GQ CRM Getting Started: From SMTP to First Campaign in 20 Minutes

This guide takes you from a fresh account to a sent, tracked campaign in about 20 minutes. If you get stuck at any step, each section links to a dedicated tutorial.

1. Create a project

1. Log in to GQ CRM and open the Dashboard.
2. Click New Project and give it a name (e.g. Acme Outreach).
3. Each project gets its own API Key, SMTP configuration, templates, and sending history — keep one project per sending domain or client.

2. Connect your SMTP

A project can't send until it has an SMTP connection. Open Projects → your project → SMTP Configuration and enter:

• Host and port (587 STARTTLS or 465 SSL)
• Auth user / password (your SMTP credentials)
• From name / from email

Then click Test connection — GQ CRM verifies the credentials and TLS handshake before you save.

Not sure which SMTP to use? Follow the matching tutorial:

• Amazon SES — cheapest at volume (~$0.10/1,000 emails)
• Google Workspace / Gmail — fine up to ~50/day per mailbox for cold outreach
• Mailgun — developer-friendly relay

3. Add recipients

Open Email Tasks → New Task and add recipients in one of two ways:

• Paste a list — one email per line (optionally with name, email or email, name columns)
• Upload a CSV — with an email column, plus any custom fields you want to personalize with

Recipients you add are automatically collected into your Contacts (Contacts page), where you can tag them by stage (LEAD → CONTACTED → FOLLOWING → WON/LOST).

4. Verify your recipients

Before anything is sent, GQ CRM's built-in verification flags problems — invalid syntax, disposable domains, and duplicates (in the task, check the Validity column):

• Valid — safe to send
• Invalid — flagged by checks; you can review why
• Pending — not yet checked; select them and click Verify

Verification is manual by design: the system never silently skips or removes recipients. You decide what to send.

5. Create and pace your email task

In the task form:

1. Project — pick the project whose SMTP will send.
2. Subject + content — write inline, or pick a saved template and personalize with {{variables}}.
3. Rate limit — set recipients per minute (start conservative: 20–50/day per mailbox).
4. Dedupe mode — choose how to handle recipients already sent this template (GQ CRM warns by default).
5. Priority (optional) — Pro plans can mark tasks high priority.

Save the task. The task page shows a summary of total / valid / invalid / pending recipients before you start.

6. Start with the verification gate

Click Start. The confirmation dialog shows the verification state — you can choose to:

• Skip invalid — send only verified valid recipients
• Send all — send everything, including flagged addresses (not recommended; bounces hurt your domain)

GQ CRM then sends within your rate limit, retries failures automatically, and lets you pause / resume anytime.

7. Track and follow up

Each sent email is tracked per recipient:

• Open & click data — visible in the task's recipient table and the History page
• Bounces — classified as hard/soft, surfaced per recipient
• Follow up on engagement — from the Contacts page, open a contact that engaged and create a follow-up task, so your sequence follows attention instead of guesswork

8. What's next

• Use the API — grab your project's API Key from Dashboard → API Keys and send from your own software (see the docs).
• Invite your team — create a team workspace and share projects, templates, and sending history.
• Switch language — GQ CRM is available in EN / ZH / JA / KO.

That's it — you're live. If something isn't working, the dedicated SMTP tutorials and the docs cover the common failure modes.