Sending cold emails without warming up your account first is like jumping into freezing water without dipping your toes in first. A shocking system shock awaits that you want to avoid.
That’s where email warming comes in – the strategic process of gradually conditioning email providers to see your account as a trusted sender of welcome emails.
This comprehensive guide explores definitions, methods, best practices, and tips for warming up your domain and accounts before subjecting them to cold email campaigns. Arm yourself with the knowledge needed to reach inboxes, not spam folders.
What is Email Warming and Why is it Important?
Email warming is the process of gradually building up an email account’s reputation and trustworthiness to improve its deliverability. The goal is to train email providers like Gmail that your account sends wanted, legitimate mail that recipients should see in their inbox.
Definition of Email Warming
Email warming works by increasing your sending activity and engagement in a controlled way. You’ll start sending a small number of emails per day, then steadily ramp up volume over weeks or months.
These emails get opened, clicked on, and replied to. Any messages that mistakenly go to spam are moved back to the inbox. This shows email providers that recipients are actively engaging with your mail.
Ideally, by the time you launch an email campaign, your account has shown a pattern of sending valued emails that recipients want to receive. As a result, future emails are more likely to bypass the dreaded spam folder.
Reasons to Warm Up Your Emails
Let’s explore why proper email warming is so important:
Avoid the Spam Folder
The biggest reason to warm up an account is to avoid having emails automatically filtered as spam.
Email providers have advanced algorithms that detect suspicious sending patterns. If you start blasting out cold emails from a new domain, many will likely end up in spam.
But warming up establishes you as a trusted sender, priming the algorithms to deliver future emails to the inbox.
Build Sender Reputation and Trust
Along with avoiding spam filters, warming helps build overall sender reputation. Things like consistently engaging with received emails signal you are a quality, active sender.
Solid reputation means providers will give your account the benefit of the doubt when assessing future emails. A good reputation is key for keeping out of spam long-term.
Increase Inbox Placement Rates
The cumulative impact of warming up is that a higher percentage of your campaign emails reach inboxes rather than getting filtered as spam.
Let’s say you start warming up an account that previously had an inbox rate of 20%. After proper warming, that rate could easily double or triple.
Higher inbox placement translates directly into more opens and responses to your outreach.
Prevent Getting Blacklisted
Finally, lack of warming can get your domain or IP address added to blacklists. These are widely shared databases of known spammers.
Once on a blacklist, your emails will almost never reach inboxes. But warming ensures you establish sending best practices and avoid getting labeled a spammer.
In Summary
Email warming is a strategic process to train mail providers that your account is a trusted sender of valuable emails. This results in improved deliverability and inbox placement for future campaigns.
Failing to warm up properly can relegate your emails to the spam folder abyss. But with patience and commitment to best practices, you can dramatically enhance your sender reputation.
How Does Email Warming Work?
Now that we’ve covered the critical importance of email warming, let’s explore how the process actually works.
The core goal is to gradually build up sender activity and engagement in an organic way. Here are the key steps:
Gradually Increase Sending Volume
The first component is steadily raising your sending volume over time. Don’t make the mistake of blasting out thousands of emails on day one.
Start by sending just a few emails per day, like 2-5. Then incrementally increase the daily amount by 2-5 more emails every few days.
Keep this ramp up going over weeks until you reach the target volume you need for campaigns. Proper tools will automate this volume increase for you.
Pacing things out allows mail providers to detect a pattern of consistent, growing usage. This looks natural for establishing a new active account.
Engage with Received Emails
The second crucial part of warming up is actually engaging with the emails you receive. This helps convince email providers that real humans find your messages useful.
Here are some key ways to engage:
Open and Click Emails
At a minimum, the emails you receive during warming should be opened. Even better is to occasionally click on links or images in the emails as well.
Opening alone signals recipients are interested in your messages. Clicking takes that interest to the next level.
Reply to Emails
Replying to a portion of received emails is extremely effective. You don’t need to write meaningful responses.
A simple “Thanks!” or even just clicking the reply button is sufficient to show engagement.
Mark as Not Spam if Flagged
Some of your emails will inevitably end up marked as spam by recipients, especially early on. But services can automatically move these back to the inbox and “train” the algorithm.
Just be sure to keep spam placements below 30%, as higher rates appear suspicious. Reply rates around 5% are ideal.
Emulate Natural User Behavior Patterns
A key goal when warming up is to emulate real user patterns. You want to mimic how actual people interact with expected, desired emails.
That means varying things like open times and response rates. If you open every message instantly, providers may detect an automation bot.
Vary engagement across days and weeks reasonably. Don’t stick to the exact same numbers of opens, clicks, and replies every period.
The more your warming mimics randomness of human behavior, the more authentic your activity appears to email providers.
In Summary
Effective email warming relies on gradually increasing sending volume while actively engaging with received messages in a human-like fashion.
Rather than firing off thousands of emails on day one, take the time to ramp up activity and establish yourself as a trusted sender over the long term. This lays the foundation for future email success.
Manual Methods for Warming Up Emails
While services and bots can automate email warming, some prefer to take a more manual approach. Let’s explore hands-on techniques for DIY warming.
Send a Small Number of Emails Per Day
As covered earlier, proper warming relies on gradually increasing your sending volume over time. This can be done manually.
Start by sending just 2-5 emails on the first day from your account. Send these to real people you know who will open and engage with them.
Then increment the daily amount by another few emails every few days – but no more than 10-20 additional emails per week.
Make sure to spread out emails over the day rather than batch sending them all at once. And vary who you send to, not just the same people.
Manually managing this volume increase takes diligence but establishes your sending patterns organically.
Subscribe to Relevant Mailing Lists
Signing up for mailing lists in topics you are interested in serves dual purposes.
First, it builds legitimate engagement history for the account as you open emails from lists you subscribe to.
Second, replying to or clicking on some of these list emails trains filters that real humans are interacting with your account.
Just avoid subscribing to lists that send excessive emails or risk being seen as spam themselves. Focus on reputable, professional lists that match your interests.
Slowly Build Real Engagement
As stressed throughout this guide, genuine engagement is key to email warming. With manual techniques, the burden is on you to slowly demonstrate real interest.
Some ways to organically engage:
- Reply to emails from real people, even just with a simple thanks.
- Click on links in emails to publisher sites or blog posts.
- Forward interesting emails to yourself or others.
- Bookmark key emails to come back to later.
Avoid anything that appears bot-driven, like instantly opening every single email. Manual warming takes patience but pays off.
No Bots or Fake Engagement
A core warning with manual email warming is to never use bots or fake engagement tactics. Things like auto-openers or instant reply bots will get your account flagged for spam.
Genuine, varying human engagement is noticeably distinct from bot patterns. Put in the work to manually do warm up right.
In Summary
DIY email warming relies on gradually increasing sends, subscribing to reputable mailing lists, and slowly building real engagement with received emails.
This hands-on approach requires more effort than automated services but offers full control over your warming activities. The extra diligence can pay dividends with improved deliverability.
Using Email Warmup Tools and Services
Manually warming up emails can be time-consuming. For convenience and scale, specialized warmup tools automate the process using dedicated email pools.
Features of Email Warmup Tools
Here are some key features offered by paid warming up services:
Automated Sending and Engagement
Instead of manually sending emails and driving engagement, tools handle everything automatically.
They send scheduled emails from your account and receive them into their warming pools. Bots then open, click, reply, and mark messages as desired.
This automation ensures consistent, ongoing activity that organically trains filters.
Gradually Ramping Up Volume
Services start with limited sends per day, then programmatically increase volumes to predefined limits based on your criteria.
Ramp ups are steady and gradual. Tools may slightly vary daily volumes and engagement rates to mimic human patterns.
Warmup Pool Management
Reputable tools maintain large, high-quality dedicated pools for warming emails. These are separate from any cold outreach lists.
Pool management is handled behind the scenes to keep pools primed for driving continuous engagement with your messages.
Benefits of Using a Service
There are a number of advantages to leveraging a paid warmup tool:
Saves Time and Effort
The biggest benefit is how tools automate the repetitive tasks of sending emails and driving fake engagement.
You simply connect your account and allow the service to handle the ongoing warmup activities in the background.
Large, High-Quality Warmup Pools
Paid tools have access to massive warmup email pools, often 200,000+ inboxes. This scales engagement far beyond DIY means.
Plus these inboxes are continuously vetted for quality to sustain volumes. DIY pools tend to deteriorate or degrade over time.
Customizable Options
Many warmup tools let you customize volumes, ramp rates, open/reply percentages, and more.
You’re not locked into preset options. Configure warming exactly how you need for your unique sending goals.
In Summary
Warmup tools automate the repetitive processes of gradually increasing sends and engagement using dedicated high-volume pools.
For anyone serious about email deliverability, the time and effort savings are well worth the cost. Just be sure to choose a reputable provider.
Best Practices for Warming Up Emails
Now that we’ve covered both manual and automated email warming methods, let’s review some top best practices to follow for success.
Start Slow and Increase Volume Gradually
This guides repeats one core principle often for good reason – start slow! The biggest mistake is blasting out thousands of emails from a new domain or account right away.
Instead, begin with just 2-5 emails on day one. After a few days with positive engagement, increment up by another couple of emails.
Keep this gradual ramp up going over weeks and months. How long you warmup depends on your target campaign volumes.
Warming up for at least 1-2 months is recommended, longer for higher volumes like 500+ emails per day. Take it slow and let engagement patterns establish naturally.
Ensure Sufficient Warmup Time Before Sending Campaigns
It can be tempting to cut warmup short in favor of launching campaigns sooner. Fight this urge at all costs.
Allot sufficient warmup time for your target send volumes before putting your newfound reputation at risk.
For example, if you ultimately want to send 500 emails a day, make sure you warmup to that level over months. This prevents harming deliverability by ramping up campaigns too quickly.
Err on the side of over-warming domains and accounts before going live. Deliverability hinges on this patience.
Monitor and Maintain Sender Reputation
Part of the value of professional warmup tools is how they monitor your burgeoning sender reputation and continuously work to enhance it.
But you should also keep an eye on key markers yourself:
- Inbox placement rates
- Spam complaints
- Unsubscribe requests
- Bounce rates
Address any reputation red flags immediately. For example, if spam complaints spike, pause additional volumes until you improve engagements.
Ongoing reputation management ensures your hard-earned warmup gains stick long after campaigns start. Don’t let your guard down.
Use Real Engagement, Avoid Bots and Fake Activity
As emphasized throughout this guide, genuine engagement is the only path to sustainable inbox placements.
Simply using bots to auto-open and click every email is easy to detect. And hints of automation can undo months of progress.
Tools should blend programmed engagement with manual human touches like personalized replies. Prioritize quality over sheer quantity.
Also, never purchase “warmed up” email lists that shortcut this process. These are typically filled with low-quality inboxes and bots.
Consistency is Key
Email warming takes consistency over a prolonged period to yield results. Sporadic engagement does not build the desired patterns.
Set a schedule for regular warming activities and stick to it. Consistent volumes and response rates tell providers to continually expect valuable emails.
That said, don’t be overly robotic either. Vary volumes slightly day to day and randomize open and response times. Strike a mix of consistency and randomness.
Just like developing any new skill, sustained commitment to best practices is essential for email deliverability.
In Summary
Email warming offers no silver bullets or shortcuts. But adhering to core best practices of gradual scaling, patience, reputation monitoring, genuine engagement, and consistency sets you up for cold email success.
Keep focused on playing the long game. The inbox rewards of well-warmed domains and accounts will be well worth the investment.
How to Measure the Success of Email Warmup
How can you definitively determine when an email account is properly warmed up and ready to start sending campaigns? Let’s explore key metrics to monitor.
Track Inbox Placement and Spam Rates
The single most important success indicator is the percentage of emails landing in recipients’ inboxes versus getting filtered as spam during warming activities.
Good professional warmup tools provide analytics dashboards tracking inbox and spam rates over time. You want your inbox rate consistently reaching 90% or higher.
If your inbox rate remains lower than 90% even after long-term warming, you may need to reassess engagement practices and your overall sender reputation.
Monitor Email Volume Limits and Throttling
Part of proper warming is carefully scaling up daily send volumes over time.
But at a certain point of ramped up volume, email providers may throttle sends if your allotted limits are exceeded.
Watch for volume-related failures like bounced emails and blocked connections when sending larger batch volumes. This indicates you’ve hit a provider ceiling.
Back off on volumes and sustain warming at current levels for longer before trying to increase sends again while monitoring for throttling.
Check Sender Reputation Before Sending Campaigns
Don’t just rely on inbox metrics from warmup systems. Manually send yourself some test emails before launching campaigns to independently verify performance.
Check both inbox placement and your IP and domain reputations using external tools. This gives an unbiased view of whether volumes and engagements have successfully enhanced your reputation.
Only proceed if tests indicate your account is ready to send larger campaign volumes without deliverability issues. Ongoing reputation management is key.
Watch for Red Flags Like High Bounce Rates
Be alert for any red flags during warming that could indicate future issues at scale.
Higher than normal bounce rates are one sign of trouble. Bounced emails mean invalid addresses that damage sender reputation when sent at high volumes.
If your warmup tool reports growing bounce rates, pause warming and reevaluate your email lists. Prune invalid addresses before proceeding.
Also watch for unusual spam placements or blocks by specific providers. These represent problems needing correction before campaigns commence.
In Summary
The best way to determine true email warming success is to monitor key metrics like inbox rates, send limits, sender reputation, bounce rates, and test sends.
Only when all indicators are positive over an extended warmup phase can you feel confident that accounts are primed for delivering cold email campaigns at scale. Patience and diligence regarding metrics are essential.
With the proper foundation built, your cold emaileiing efforts will yield their highest return on investment.
Key Takeaways on Email Warming
Email warming provides immense benefits but requires commitment and diligence. Here are the key takeaways:
- Start slow and gradually increase sending volume over weeks/months, don’t blast emails.
- Drive real engagement like opens, clicks, and occasional replies to received emails.
- Track key metrics like inbox placement rates, spam rate, bounce rate to gauge success.
- Ensure sufficient warmup time based on target email volumes before launching campaigns.
- Monitor and maintain sender reputation even after warming up. Deliverability is ongoing.
- Use genuine engagement tactics and avoid bot automation during the warming process.
- Consistency over an extended period is crucial. Don’t stop warming activities abruptly.
- Customize options if using a professional warmup service for convenience and scale.
- Test inbox placement manually with target providers to confirm Deliverability gains.
- Patience and commitment to best practices are required for email warming success.
The time invested in warming up domains and accounts will pay dividends through increased responses and pipeline growth from cold email and other campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should you warm up an email?
It’s recommended to warm up for 1-2 months minimum, longer if you want to send high volumes. Monitor engagement metrics instead of fixed time periods.
Does warming up help with non-Gmail providers?
Yes, it builds overall domain reputation, but may not impact other providers as dramatically as Gmail. Always test inbox placement with target providers.
Can you warm up alias addresses?
You cannot directly warm up aliases, but warming the primary email they are associated with can still help. Test alias deliverability manually.
Is warming up safe or could you get flagged?
There is a small risk of getting flagged for spam or automation if you scale up too quickly. Take it slow and use genuine engagement to be safe.
What engagement rate should you target?
5-15% reply rate to warmup emails is ideal. Higher looks suspicious. Keep open and click rates realistic, not instant on every email.
How do you measure warmup success?
Track metrics like inbox rate (90%+ is good), spam complaints, bounces, and throttle limits. Test manually before launching campaigns.
Should you keep warming up after campaigns start?
It’s recommended to continue light warming even after launching campaigns to maintain positive engagement patterns.
What’s better – manual warmup or using a service?
Both work, but tools provide huge time savings and larger warmup pools. Consider combining manual and automated warming.
Can you purchase “warmed up” email lists?
No, these are typically low-quality spam traps or bots. Do the warming process properly yourself for real results.
How do you stop or pause email warming?
Most tools have settings to stop or temporarily disable warming. For manual warming, simply stop additional sends and engagement.