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Deliverability
Email Warm Up: IP Warming Strategy & Tools To Use
Guillaume Moubeche
June 11, 2023
August 22, 2022
|
7 min. read
Guillaume Moubeche
LAST UPDATED
August 12, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.
Before starting cold emailing, you need to warm up your email.
If you suddenly start sending hundreds of daily emails, you’ll be marked as a spammer.
Email warm-up helps you establish a good sender reputation, allowing you to send more emails without landing in the spam folder.
In short, a good email warm-up strategy is essential for cold email success.
What is email warm-up?
Email warm-up (also known as IP warming) is a process that involves a gradual increase in your email sending volume.
To build a good reputation, your email address needs to be warmed up.
A warmed-up address is an address that has been sending and receiving messages regularly.
An email address can be at different stages depending on how you've been using your account and how old your domain is.
Many questions can come up:
What does the email warm-up process look like?
What's the best warm-up schedule?
How can you know when an email address has been properly warmed up?
What do you do if you have a new domain?
Keep on reading to find out!
There are two ways to warm up an email domain. You can do it automatically or manually.
In this article, we'll discuss both strategies.
Key benefits of email warm-up
There are numerous benefits of warming up your email. They include:
Improved Deliverability: Email warm-up the likelihood that emails land in the inbox instead of the spam folder.
Increased Open Rates: Higher deliverability translates to more emails being opened by recipients.
Enhanced Sender Reputation: Builds a positive reputation with ISPs, validating you as a trustworthy sender.
Reduced Bounce Rates & Spam Filter Avoidance: Helps maintain a clean email list and avoid being flagged as spam.
Higher Engagement Rates: Leads to increased interactions, such as clicks and replies, from recipients.
Compliance with ISPs & Reduced Risk of Suspension: Aligns with ISP guidelines, minimizing the risk of being blacklisted or having your account suspended.
Accurate Data Analytics: Provides reliable data for better decision-making and campaign optimization.
Long-term Performance: Establishes a foundation for consistent and successful email marketing over time.
Do you need a warm-up tool?
Yes! Unless you want to do it manually. But it's one hell of a job.
Here is a step-by-step guide to warming up an email manually:
Step 1: Set Up Authentication
This step is crucial because without ensure your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are properly set, you cannot start an email warm up.
Add and configure these records in your DNS settings to authenticate your email and build initial trust with email providers.
Step 2: Start with Low Volume
In the beginning, focus on sending emails to close contacts.
During the first week, send 10-20 personalized emails per day to trusted recipients who are likely to engage (open, read, reply).
Step 3: Gradual Increase
Increase the email volume by 10-20 emails per day every week.
For example, if you start with 10 emails per day, increase to 20 in the second week, 30 in the third week, and so on.
Step 4: Encourage Engagement
Ask recipients to reply to your email. Engagement signals such as replies, clicks, and interactions enhance your sender reputation.
Step 5: Maintain Consistency
Make sure you set up a regular sending schedule. Send emails consistently throughout the day, not all at once, to mimic natural email behavior and avoid triggering spam filters.
Step 6: Monitor Metrics
Use email deliverability tools to monitor open rates, bounce rates, and responses. Keep an eye on your sender reputation score.
Step 7: Clean Your List Regularly
Periodically clean your email list to remove unengaged or invalid email addresses. This reduces bounce rates and enhances deliverability.
Step 8: Vary Your Content
Alternate between plain text and HTML emails to prevent patterns that might be flagged by spam filters. Ensure your content is relevant and valuable.
Step 9: Avoid Spam Traps
Make sure you don’t purchase email lists since they can damage your sender reputation.
Use organically gathered email addresses rather than purchased lists. Spam traps can tarnish your sender reputation and lead to blacklisting.
Step 10: Gradual Scaling
Reaching a desired sending volume takes some time and continuous effort.
Continue incrementally increasing the number of emails until you reach your target volume. Typically, this process can take several weeks to a couple of months.
Ongoing warm-up is crucial for successful email outreach
Even after you do all the steps manually, your work is not over.
You should always have a warm-up process running behind the scenes.
Most people think they can stop the warm-up process after warming up their email. This is a mistake.
Why?
Since you’re doing email outreach, the engagement you get for your emails may be lower than with regular email. This dip in engagement can hurt your deliverability.
By keeping the warm-up process going you can ensure to get a healthy number of replies to your emails and keep your reputation up, leading to higher open rates and more conversions.
But it also means that doing it all manually will probably cost you way more money and time than when using a warm-up tool.
If you want to know your deliverability score, take this quick and free email deliverability test to find out.
Your goal is to get a deliverability rather which is typically around 95% of successful deliveries, with a bounce rate not exceeding 3%.
You will see the results of your deliverability test presented as a score, which gives you a concrete measure on where to focus your efforts.
It's all done on autopilot, so you don’t even have to lift a finger.
lemwarm is [hands-down the best IP warming tool because it delivers what it promises.
Once you switch to a long-term lemwarm strategy, you'll start hitting 80% open rates.
This is what to expect from using lemwarm:
You'll discover how to make that happen for your email domain in a minute.
Warming-up your email: Key things you need to know
The optimal time to warm up an email address is one month, around 3 to 5 weeks.
After your email will be properly warmed up and ready to roll.
When it comes to the value set up in lemwarm, make sure to be aware of the following:
➡️ The ramp-up increment value per day
If your email account is < 6 months this value should be 1.
If your email account is > than 6 months this value should be 2.
➡️ The number of emails lemwarm will send per day after ramp-up:
If your email account is < 6 months this maximum number should be 30.
If your email account is > than 6 months months this maximum number should be 40.
Additional recommendations:
Week 1-2 of warmup - 20 mails per day
week 3 of warmup - 30 emails per day
week 4 of warmup - 40 emails per day
As an example, if your ramp-up increment value is 2, here is what is going to happen:
DAY 1 - lemwarm will send 2 emails
DAY 2 - lemwarm will send 4 emails
DAY 3 - lemwarm will send 6 emails
Until you reach 40 emails per day.
Remember!
You want to send warm-up emails gradually, in order to progressively reach the maximum number you set.
Our tip: during the initial warm-up phase, try not to send outreach campaigns at all. If you decide otherwise, we recommend starting with a low volume and slowly ramping up each week.
Once the warm-up phase is done, keep lemwarm on if you want to maintain good deliverability.
lemwarm: An ultimate tool from users to users
The lemwarm idea started thanks to our users. One day in the lemlist family community, Vaibhav opened a really important topic.
This is how lemwarm was born.
We stopped what we were doing at the time, joined the conversation, and decided to build one of the most important products for our community.
How does lemwarm work?
We send emails with unique content to other lemwarm users using your account. Each message and subject line is generated via our smart content algorithm. This is important because email providers will check and evaluate it.
On top of that, lemwarm will also create conversations by replying to those messages with more unique content, keeping them under the same thread.
The beauty of these conversations is that you'll be joining a mailbox network that consists of 20K+ people from 100+ countries.
Unlike some other tools that offer warm-up service, lemwarm doesn't allow fake email addresses to join as they ruin our email domains. Instead, you'll be exchanging emails with real people, including those from companies like Zendesk, Meero, Malt, Adeco, SAP, Uber, and more.
This is what makes lemwarm probably the world's coolest email warm-up software.
How to set up your lemwarm account?
1. Configure your account
Without any technical skills needed, you can set up your deliverability booster in just a few minutes.
Once you log into your lemwarm account, you’ll see the dashboard with 4 simple steps that will get you started:
So, let’s see how each of them can help you reach your target audience.
Step 1: Choose your plan
Depending on your business needs, choose between two lemwarm plans - Essential and Smart:
What’s the main difference between these two plans?
The essential plan helps you improve and maintain high deliverability by sending generic, human emails and monitoring your deliverability score.
Smart plan users have that extra boost thanks to features such as the smart cluster and smart content emails. Those will help you personalize your warm-up emails based on your goals, targeted audience, or industry.
Before purchasing, you want to make sure you used the correct address and billing data in the Billing & Invoices tab.
Once you choose the most suitable plan for your business, you’ll be ready to connect your email provider.
Step 2: Connect your email provider
Click on “connect your email provider”
Now click on “Connect new email addresses”
Next, choose your email provider:
For Google and Microsoft/Outlook this involves not much more than logging into your account, but if you have another email provider, you’ll have to enter the SMTP or IMAP server information.
By clicking on the “Verify your email” button, you’ll receive a verification email (in the inbox of the email you used to log in on lemwarm):
To verify your account email, simply click the link in your email. And voilà! You’re ready to start warming up your account.
Step 4: Start lemwarm
By clicking on the “Start lemwarm” button, you’re authorizing lemwarm to send and reply to warm-up emails for you:
From now on, you can track your DNS check, which will tell you if there’s something you should do to improve your setup:
Now, you’re ready to customize your settings even further to maximize the deliverability according to your domain age and business details.
2. Customize your settings
Whether you have an old or brand new email address, these smart settings will help you keep your email warm for the long run:
Set up smart ramp-up & warm-up
Based on your email domain’s age, you’ll need the right strategy to increase the number of emails sent until the perfect delivery is achieved.
To set up your ramp-up and warm-up settings, go to the Cockpit:
From here, you can indicate:
The number of warm-up emails lemwarm will send per day after ramp-up
This value will be the limit of total emails that can be reached per day with lemwarm. Once this limit is reached, the increment stops.
If your email account is < 6 months old this maximum number should be 30.
If your email account is > 6 months old this maximum number should be 40.
The ramp-up increment value per day
You want to send warm-up emails gradually, in order to progressively reach the maximum number you set.
If your email account is < 6 months this value should be 1.
If your email account > than 6 months this value should be 2.
The initial warm-up will last for one month. Once completed, you should see your open rates hit 50%+ levels.
During this initial warm-up phase, try not to send outreach campaigns. Your deliverability will be better if you wait until the end of this initial phase.
After this first warm-up phase, you can progressively start sending campaigns:
WEEK 1: 20 emails/day WEEK 2: 40 emails/day WEEK 3 AND AFTER: 60 to 100 emails/day
Friendly reminder: if you want to hit 80% open rates and never be sent to spam, keep your lemwarm ON.
Activate the smart cluster
This feature will allow you to send automated and ultra-personalized emails from your inbox based on your audience and email goals. Each message and subject line will be generated based on the info you put into the smart cluster questionnaire.
Why is that important? Because email providers will check out the content you’re sending and evaluate it. That’s why email exchange relevant to your business increases your sending reputation and helps you achieve better deliverability results.
So, to boost your deliverability score, tailor the content according to your business requirements as shown below:
P.S. Emails that your account sends and receives for the warm-up process are automatically labeled in your inbox so that you can filter them out and keep them out of your primary inbox.
Here’s how:
To keep your lemwarm emails away from your Outlook’s primary inbox, check out this video.
3. Monitor deliverability score
At any time, you can check the deliverability reports, monitor your inbox reputation, and apply lemwarm’s exclusive tips that help you keep a high deliverability score.
Within your Dashboard interface, you’ll have access to your deliverability score and tips on how to improve it:
If your deliverability score is:
Red -> You might be blacklisted, have a bad DNS, or wrong configuration. Whatever your case is, you’ll be in the know thanks to lemwarm tips.
Orange -> It means your results are not optimal yet. You can start sending campaigns but keep them low in volume.
Green -> You’re ready to start sending campaigns, but make sure to keep lemwarm active at all times to keep your good results up.
You can also pick a time frame and get a detailed report containing:
total lemwarm email sent including emails & replies sent to other users
total lemwarm email saved from spam & categories
a full overview of where your emails are landing
and a full overview of where your replies are landing in other users’ email boxes
All these reports will keep you updated so you can keep track if your messages are reaching your audience and what steps to follow to improve your deliverability.
Is the lemwarm email warm up tool reliable?
It's the most reliable email warm-up tool you'll find on the market. Just type "lemwarm reviews" on Google and see for yourself.
These are the factors for it’s success:
lemwarm's complex, proprietary algorithm which operates on 100+ different parameters
real people with verified emails and no fake accounts in the network
20K+ users worldwide
25+ years domain range
When you combine all these factors, lemwarm's reliability is defined. This is why big brands like Zendesk and Malt trust our IP warming service.
Email domains can be bought and sold, just like in any marketplace. No problem with that. Unless you purchase one that comes with a bad reputation attached to it.
One of our users bought a new domain and started warming it up. In a few days, lemwarm showed that more than half of emails were going to spam.
The entire setup (e.g. DNS) was done correctly and the user hadn’t started to send outbound campaigns at that moment.
Confused by the situation, the user decided to reach out to our support team to figure out what on Earth was going on.
After chatting with them, our team discovered that the user purchased that domain recently. But here's the catch.
That email domain had been bought and sold 27 times since 2011 and had been used by spammers in the past. #ShitHappens 💩
It's like buying a used car. You have to be really careful, otherwise, you might end up with a car that will stop in the middle of nowhere.
How to know domain history prior to making the decision to buy?
Technical Delivery: Understanding server and inbox reach.
User Engagement: Gauging recipient interactions with the email.
Content Effectiveness: Assessing how compelling and relevant the email content is.
After the warm-up is done, start your email outreach
After you have succesfully warmed up your email and prepared it for outreach, the next step is start your campaign.
To make sure all that work wasn’t for nothing and your cold emails land in your prospects’ inboxes, it’s recommended to use a cold outreach tool.
The market of outreach tools is saturated, but some tools bring better results than the others.
lemlist stands out by offering comprehensive assistance throughout your campaign journey.
With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), you can create personalized outreach sequences that drive engagement and conversions.
Getting it right is crucial, and lemlist's Smart Enrichment feature is a gem, extracting valid email and LinkedIn details without the need for user profiles.
The platform's Warm-up & Deliverability Booster is also tirelessly working to make sure your emails land right in the recipient's inbox, avoiding spam filters.
Moreover, lemlist's Multichannel Outreach is your go-to for connecting with leads via email, LinkedIn, and more.
And for a bonus, its seamless integration with popular CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive makes your campaign not just smoother but also more impactful.
Key takeaways
Always keep in mind the following:
Email warm-up is an essential component because it influences your sending reputation and email deliverability big time
When looking for email warm-up software tools, make sure they're using real accounts from people, have reliable algorithms, and send practices you can trust
An email warm-up tool has to stay on at all times to protect your sender reputation
Frequently Asked Questions
How many emails should I send out per day to start?
If you're using a brand new email address, we recommend starting by sending 2-5 emails per day for the first 5 days. After that, you can increase the number of emails sent by 3-5 emails per day.
What is an email warm up strategy?
Email warmup refers to the process of establishing a positive sending reputation for a new email sender or an email with damaged reputation. To warm up your email, you gradually send an increasing volume of emails over a period of 3-4 weeks while closely monitoring deliverability and engagement metrics.
How do I warm up my email server manually?
To warm up a SMTP server manually, you need to gradually increase the volume of emails you send over several days and weeks following a schedule. Ideally, you also need to generate a high level of engagement (openings, replies, marking emails as important, removing from spam, etc).
Do email warmup tools actually work?
Absolutely. Not only they help you to drastically increase your deliverability rate and sender reputation, they make the process faster and easier. Warmup tools like lemwarm play a huge role in the overall success of your email marketing.
What is the best email warm up tool?
lemwarm by lemlist is the best email warm-up tool.
It offers advanced warm-up and deliverability features like warming up your own templates and getting alerts when deliverability issues threaten to derail your email outreach.
lemwarm allows you to warm-up network of inboxes tailored to your niche.
Other good ones include Warmup Inbox, Mailreach, and MailFlow by QuickMail.
How do you warm up an email schedule?
An ideal warm up schedule is to roughly double your send volume each day until you reach your target daily sending volume.
Guillaume Moubeche
Co-Founder & CEO @lempire | Sharing outreach tips for growing business & leveraging sales AI
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