Email Warm-Up: A Comprehensive Guide to establishing Sender Reputation

Are your emails disappearing into a black hole, never to be seen or opened by your recipients?

Have you ever wondered why your carefully crafted messages languish in the depths of spam folders or are ignored? 

If you're tired of feeling like an email outcast, desperate for attention, it's time to take action. 

It is crucial to ensure that your emails get delivered when it comes to sending emails, whether cold emails, marketing campaigns, or newsletters. And a major factor that affects delivery is the sender's reputation. If your reputation is poor, it can seriously harm your email campaigns.

What if I tell you there's a secret to ensuring your emails not only reach the inbox but also capture the attention of your recipients?

In this comprehensive guide to email warm-up, we'll unravel the mystery of establishing a sender reputation. 

So, are you ready to unlock the secrets and revolutionize your email marketing game? 

Then read on!

What is Email Warm-Up?

Email warmup is an integral part of sending emails for your business. It is like getting your email account ready for the big leagues. It's a process of improving the reputation of a new or existing email account so that you can send lots of emails without any issues. 

The main goal is to build a positive email reputation, which helps your campaigns get delivered and land in the recipient's inbox instead of going to spam.

Let's break down the terminology and understand the concept of warm-up emails.

Think of warm-up in the context of exercise or sports preparation. Before engaging in any physical activity, you do warm-up exercises to prevent sprains or injuries. 

Similarly, email warm-up involves a practice and preparation phase before sending your email campaigns to ensure their success. Just as you stretch and do some light running before playing a sport, email warm-up is like a warm-up routine for your email account. 

During the warm-up process, you send emails and maintain a conversation thread to improve your sender reputation and establish credibility for your email account. This helps build trust with email providers and protects your emails from ending up in the spam folder.

Instead of jumping right into your campaigns with a new email account, which could potentially result in your emails being flagged as spam, the email warm-up process allows you to build a positive reputation gradually.

It's like taking small steps to ensure your emails have higher chances of reaching the recipient's inbox rather than being marked as unwanted.

Why do you need an Email Warm-Up?

Now that we have understood the process and concept of warm-up let's understand why email warmup is important for your campaigns.

Deliverability and Open Rates

Email deliverability is important while sending emails, whether it is your weekly newsletter or a cold email outreach. Your priority should be getting your emails in the recipient's inbox. 

Let's discuss how warmup helps you increase your deliverability,

When you send an email, the ESPs (Email Service Providers) and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) check the history of your previous email engagements and reputation. If the reputation is good, it lands in the inbox; otherwise, spam filters will most likely block it. 

Hence, email warmup helps you build a good history of email engagements. Also, it helps you increase your inbox deliverability and open rates of your emails.

Building and Repairing the Sender's Reputation

As I said earlier, when you send a new email from a new account, (ESPs) examine the engagement history of your previous campaigns with that account. If you initiate a cold email campaign without warming up your account, it can raise spam filter alarms. 

However, by warming up your accounts, you establish engagement and improve your chances of landing your latest campaign in the inbox. 

This process is crucial in building and maintaining a positive sender reputation. Similarly, if your campaign emails consistently end up in the spam folder, you can employ warm-up strategies to enhance engagement and repair your sender reputation.

Tracking and Monitoring the Sender's Reputation

This is one of many benefits of warmup, where you can track email deliverability and sender reputation. 

The above screenshot shows the warm-up progress of one of my email accounts. The warmup is set for 50 emails daily, and the bar chart shows inbox placements for emails with different colors. 

The red reflects spam and the green shows inbox placements out of those 50 emails. It also shows the account's current deliverability score of 99%. 

You can run these warm-up campaigns and your other email campaigns to monitor the sender's reputation and deliverability score. 

If your emails are landing in spam, it could be because your sender's reputation is bad or something is wrong with your email content.

Hence, if you get red color in your bar chart, you need to take rescue steps to get rid of the bad reputation.

How to Warm Up Emails?

Now we are on track to what email warmup is and why it is essential. Let's talk about how to warm up your email account.

The Email Warm Up process is quite simple. It all begins by sending a small number of emails from your domain and making sure to reply to them to keep the conversation going. 

Think of it like having a friendly chat. As you get more comfortable, you can gradually increase your daily emails. Remember to mark them as important too! 

This gradual approach helps boost the sender's reputation. Also, it ensures your email account is ready to handle your future email campaigns confidently.

When it comes to email warm-up, you can do it manually or automate it. We will discuss this in detail further. But before you begin, it's essential to authenticate your new email account and set up your domain's SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. 

This extra layer of security helps your emails bypass spam filters. It makes sure they land safely in the recipient's inbox. 

Let us further discuss the two ways of warm-up your email.

Automated Warm Up

Let's talk about automated warm-up first. You can do it using automated email warmings service providers like Mail Toaster, Snov.io, and GMass. This is the easiest way to warm up your emails.

Benefits of Automated Warm Up

Let me give you an example of how you can set up automated email warmups. I will use the Mailtoaster trial for the setup, but you can choose any Warmup service provider. The processes are nearly similar for all of them.

Automated warm-up is like having a helpful sidekick for your email campaigns. You can use automated warm-up services like Mail Toaster, Snov.io, or GMass. It's the easier and quicker way to warm up your emails. Here are the benefits of automating your warm-up process:

Setting up Automated Email Warm-Ups via Mailtoaster Trial

Here is an example of setting up automated email warm-ups using the Mailtoaster trial. However, remember that you can choose any warm-up service provider, as the overall process is similar for most.

Now, you are good to go. You have set up your warmup successfully. You can now track your statistics on your warmup and sender reputation and manage it accordingly.

Manual Warm Up

The manual warmup is a tedious process that needs time and effort. So if you have time and you are ready to make some efforts, this is an accessible way with which you can warm up an email account. Even though it takes time, it can do the job well.

How can you do a Manual Warmup?

You'll need either of these two things to warm up your email account. 

To establish a positive email sender reputation for a new domain or email address, you must show email service providers that you're a legitimate and credible person with a strong network of reputable connections.

The most effective way to achieve this is through an email warm-up process. It involves gradually sending emails to high-reputation inboxes and maintaining a good engagement on your email messages.

How does the Manual Process Work? 

On the first day, you start by sending five emails. The next day, you can increase the number to 10 and then to 20 on a consecutive day. Continue this gradual increase until you reach 80-100 emails daily. Maintain this volume for at least two weeks before starting your email campaigns. 

Note: It's important to note that achieving a balanced rate of replies is crucial. Too many replies might raise suspicion, while too few may render the warm-up process ineffective.

Manual warm-up can be challenging, but it's a great option if you have limited resources and are willing to work hard. Another critical aspect is mimicking your target audience and targeting inboxes that closely match your intended campaign recipients. Additionally, try to maximize engagement for each email you send.

The duration of Email Warm-Up

The burning question is, “How long does it take to warm up an email address?”

Well, the truth is, email warm-up is an ongoing effort that gets better with time. The recommended duration for warm-up is typically between 2 to 8 weeks.

Once you've completed the initial two weeks of warm-up, you can begin by sending several emails and gradually increasing the volume. It's crucial to note that even after your warm-up is complete, you should continue warming up the email account to monitor your sender's reputation.

Based on my personal experience, the warm-up process may impact your email campaigns. However, the wait is worth it because your ultimate goal as an email marketer is to ensure your emails land in recipients' inboxes. 

It's pointless to invest time in research, personalization, and sending many emails if they end up in the spam folder due to a poor sender reputation.

Ready to warm up your Email Account?

Email warm-up is crucial for successful email campaigns. It involves gradually building a positive reputation for your email account so that your messages reach the recipient's inbox instead of being marked as spam.

However, warm-up alone is not the only factor that affects your email's deliverability. The content of your emails, subject lines, email authentication, and maintaining a clean email list also play essential roles. Pay attention to these aspects and monitor how your recipients engage with your emails.

So, enjoy the process of email warm-up, refine your strategies, and see your emails positively impact your recipients' inboxes. 

Keep up the excellent work, and happy sending!

For further assistance or help from our advisers, feel free to contact us.

Recommended Read:

SPF, DKIM, DMARC explained: Enhancing email security and trust

Staying out of the Spam Trap: How to improve Email Deliverability?

Edited By: Prerna Oberoi

Frequently Asked Questions