Email Warm Up Defined

1. Gradual Sending – Instead of sending a large volume of emails all at once, start by sending a small number of emails to a targeted and engaged audience. This could be a segment of your subscriber list or a group of people who have explicitly given permission to receive emails from you. Check out our article on email segmentation best practices for more tips on how to target and personalize your campaigns as you grow your email marketing strategy.

2. Increasing Volume and Frequency – As your sender reputation improves, gradually increase the volume and frequency of your email sends. Monitor bounce rates, open rates, and engagement metrics during this process to ensure positive interactions with your emails.

3. High-Quality Content – Focus on sending valuable and relevant content to your recipients during the warm-up phase. Engaging content is more likely to be opened, read, and positively interacted with, which helps improve your reputation.

4. Engagement Monitoring – Pay close attention to how your recipients are interacting with your emails. High levels of engagement, such as opening emails, clicking on links, and replying, signal to Email Service Providers (ESPs) that your emails are wanted and not spam.

5. Consistency – Maintain a consistent sending pattern throughout the warm-up process. Erratic or irregular sending behavior can raise red flags and harm your reputation.

6. Watch for Red Flags – Keep an eye on your deliverability and sender score. If you notice any issues or declining metrics, take corrective actions promptly.

The duration of the email warm up process can vary depending on factors such as the ESP, the size of your subscriber list, and your sending behavior. In general, it's recommended to warm up an email address over a period of two to four weeks. However, for larger email lists or stricter ESPs, it might be beneficial to extend the warm-up period to six to eight weeks.

For more email optimizations to enhance the timing and frequency of your email campaigns, we encourage you to check out our comprehensive Email Performance Guide.

Skipping the email warm up phase can lead to your emails being marked as spam by ESPs, causing them to be blocked or delivered to recipients' spam folders. This can significantly reduce your email deliverability and overall marketing effectiveness.

ESPs (email service providers) use sender reputation as one of the key factors to determine whether an email is legitimate or likely to be spam. A new or inactive IP address lacks a reputation history, making it more likely to be flagged as suspicious by ESPs. By gradually increasing the email volume from the IP address, marketers can build a positive sender reputation.

Sender reputation refers to the evaluation and perception of an email sender's trustworthiness and credibility by ESPs and spam filters. A sender with a positive reputation is more likely to have their emails delivered to the inbox, while a sender with a poor reputation may face deliverability issues, with emails ending up in spam folders or being blocked altogether.

The purpose of sender reputation is to protect recipients from unsolicited or malicious emails (spam) and ensure a positive user experience.

Fraudulent email senders, including spammers and scammers, often use new or inactive email addresses to send out large volumes of unsolicited and potentially harmful emails. This leads ESPs and spam filters to be cautious and suspicious of emails from unfamiliar sources.

The gradual sending of emails from a new or inactive IP address to engaged subscribers helps demonstrate to ESPs that the sender is genuine, trustworthy, and follows proper email marketing practices. It also gives marketers an opportunity to monitor engagement metrics and make adjustments if any issues arise during the warming up process.

Yes, shared IP addresses also need to be warmed up, especially if the IP address is new or has been inactive for a significant period. While shared IP addresses are used by multiple senders, the reputation of the IP is influenced by the collective sending behavior of all users sharing it.

Yes, most reputable ESPs offer assistance and guidance with email warm-up to help their users establish a positive sender reputation for their email campaigns.

ESPs often provide users with detailed guidelines and best practices for IP warm-up. These guidelines may include recommendations on the initial volume of emails to send, the gradual increase in sending volume, and the duration of the warm-up process.

If your users encounter issues or you have questions during the warm-up process, your ESP should offer customer support to address concerns and provide assistance. They can help troubleshoot deliverability problems, provide insights on improving sender reputation, and offer recommendations based on industry best practices.

When looking for ways to choose a good email service provider, look for one that offers a user-friendly interface, reliable deliverability, advanced segmentation, and automation tools. You want to be able to efficiently manage and optimize email campaigns while ensuring high inbox placement and engagement rates for your subscribers.

OneSignal offers auto warm up, so it's quick and easy to get started and send your first emails without worrying about your sender reputation or deliverability.