV with status columns (replied, bounced, unsubscribed) intact. These statuses matter for suppression.
• Document your sequence logic. Copy every step, delay, and condition to a spreadsheet or Notion doc. You will rebuild these manually.
• Audit your domains and mailboxes. List every sending domain and its associated mailboxes. Note which ones show soft-bounce rates above 3% or which have already been flagged. Those should not transfer. Retire them.
• Check DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for every domain. Smartlead will require valid authentication before you can send. Per Google’s email sender guidelines, DMARC at minimum policy p=none is required for bulk senders above 5,000 messages per day.

What breaks and what does not transfer

Most migration pain lives in three areas: sequence continuity, sending history, and warmup state. Understanding what actually moves versus what does not will save you from discovering the gaps after you have already relaunched.

What transfers cleanly:
- Lead lists (CSV export/import)
- Suppression lists (bounced, unsubscribed)
  filter before import
- Sequence copy (manual rebuild)
- Domain/mailbox configuration
  reconnect via SMTP or OAuth

What does NOT transfer:
- Per-contact sending history
- Warmup reputation (network-specific)
- Campaign-level analytics
  export as CSV for your records
- Mid-sequence position tracking
  document manually before pausing

Mitigation for mid-sequence contacts:
1. Export with "Emails Sent" column
2. Segment by step reached
3. Import into Smartlead at
   the correct step offset
   (or start a new shorter sequence)

Verify it worked

Before you ramp volume, run through these four checks. Skipping even one is how teams end up diagnosing deliverability problems two weeks post-migration.

• Authenticate every domain. Use MXToolbox to confirm SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are resolving correctly for every sending domain. Smartlead will show a green checkmark in the Email Accounts panel when DKIM is confirmed, but spot-check MXToolbox independently anyway.
• Send a test sequence. Create a single-contact test campaign in Smartlead using an internal inbox you control. Run a two-step sequence and confirm both emails land in the primary inbox (not spam or promotions) on Gmail and Outlook.
• Confirm suppression is active. Search for a known bounced or unsubscribed email from your Instantly export in Smartlead’s lead list. It should not appear in any active campaign. If it does, your pre-import filtering missed rows.
• Check warmup is running. Go to Email Accounts in Smartlead and confirm the warmup status shows “Active” for every mailbox. The daily warmup email count should be incrementing. If it shows paused or zero, re-enable it before you touch live sends.

Should you switch or stay?

Choose Switch to Smartlead if

• Your open rates have dropped more than 20% in the last 60 days and you have ruled out list quality as the cause
• You are managing 10 or more sending domains and need more granular per-domain controls
• You want a larger warmup network and more transparent deliverability diagnostics

From $39/mo Try Smartlead →

Choose Stay on Instantly if

• Your deliverability issues are list-quality problems, not infrastructure (high bounce rates from bad data)
• You are running under 3 domains and the current warmup coverage is sufficient
• Your team relies heavily on Instantly's lead finder and does not want to rebuild data workflows

From $37/mo Review Instantly →

If you are evaluating this switch on deliverability grounds specifically, the detailed breakdown in our Instantly vs Smartlead deliverability comparison is worth reading alongside this playbook. And if you are rebuilding your full outbound stack while you are already in migration mode, the best cold email stack under $300 gives you a broader picture of where Smartlead fits.

For teams rebuilding their domain and mailbox infrastructure from scratch, Mailforge and Maildoso are both worth looking at as mailbox providers that integrate directly with Smartlead’s SMTP setup and offer purpose-built cold email infrastructure.

Make the move cleanly

Migrating from Instantly to Smartlead is a three-phase operation: export and pause, reconnect and re-warm, then relaunch conservatively. The teams that get into trouble are the ones who rush the warmup phase or skip the suppression filter on import. Give the warmup pool two weeks to establish reputation on Smartlead’s network before you push volume. The platform’s deliverability controls are genuinely better. They only work if you give the infrastructure time to build the signal it needs.