<h2>What are Boolean Search Strings?</h2>
Boolean search strings are combinations of keywords and Boolean operators used to refine and improve search results in a database or search engine. Boolean operators are logical connectors that allow you to combine or exclude specific terms or phrases in your search query. The primary Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; AND: When used between keywords or phrases, the AND operator narrows the search by only returning results that include both terms. For example, "dogs AND cats" will return results that contain both "dogs" and "cats." &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cms.talmore.co/assets/ed5eee4d-9b7c-476a-8dba-a4000c67d910?width=960&amp;height=540" alt="Venn Diagram of an AND Operator" /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; OR: The OR operator broadens the search by returning results that include either term or both terms. For example, "dogs OR cats" will return results that contain "dogs," "cats," or both "dogs" and "cats." &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cms.talmore.co/assets/663d91c2-a2b8-47b8-930d-b62b0dec3fd9?width=960&amp;height=540" alt="Venn Diagram of an OR Operator" /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; NOT: The NOT operator excludes specific terms from the search results. For example, "dogs NOT cats" will return results that contain "dogs" but exclude any results that also contain "cats." &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cms.talmore.co/assets/7a66bd84-8e5b-4625-bbfb-3ce3fa1bb245?width=960&amp;height=540" alt="Venn Diagram of an NOT Operator" /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Additionally, you can use parentheses to group terms or phrases, which helps in creating more complex search queries. For example, "dogs AND (cats OR birds)" will return results that contain "dogs" and either "cats" or "birds." &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <img src="https://cms.talmore.co/assets/076daea6-cf4f-44d0-8288-6a43c85a093d?width=960&amp;height=540" alt="Venn Diagram of dogs AND (cats OR birds)" /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Using Boolean search strings can help you find more accurate and relevant information by allowing you to be more specific and strategic with your search queries.
<h2>Where are Boolean Search Strings used?</h2>
Boolean Search Strings are always used in the context of search. Some of the common use cases include:
Recruitment and Talent Sourcing: Recruiters and Sourcers often use Boolean search strings to find suitable candidates on online platforms (e.g. LinkedIn), or other online databases. By combining skill sets, job titles, and location filters with Boolean operators, recruiters can identify potential candidates more effectively.
Sales and Lead Development: Lead Development Representatives (LDRs) and Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) often use Boolean search strings to find suitable prospects on online platforms (e.g. LinkedIn), or other online databases. By combining job titles, and location filters with Boolean operators, salespeople can identify potential leads more effectively.
Research: Boolean search strings help researchers narrow down search results to find relevant articles, studies, or resources quickly. By combining keywords with Boolean operators, researchers can focus on specific topics or exclude unrelated information.
Competitive Analysis: Companies can use Boolean search strings to monitor their competitors, industry trends, or customer feedback. By combining brand names, product names, or industry terms with specific keywords, businesses can gain valuable insights into their competition and marketplace.
Social Media Monitoring: Boolean search strings can be used to monitor social media conversations, brand mentions, or customer sentiment. By combining brand names, product names, or specific hashtags with Boolean operators, businesses can track and analyze relevant social media content.
Library and Database Searches: Librarians and researchers often use Boolean search strings to find specific books, articles, or resources within library catalogs or online databases. By combining subject terms, author names, or publication dates with Boolean operators, users can quickly locate the desired material.
Online Marketing and SEO: Digital marketers and SEO professionals can use Boolean search strings to identify relevant keywords, assess competitors' strategies, or find link-building opportunities. By combining specific keywords or search queries with Boolean operators, marketers can improve their online visibility and reach.
<h2>How to build Boolean Search Strings?</h2>
Building effective Boolean search strings requires a clear understanding of the information you're seeking and the use of Boolean operators to combine keywords and phrases. Let's look at the example of sourcing candidates for a Software Developer job opening.
<h3>Identifying keywords for your Boolean Search Strings</h3>
Determine the essential keywords or phrases relevant to your search. These could include job titles, skill sets, industry terms, company names, or any other relevant words.
<h3>Choosing the Boolean operators for your Boolean Search Strings</h3>
Use the AND, OR, and NOT operators to refine your search by connecting your keywords and phrases in a logical manner. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; AND narrows your search by returning results that include all connected terms. Example: "dogs AND cats" will return results that contain both "dogs" and "cats."
OR broadens your search by returning results that include either term or both terms. Example: "dogs OR cats" will return results that contain "dogs," "cats," or both "dogs" and "cats." &nbsp;
NOT excludes specific terms from your search results. Example: "dogs NOT cats" will return results that contain "dogs" but exclude any results that also contain "cats." &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Use parentheses to group terms: If you need to create more complex search queries, you can use parentheses to group terms or phrases. For example, "dogs AND (cats OR birds)" will return results that contain "dogs" and either "cats" or "birds." &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Use quotation marks for exact phrases: If you want to search for an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in quotation marks. For example, "project manager" will return results that contain the exact phrase "project manager" rather than results containing "project" and "manager" separately. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Use wildcards or truncation: If you want to search for variations of a keyword, use wildcard symbols (like * or ?) to represent any number of characters or just a single character, respectively. For example, "manag*" will return results containing "manage," "manager," "management," etc. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Here's an example of a Boolean search string for a recruiter looking for a software engineer with Java or Python experience, but not Ruby experience: &nbsp;
"software engineer" AND (Java OR Python) NOT Ruby &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; Remember, different search engines or databases may have specific syntax requirements or support different Boolean operators. Be sure to consult the search engine's or database's help documentation for any specific requirements.
<h2>Introducing the Talmore Search Builder</h2>
Creating good Boolean Search Strings and keeping track of them can become very messy. This is why we built the Talmore Search Builder. This allows our team to easily produce good and correct Boolean Search Strings. Furthermore, it is already set up to help our team to go through an Iterative Search Approach. &nbsp;&nbsp; Our team classifies keywords into three categories:
<ol>
<li>Must-Haves: Keywords that any candidate has to have on their CV/profile to be considered a potential fit for the role we are working on.</li>
<li>Nice-to-Haves: Keywords that an ideal candidate will have on their CV/profile but are not necessary to be considered a fit for the role we are working on. &nbsp;</li>
<li>Exclusions: Keywords that should not exist on a candidate's CV/profile to be considered a potential fit for the role we are working on.</li>
</ol>
The logic in our Talmore Search Builder is that every row represents a group of keywords connected by an OR operator. Think about them as being synonyms for each other.
Rows are being connected by either an AND or a NOT operator depending on which category the keywords fall under.
The Must-Haves should be entered in the top rows. This way our Talmore Search Builder automatically creates for the basis to run an Iterative Search Approach.
Here is a quick Video Walk-Through on how to use the Search Builder:
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2ymfYQ7_vCU" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Sign up here for our newsletter to get the link to the Talmore Search Builder Google Sheet: <a href="https://newsletter.talmore.co/signup-tsb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://newsletter.talmore.co/signup-tsb</a>
&nbsp;

Harness the power of Boolean Search Strings for precise results. Simplify your searches with Talmore Search Builder.

Boolean Search Strings & the Talmore Search Builder

<h2>Why should I set up a new &ldquo;burner&rdquo; domain before starting to email cold leads?</h2>
The first thing you need when you are planning to start with cold outreach is to set up a new domain and mailbox that is separate from the existing one you use to communicate with your team and clients. The main reason for doing so is to protect your main domain from any potential impact on its reputation. What happens if a domain&rsquo;s reputation is bad? Spam filters block emails sent from those domains, land them in spam folders or even put the sender on a blacklist.
Just imagine how annoying it would be if your employees and customers are not receiving your emails anymore because they are landing in their spam folders. Be smart, don&rsquo;t risk it, and keep reading! Here are the steps for you to de-risk cold outreach.
<h2>1. Buy a new domain</h2>
There are endless providers to buy a new domain and from an outreach point of view, it really doesn&rsquo;t matter which one you choose. Here are some well-known options:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.namecheap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Namecheap</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://domains.google/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Domains</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.godaddy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GoDaddy</a></li>
</ul>
What does matter is the name you choose. Look for available domains that are close to your main business domain. This reduces the chance of leads being confused by different names. You could for example look for the same domain name but with another TLD.
For example, we are using talmore.io for our outreach campaigns and use talmore.co as our main business domain.
You can get cookie points for buying a second-hand domain that&rsquo;s one year old or even older. To spam filters, domain age matters. They are especially suspicious of fresh domains used for outreach. This makes a lot of sense since spammers tend to use newly created domains. So in general, the older the domain, the better. But don&rsquo;t forget to check the domain&rsquo;s reputation before buying it.
You can use tools like <a href="https://talosintelligence.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Talos</a> and <a href="https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MX Toolbox</a> to find out the domain&rsquo;s reputation and whether it&rsquo;s blacklisted.
<h2>2. Connect domain &amp; email hosting server</h2>
Now we need to point your new outreach domain to the email server of your choice. If your domain and hosting come from the same provider you can usually connect them with a few clicks. If you bought your domain from a different provider than the email hosting then you have to follow the steps below:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Copy the nameservers from your email hoster</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Log into your domain provider</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Go to your DNS settings</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Paste the nameservers and save</li>
</ol>
Here are some guides in case you are using Google Worksuite as your email provider:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&amp;article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fa%2Fanswer%2F87127%3Fhl%3Den&amp;assistant_event=welcome&amp;assistant_id=gsuitemxrecords-gixvmm&amp;product_context=87127&amp;product_name=UnuFlow&amp;trigger_context=a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Namecheap</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&amp;article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fa%2Fanswer%2F87127%3Fhl%3Den&amp;assistant_event=welcome&amp;assistant_id=gsuitemxrecords-gixvmm&amp;product_context=87127&amp;product_name=UnuFlow&amp;trigger_context=a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Domains</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&amp;article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fa%2Fanswer%2F87127%3Fhl%3Den&amp;assistant_event=welcome&amp;assistant_id=gsuitemxrecords-gixvmm&amp;product_context=87127&amp;product_name=UnuFlow&amp;trigger_context=a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GoDaddy</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>3. Set up redirect for outreach domain</h2>
Leads might be curious and visit the domain after receiving an email from you. To make sure that they don&rsquo;t end up on a 404 or this domain is parked website we should set up a redirect to our main domain. Here are some guides on how to set up redirects for your domain:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/385/2237/how-to-redirect-a-url-for-a-domain/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Namecheap</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://support.google.com/domains/answer/4522141?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Domains</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.godaddy.com/help/forward-my-godaddy-domain-12123" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GoDaddy</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>4. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records</h2>
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are security mechanisms that prevent scammers from sending forged emails on your behalf. Setting these up in the DNS records of your domain will increase the chance that emails from your domain are successfully delivered to leads&rsquo; inboxes and your domain&rsquo;s reputation stays intact.
<h3>Setting up SPF</h3>
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a security mechanism created to prevent spammers from sending emails on your behalf. The mechanism is all about communication between DNS servers. To simplify things: Let&rsquo;s say you&rsquo;ve sent an email to Carl. But how does Carl&rsquo;s DNS server know that the email was in fact sent by you? Without SPF records it doesn&rsquo;t have a way to know. SPF defines which IP addresses can be used to send emails from your domain.
Here are some guides for well-known email providers:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&amp;article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fa%2Fanswer%2F33786%3Fhl%3Den&amp;assistant_id=generic-unu&amp;product_context=33786&amp;product_name=UnuFlow&amp;trigger_context=a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Worksuite</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/email-authentication-spf-configure?view=o365-worldwide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Microsoft</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/adminconsole/spf-configuration.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zoho</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Setting up DKIM</h3>
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) standard has been created for the same reason as SPF. It&rsquo;s a way to additionally sign your emails in a way that will allow the recipient&rsquo;s server to check if the sender was really you or not. By setting DKIM on your DNS server, you&rsquo;re adding an additional way to tell your receivers &ldquo;yes, this email is really from me&rdquo;.The whole idea is based on encrypting and decrypting the additional signature, put in the <a href="https://support.google.com/mail/answer/22454?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">header </a>of your message. To make that possible, you need to have two keys:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">the private key (which is unique to your domain and available exclusively to you. It allows you to encrypt your signature in the header of your messages.)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">the public key (which you add to your DNS records using the DKIM standard, in order to allow your recipient&rsquo;s server to retrieve it and decrypt your hidden signature from the header of your message).</li>
</ol>
Here are some guides for well-known email providers:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&amp;article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fa%2Fanswer%2F174124%3Fhl%3Den&amp;assistant_id=generic-unu&amp;product_context=174124&amp;product_name=UnuFlow&amp;trigger_context=a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Worksuite</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/email-authentication-dkim-configure?view=o365-worldwide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Microsoft</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/adminconsole/dkim-configuration.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zoho</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Setting up DMARC</h3>
Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is a protocol that is used to authenticate email messages and prevent domain spoofing and email phishing.&nbsp;
DMARC records are used to instruct email-receiving servers on how to handle emails that fail DMARC authentication. They are added to the DNS (Domain Name System) records of the sender's domain and contain information on how to handle emails that fail SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and/or DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) checks.
Here are some guides for well-known email providers:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://apps.google.com/supportwidget/articlehome?hl=en&amp;article_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.google.com%2Fa%2Fanswer%2F2466563%3Fhl%3Den&amp;assistant_id=generic-unu&amp;product_context=2466563&amp;product_name=UnuFlow&amp;trigger_context=a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Worksuite</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/office-365-security/email-authentication-dmarc-configure?view=o365-worldwide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Microsoft</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/adminconsole/dmarc-policy.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zoho</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>5. Warm up your new domain and email address</h2>
Newly created domains have a neutral reputation by default. This means that spam filters will keep a close eye on it and could be alarmed when you suddenly send a large number of emails. A domain must earn a good reputation by sending and receiving emails first before you start sending emails at scale.
The process of increasing email communication over time for a new domain is called domain warmup. The idea is to send just a few emails a day from your outbound mailbox to addressees who you know will respond to you (e.g. family, friends, or colleagues). Keep in mind that if you have more than one mailbox on this domain, you have to warm up each of them separately.
We suggest you send 5-10 emails a day and increase the number slowly over time. To be sure that a domain is fully warmed up this domain warmup phase should last about three months.
There are a handful of tools out there that help you with warming up your email mailbox by sending, receiving, and replying to emails within their customer base. This allows them to monitor how many emails end up in spam and adjust the number of emails being sent over time. Beginning of 2023 Google started to crack down on all those services and it is becoming harder and harder to use tools to warm up email mailboxes using Google Worksuite these days.
Here are a few options:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://instantly.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instantly.ai</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://woodpecker.co/email-warm-up/?trk=cold_email_features-warmup_section-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woodpecker</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.lemwarm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lemwarm</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.warmupinbox.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Warmupinbox</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.warmbox.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Warmbox</a></li>
</ul>
While your domain is warming up, there are a few things you should take care of:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Building a prospect base (incl. Sales Signals)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Setting up a sequencing tool</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Drafting email sequences</li>
</ol>

A step-by-step guide on how to properly set up a separate domain and mailbox for your cold emailing and outbound campaigns.

How to Set up a Domain and Mailbox for Cold Email Outreach?

If you&rsquo;re a recruiter, manager, or founder, you know what value good talent brings to your company. Over the years spent building and working with startups, I&rsquo;ve learned it can often be the deciding factor of success. A good team is not easy to assemble, but once you acquire great talent, the network effects are extremely rewarding and effective. We built Talmore+ to kickstart our talent track in Europe and Southeast Asia, and now we&rsquo;re ready to grow the network and share this advantage with more companies.
Talmore+ enables recruiters &ndash; agency, in-house, and freelance &ndash; to focus on high-value tasks by taking over the groundwork. We specialize in two services: active sourcing and pre-qualification of candidates (Scout&amp;Screen) and smart candidate recruitment through performance marketing strategies (BoostRecruit). The solutions take away the burden of time-consuming, mundane tasks so recruiters can focus on interviewing and placing talent.
<h3>Origin Story: Why we built Talmore+</h3>
We built Talmore+ out of our own necessity. My business partner Miguel and I first met at an event in 2018, hosted by the Philippine Embassy in Berlin. We connected over our shared interest in the recently rising opportunities in Southeast Asia. We both recognized the growth of a young, digital-savvy population, but realized that the business side hadn&rsquo;t caught up to consumers&rsquo; need for innovation. We decided to work together to satisfy this &ldquo;need&rdquo; by investing into startups with potential success in Southeast Asia and by combining local A-players with experienced startup operators from other countries to build our own solutions and ventures from scratch. That&rsquo;s how we founded our VC firm, Unifier Ventures, and our venture builder, Litmus Ventures. What we needed next was a crowd of top-class talents.
I adamantly believe that a &ldquo;bad team&rdquo; with a great idea wouldn&rsquo;t be able to amount to much, whereas a great team with even a mediocre idea can direct themselves towards something greater or find the right opportunities to execute, adapt, and grow. If you can get the right people, with the right skills, into the right roles, you can build an unstoppable team.
<h3>Expanding the Network</h3>
Using Talmore+ we&rsquo;re better able to find smart, highly-skilled candidates to support us and our portfolio of companies. But how do we continue to pull in great talent? We&rsquo;re cultivating a win-win environment where great opportunities attract great talent, and that talent attracts more talent and more opportunities. To further expand and nurture this network, we&rsquo;re inviting other companies and recruiters to work with us and take advantage of our solutions. Today, we open our doors to everyone who is looking for more scalable recruiting processes and access to talent. Get in touch to talk about how you can use Talmore+&rsquo;s solutions to build your unstoppable team.

Discover the origin story of Talmore+, a talent acquisition platform focused on building great teams. Learn how it benefits companies and recruiters.

Talmore+ Blog | Sales