Email Warm-Up: What Every B2B Sales Team Should Know

By: Jack Reamer |
 February 17, 2022 |
Guest Post: Written by Daniel S.

We’ve seen salespeople lament that their emails go to spam within weeks of launching a new email domain or adding a new email address to an existing domain. 

They claim to have only recently begun sending emails to their prospects and yet, their emails end up in their prospects’ spam folders within weeks.

This brings us to the question…

Why do email clients label a new email address as spam just a few days after it is created? 

When a recipient notices that a freshly generated email domain or email ID is sending emails, it begins to examine the volume it generates.

Because many email clients employ email volume to detect spam, if the number of emails sent is more significant, the email client is more likely to consider it with suspicion. 

Suppose a salesperson or email marketer sends a large number of emails from their email address after creating a new email domain or ID.

In that case, the recipient will label the email address and the email domain as spam. 

How do you prevent this?

Well, you need to send minimal emails from your domain or email address at first to establish a reputation for your email account

When advertisers utilize automated email distribution tools to send emails, it’s good to use email-warmup to establish credibility for the email first so that subsequent communications don’t end up in spam.

What is the purpose of an email warm-up feature? 

An email warm-up feature allows you to send minimal emails at first and steadily increase the volume of emails sent.

Further, it reduces the odds of an email address being flagged as spam and ensures that the communication ends up in the inbox of the intended recipient. 

We’ve seen salespeople complain that their emails go to spam within weeks of launching a new email domain or adding a new email address to an existing domain.

They profess to have only recently begun sending emails to their prospects; however, their emails end up in their prospects’ spam folders

Which is incredibly frustrating. 

Why? 

Because even if you have written the perfect email, your prospects are not going to see it, because it has ended up in spam purgatory. 

Quick fact… 

Did you know that “nearly 200 billion emails sent every day worldwide, 84% are considered spam?

A full 55% of all email users admit that they don’t open and read messages regularly – whether business or personal.” 

So if your emails are ending up in spam you are missing out on more than half of your prospects.

Back to the article 

When an ESP (email service provider) such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc., marks a domain or email address as spam, this is what ensues.

Why do email service providers (ESPs) label a fresh email address as spam just weeks after it is created? 

ESPs keep track of the total number of emails sent from a certain email address or domain.

Any abrupt increase in transmission volumes is regarded as suspicious and spammy behavior.

What happens if you send emails from an email address or domain that hasn’t been properly warmed up? 

If you don’t warm up your email address and domain before sending out a significant number of cold outbound sales communications, your email is likely to end up in your recipients’ spam folder. 

And it gets worse because the more emails you send, the more: 

  • They land up in the spam folder of your contacts. 
  • You will be marked as spam. 
  • Emails will be removed because they haven’t been opened. 

It will harm your email’s reputation and credibility, which might take months to restore.

Workable ways to get your email address and domain to warm up 

  • Send modest batches (under 20 emails) for at least 4-6 weeks at a time. 
  • Make a list of verified and genuine email addresses with which you may communicate, such as business partners, coworkers, relatives, warm contacts, and so on. 
  • Make sure your email body is concise and clear; the last thing you want to do is come across sounding like a bot. 

The DKIM-SPF-Email Blacklists factors and involving customers 

It’s worth noting that the DKIM authority domain is usually linked to domain reputation. Domains registered with Mailgun come with their own DKIM authority by default. 

It implies that subdomains do not inherit or share a reputation with their parent domain unless stated during domain formation. 

The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records describe which servers are allowed to deliver email from the domain. 

This is similar to the concept of a return address in old-fashioned mail: if you receive a letter from your mother but the return address is incorrect, you may suspect that the letter did not come from your beloved mom.

Then there are scores of blacklists maintained by as many distinct blacklist providers, each with a database of spammersIP addresses and domain names. 

Because these blacklists rely on people reporting email as spam, it’s critical to keep track of your email complaints and make any required changes to avoid being added to one of these lists. 

If you are placed on a blacklist, you must contact the blacklist provider for instructions on how to be removed.

So, if you have a new domain, whether a subdomain or a root domain; you’ll probably need to warm it up first. 

It is done in a similar manner to the manual IP warm-up

You may begin by limiting the amount of data leaving the domain each day and gradually increasing it over time.

Taking the aid of warm-up tools can also help you to a great extent.

How long does it take to establish a good reputation? 

Regrettably, there is no one-size-fits-all time range that will work for all domains. At the very least, give yourself a few weeks, at least.

Are there any cold email warm-up tools that might help? 

The good news is that you don’t have to “warm” up your emails manually.

Imagine sending hundreds of emails to friends and family, asking them to reply to warm up your email. 

This would be a mini nightmare. But thanks to technology there are various email warm-up tools that can be useful. 

How do warm-up tools work exactly?

Email warm-up tools basically create positive engagement, by allowing your email account to send automatic emails to the “warm-up tool” email address.

This then in turn replies to your emails. It’s as if the 2 inboxes are “talking” to one another. 

This happens automatically, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.

The number of emails sent are also not a large amount, but rather starts off slowly, and then gradually increases. 

This in turn helps to ward off “suspicious activity.” 

In this article, we will discuss an email warmer called: Warmy.io

Warmy will get your email domain and IP address ready to use so that it can develop a positive sender reputation and increase email deliverability.

This tool is useful for a few reasons (which we will still discuss below) but interestingly it also allows a sender to avoid spam filters that have a bad reputation for your mailbox and website.

How does Warmy work? 

Warmy is an automated tool that helps your emails stay out of the spam folder by doing the following:

  • It sends out auto-generated personalized emails and this, in turn, increases deliverability. 

  • It also detects all the information about a mailbox. For example; The domain age, mailbox age, previous reputation, etc. The tool then uses this information to set up the right pace for the warm-up process

  • It exchanges warm-up emails with REAL people, which results in a better sender reputation, which more emails will land up in a prospect’s inbox and this, in turn, leads to higher open rates

How much does Warmy.io cost?

There are various pricing packages that you can choose from. Each offers different perks. 

Have a look below: 

What are the pros of using an auto warmer like Warmy.io?

  •  An email auto warmer like Warmy.io can help you warm up your email and domain 10x faster, making your email domain ready for Email Marketing campaigns that will have a greater effect by landing in your prospect’s inbox. 

  • Most of these email warmers should be able to warm up any of the major email service providers such as Gmail

Warmy.io is able to warm up for example:

Gmail, G Suite, Google WorkSpace, Microsoft 365, Sendgrid, Amazon SES, Mailgun, Outlook, Zoho, Yahoo, iCloud, AOL mail, Yandex, SendinBlue, and even  SMTP

  • Your emails will be automatically opened, identified as important, and removed from the spam bin, thus drastically improving your sender reputation.

What are the cons of using an email auto warmer?

There are some drawbacks of using auto-warmers, in the sense that not all auto warmers are as good as others. 

 This is why doing your research is important to find the best tool out there. 

 For example, many new companies might have great marketing pitches, but their tools are not as great as others. 

 Another drawback is that email warmers will not solve all your deliverability problems. 

 You still need to focus on sending quality emails that are not spam. Quality over quantity will keep your domain reputation on solid ground.

In Conclusion

Autowarmers, like Warmy.io, can save you a lot of time and hassle when it comes to email outreach

Even if you are the greatest copywriter on earth, it won’t matter because your prospects are not getting your emails. Why? Because your emails land up in the spam folder.

So remember..

Be smart. Don’t send thousands of emails all day every day. But rather focus on quality over quantity. And use an auto warmer to get you faster results for cold outreach