Imagine sending out a hundred emails only to discover that no one reached its destination. This is the grim reality of not warming up your email domain before a cold emailing campaign. Emails from a domain that hasn't been warmed up are much more likely to be flagged as spam, regardless of their content. When you warm up an email domain, you're establishing a good sender reputation that will ensure your cold emails reach their target inbox when the time comes. This article will teach you how to warm up email domain effectively to achieve a high cold email deliverability and a trusted sender reputation.

Inframail's email infrastructure solution can help you reach these objectives. By using Inframail to warm up your email domain, you can quickly achieve a high deliverability rate and a trusted sender reputation.

Table of Contents

• What Is Domain Warm Up & Why Is It Important

• How to Warm Up Email Domain

• 16 Best Email Warmup Tools & Services

• Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

What Is Domain Warm Up & Why Is It Important

When someone mentions warming up an email domain, they aren’t referring to heating things or setting fire to servers. It’s about establishing a good reputation for a new domain in the email space. It’s a term to describe a strategic process – where new domain addresses are established by gradually increasing the volume of messages they receive. Domain warm-up sends emails from a new (or cold) email domain and gradually increases send volumes to establish a positive email reputation.

Why Should You Warm Up Your Domain?

The purpose of domain warm-up is to improve your domain reputation and gain ESPs’ trust so all your emails can be delivered right into recipients’ inboxes (and not be blocked by spam filters). Whenever you start sending emails from an entirely new email domain with zero reputation, ISPs and ESPs (Email Service Providers) can get suspicious about it and prevent your domain from delivering more messages at once until you “prove” that you are a reliable email sender. 

Once ISPs have historical data about your domain and email activity, they will allow you to send more messages to a larger audience—or vice versa, throttle your email volumes if you start to have a lousy domain reputation. Domain warmup helps to create a positive email reputation for your new domain by gradually sending a larger and larger number of messages over several weeks until your domain is ready and adequately “warmed up.”

What Impacts Domain Reputation?

• A domain’s reputation can be influenced by many factors, such as: 

• Delete rate: The number of recipients that moved your emails into their trash folder. 

• Spam report: The number of spam complaints that your domain receives. 

• Unsubscribe requests: People who unsubscribed from your email list. 

• Email content: The quality of your: 

1. Messages

2. Usage of spam words

3. Grammar mistakes

4. The trustworthiness of links (if included), etc. 

• Engagement rate: The number of people who opened, replied to or forwarded your emails. 

• Blacklists: The reputation of a domain address can suffer if it is put on one of the popular email blocklists. 

• Bounce rate: The number of emails not delivered to recipients’ inboxes. 

And many, many other factors… It’s essential to understand that not all of these components carry the same weight. For example, suppose some people unsubscribe from your email list. In that case, the domain reputation won’t change that much – on the other hand, having many spam reports can severely damage the reputation of your domain.

Why Warm Up Domain for Cold Email Campaigns?

While knowing how to warm up a domain can be valuable in any scenario, it’s particularly beneficial in the case of sales and cold email campaigns. Cold outreach is an art; warming your domain can significantly improve your success rate. The nature, frequency, and volume of such messages can make it challenging to come across as a credible sender – especially if your address is new and unestablished to the recipient. That’s why many marketers spend extra time preparing their domains before launching a cold campaign to avoid deliverability problems. 

Warming up the domain and other email deliverability strategies can ensure you establish a good reputation as a sender and that the hard work that goes into first-contact messages isn’t wasted. It’s essential to have a company domain trusted by recipients if you want to succeed with your outreach campaigns.

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How to Warm Up Email Domain

Set Up an Email Domain: The First Step to Warming Up a Domain

The first step to warming up an email domain is to set up the domain. This involves creating an email address on the new domain you plan to use for your cold email outreach. As a best practice, starting with two different domains is wise. If one domain gets flagged as spam, you can temporarily discontinue its use and send campaigns through the other domain. 

Understanding the difference between IP and domain is crucial here. An IP address is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. On the other hand, a domain is a human-readable address (like example.com) that points to an IP address and tells browsers where to access website files. 

Managing Email Volume to Protect Domain Reputation and Avoid Spam Filters

Whether or not you’re transitioning to a new IP, ensuring your email volume is managed effectively is crucial. Most reputable email providers impose sending limits on the accounts they host. This is to ensure their users aren’t sending out too much and, in turn, creating spam. It’s essential to keep track of these limits, as any sudden increase in volume may put your account at risk and damage your new domain reputation. Avoid spam filters at all costs.

Configure Your Address: Setting Up MX Records and Email Authentication 

Configure the MX record (mail exchange record) when warming up a new email domain. This information lets ISPs and mailboxes know where messages are coming from. Proper configuration ensures that your receiving email system recognizes and accepts the incoming mail. Without a correctly set-up MX record, your outbound emails will likely be flagged as spam and not reach your inbox. 

Once everything is configured, you should also set up Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) authentication. These are both methods of verifying that an email was sent from an authorized source. Account authentication is the first thing required with a new email address. 

After registering a single domain name for email outreach, follow these steps: 

• For the Return Path Domain (RPD) develops a Sender Policy Framework (SPF). 

• Sign Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) on the sender domain so that Google Postmaster can track the reputation. 

• Create a Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance Report (DMARC) and monitor the DMARC reports. 

• Upgrade IP-based Complaint Feedback loop. 

• Set up MX (Mail Exchange) for your current domain record.

Choose the Best Data Set: Targeting the Right Audience

Strategy is the key to a new domain name. During warm-up, ensure that the best data set, i.e., users with the maximum probability of opening emails, is targeted. The best data set would vary from industry to industry. 

In the e-commerce industry, users who have opened and clicked the previous emails would have the maximum probability, whereas, in the job industry, users who have recently signed up would have the maximum likelihood. Hence, it's essential to understand the business and identify users who would generate maximum opens and not target users who may open and report spam. 

Coordinating Platform and Email Activity for Effective Domain Warm-Up

The key is to manage platform activity alongside email activity and identify different cohorts, such as: 

• Email active & platform active

• Email active & platform inactive

• Email inactive & platform active

• Email inactive & platform inactive

Also, an alternative hack is to introduce triggers like transaction confirmation, OTP, and forgot password emails on the new domain name for 5-7 days. This helps build the domain's reputation, and you can start the promotional email warm-up from where you left off! For example, if your daily transactional email volume is 2K/day when you start the promotional emails, you can start with 2K/day!

Choose a Healthy Infrastructure: Start with a Good Foundation

Ensure you assign pre-warmed IPs and have a high reputation with Gmail/Hotmail. If it's a shared IP pool, clean up other brands with poor deliverability. 

Also, ensure that the IPs don't have a reputation for hitting spam traps, that the database is used to warm up, and that it is clean of spam traps. Spam traps in the database are a negative element and indicate poor data management. Ensure the domain name used to send emails is at least 30 days old.

Choose Your Content Wisely: Crafting Engaging Emails

Ensure the email content is more varied and personalized enough to entice users to open it. Also, avoid sales-y content in the early phase if you kick-start your email program with blog-based content that users are interested in reading. 

For example, if you are in the travel industry, you can send topical blog-based content like places to travel in India during the monsoon season instead of sending offers. If you already have a history of sending EDMs, ensure you aren't sending any content with a prior reputation of landing in spam. Avoid alt, title & map tags in the content. Alt & Title tags have keywords that quickly get cached by Gmail and other ISPs.

Build a Definite Warm-Up Schedule: Consistency is Key

To achieve full email deliverability, generate engagement in your warm-up emails. It is vital to have daily conversations as it is a continuous 8-12 week operation. Having a faithful response base gives the ISP a hint about your legitimacy. Sending the emails at a fixed time and sending at most 1.5 the previous day's volume. Also, you should only send the same content for 4-5 days. This is a typical warm-up plan, assuming we are looking at a scale of 300K/day.

Start Small and Increase Gradually: Don’t Rush the Process

Now you’re all set up, you can start sending out emails, but don’t expect to jump straight into a large-scale campaign. Despite your work, it’s still considered a new domain. The warmup process naturally takes time, so you’ll need to start small and send out a limited number of messages daily. It’s usually best to do this manually and to addresses you know. 

Generally speaking, recipients who are likely to reply and are hosted among multiple different providers are the ones you should target for effective domain warming, like: 

• Gmail

• Outlook

• Yahoo

• AOL 

This is because they all have different processes and will help your new domain become more familiar to those providers over time.

Use a Domain Warm Up Service: Automating the Process

Learning how to warm up a new email domain isn’t an exact science; there’s a lot of planning, trial and error involved. If you’re interested in an option that will save you time and yield better results for your domain reputation, consider using a domain warm-up service.

Services like these provide a comprehensive package of tools and insight to ensure your domain and email account are thoroughly warmed up, making it easier to establish a credible sender reputation so that you can start your email outreach as soon as possible. A solution that offers domain warmup service systemizers for the entire process, from setting up the MX records to monitoring your progress, gives you a better chance of success with any cold email campaign.

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16 Best Email Warmup Tools & Services

1. Inframail: Revolutionizing Cold Email Infrastructure

At Inframail, we are revolutionizing cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a flat rate. 

We provide: 

• Microsoft-backed deliverability

• Dedicated IP addresses

• Automated technical setup 

This helps customer outreach efforts efficiently like: 

• Agencies

• Recruiters

• SDRs

The main benefits of using our service: 

• Automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup

• Dedicated email servers for each user

• 16-hour priority support daily

Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects. 

InfraMail provides the robust email infrastructure you need without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether you're: 

• An agency looking to scale outreach

• A recruiter connecting with candidates

• An SDR driving sales

Start buying domains now and set up your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool.   

2. Warmup Inbox: Your Cold Email Reputations New Best Friend

Warmup Inbox is an email warmup service that can help you increase your campaigns' deliverability and improve your email account's reputation over time. The tool provides a network of over 20,000 inboxes that your email account can utilize for the warmup process. Warmup Inbox is pretty easy to use – after you sync your inbox with the platform, the tool will interact and engage with your account. This process includes: 

• Replying to your emails

• Marking them as necessary

• Pulling them out of the spam folder, etc. 

Besides the basic warm-up process, the Warmup Inbox also offers many other valuable features, such as: 

• Monitoring the sender’s reputation

• Alerting you about any issues with your reputation

• Checking the spam rate of your emails

• Checking whether your email is present on any blacklist 

The email account setup is pretty straightforward – you can sync your inbox into the Warmup Inbox platform and the tool will automatically start communicating with its network of real users. 

Warmup Inbox supports all major providers, such as: 

• Gmail

• Yahoo!

• Outlook

• Zoho and others

3. Mailwarm: The Email Warmup Tool with a Custom Schedule

Mailwarm is a pretty easy and straightforward tool: once you set up your email account for the service, it will start sending and replying to your emails and gradually warm up your account. One of the excellent features of this tool is that you can set up your schedule for the warmup process and control when the inboxes should automatically start sending and replying to emails. 

Besides the warmup schedule, Mailwarm also performs other actions within the inbox, such as: 

• Retrieving emails from the spam folder

• Marking emails as “important,”

• Opening up incoming emails

4. GMass: An All-in-One Solution for Gmail Users

GMass is a service that provides a decent email warmup tool, among other exciting things. The company offers eight valuable tools heavily focused on Gmail (since it wants to serve as an all-in-one solution for Gmail providers). With GMass, you can monitor the reputation of your domain, check out statistics about your opening rate, or even start a massive cold email campaign. 

This vast email conglomerate has its limitations. Since GMass is all about Gmail services, it might not work well for people who need to warm up their email accounts for other email providers.

5. Mailreach: The Very Basic Email Warmup Tool

Mailreach is a standalone email warmup tool designed by a French company in 2020. The tool is straightforward– once your inbox is set up and connected to Mailreach, it will automatically start sending and replying to emails. Besides the generic warm-up, it also provides a few exciting features, such as: 

• Testing the emails and evaluating your spam score

• Checking your email accounts in blacklists 

• Detailed deliverability reports

A slight downside (at least to some people) is that Mailreach email replies are not generated by real people (so they might seem a little suspicious to ESPs in some cases).

6. Lemwarm: The First Email Warmup Tool

Lemwarm is a well-established (though a bit old-school) email warmup tool – it was the first email warmup service ever to appear in the market. Lemwarm allows you to control the exact number of warmup emails you want to send from your inbox daily. Once you set up your account and start the warming process, the tool will automatically start sending emails on your behalf within its network of inboxes (and create replies generated by real people).

7. Folderly: The AI-Powered Email Deliverability Tool

Folders is an AI-powered email deliverability service focusing on more than just the warm-up process. It uses machine-learning systems that help email inboxes interact with emails like real people do – by creating and replying to emails with the following: 

• Meaningful content

• Opening

• Marking

• Interacting with messages, etc. 

Besides the generic warm-up process, Folderly also offers to run massive email outreaches and email analyses for companies that need more than just adequately warmed up in boxes.

8. Reply.io: An All-in-One Sales Engagement Platform

Reply is an all-in-one sales engagement platform that provides a simple warmup add-on. Reply’s Email Warm-Up tool is based on a network of actual inboxes that communicate with each other. It utilizes peer-to-peer sending without any free or temporary email accounts, making the warm-up process safe and reliable. 

With this network of users, Reply can create a positive engagement by interacting with your emails – it opens and replies to your emails or marks them as necessary. Unfortunately, the warmup tool is available only for Outlook and GSuite.

9. InboxWarm (by OutreachBin): A User-Friendly Warmup Tool

InboxWarm is an email warm-up tool that is part of OutreachBin’s platform. The tool uses an advanced algorithm that ensures human-like interaction with emails within its peer-to-peer network of users. Once you connect your email account to OutreachBin’s platform, the inbox will become part of its network and gradually improve its reputation by communicating with other accounts. 

InboxWarm is very user-friendly and can be easily used even by absolute beginners. Although the service claims that you can warm up your account in only 2 weeks, it also recommends that you continue to warm up your account to maintain your email reputation.

10. Warmbox: An Email Warm Up Tool with AI Capabilities

Warmbox is a standalone warm-up tool that can increase your email reputation by automatically sending emails from your account and interacting with them. Similarly to other popular warm-up tools, Warmbox uses its private network of more than 35,000 inboxes that communicate with each other and gradually increases the reputation of each email account connected. 

One of its unique features is its GPT-3 AI algorithm for each inbox, which helps generate and send unique emails between accounts (and, therefore, create natural conversations between accounts). It also provides detailed monitoring tools and analytics to show you reports about your reputation and overall warm-up progress.

11. Woodpecker: A Free Tool for Cold Email Users

Woodpecker offers users a free warm-up tool included in the subscription for its whole service. The setup for the warm-up process is effortless and straightforward – all you need to do is connect to the platform and turn on the warm-up process with just one click. You can also choose whether you would like to warm up your whole email domain or just one email address you plan to use for your campaigns. 

Woodpecker does precisely what you would expect from a proper warm-up tool. Automatically: 

• Sends warm-up emails

• Pulls them out from the spam folder

• Marks them as necessary, etc

Besides ramping up your email reputation, you can also use Woodpecker to recover your reputation if it starts to decrease or to keep your deliverability high all the time.

12. AutoWarmer (by QuickMail): A Warmup Tool with Human Language Capabilities

AutoWarmer is a warm-up tool that is integrated into QuickMail’s email platform. The tool can improve the sender’s reputation by positively engaging your inboxes. It: 

• Auto-replies to your emails from its network of inboxes

• Pulls the emails out of the spam folder

• Slowly increases the reputation of your email account. 

A nice feature of AutoWarmer is that it can generate emails that contain business language that you usually use daily. Autowarmer claims it can improve your domain reputation within the first 1 – 2 weeks (as opposed to a regular warm-up process that may take 3 to 4 weeks).

13. Mailflow: An Essential Email Deliverability Solution

Mailflow offers an essential solution for strengthening your email deliverability through full-fledged features like: 

• SPF & DKIM Checks

• Blacklist Monitoring

• Email Auto Warmer

Its real-time monitoring capabilities ensure that users maintain an optimal sender reputation. 

Features: 

• SPF & DKIM checks: Verifies email authenticity to ensure your emails are trusted. 

• Blacklist monitoring: Monitors your status on email blacklists to protect your sender reputation. 

• Email auto warmer: Gradually improves your email reputation, ensuring better deliverability.

14. TrulyInbox: A Powerful Email Management Tool

TrulyInbox is a powerful email management tool designed to declutter your inbox and improve productivity. It streamlines your email experience with features like: 

• Intelligent categorization

• Snooze options

• Integration with popular email platforms

Whether tackling a flooded inbox or striving for better organization, TrulyInbox simplifies digital communication.

15. Omnisend: A Comprehensive Email Marketing Platform

Omnisend offers a comprehensive email marketing platform with a built-in email warmup service for new domains and email addresses. 

Here’s a closer look at what Omnis end's free email warmup tool has to offer: 

• Features Automated warmup schedules

• Integration with Omnisend’s email marketing suit

•  Real-time monitoring and analytics

• AI-powered content suggestions

16. Allegrow: An All-in-One Warmup Solution

Allegrow offers an all-in-one solution for email warmup and deliverability improvement. 

Features: 

• Automated engagement simulation 

• IP and domain reputation monitoring Integration with major email service providers 

• Custom warmup strategies

Start Buying Domains Now and Setup Your Email Infrastructure Today

At Inframail, we are revolutionizing cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a flat rate. 

We provide: 

• Microsoft-backed deliverability

• Dedicated IP addresses

• Automated technical setup 

This helps customer outreach efforts efficiently like: 

• Agencies

• Recruiters

• SDRs

The main benefits of using our service: 

• Automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup

• Dedicated email servers for each user

• 16-hour priority support daily

Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects. 

InfraMail provides the robust email infrastructure you need without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether you're: 

• An agency looking to scale outreach

• A recruiter connecting with candidates

• An SDR driving sales

Start buying domains now and set up your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool.   

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