Imagine a stranger walks into a bank on day one and asks to move a huge sum of money. The bank would be suspicious. Inbox providers feel the same way about a brand-new sending domain that suddenly mails thousands of people. Warming up your domain means building a track record gradually, so providers learn that your email is wanted.
Note: This is a sample plan. Always follow your sending provider's own limits and guidance.
A sample 30-day email warm-up schedule
- Week 1: start small. Send to a few dozen of your most engaged contacts: customers, recent subscribers, people who reply. Ask them to open and reply if they can.
- Week 2: grow steadily. If bounces and complaints stay very low, roughly double your daily volume.
- Week 3: widen the audience. Add more segments, still favoring people who engaged recently.
- Week 4: approach full volume. Keep increasing in steps, and pause increases if you see problems.
What to monitor while you warm up
- Bounces: remove invalid addresses immediately.
- Spam complaints: if they rise, slow down and review who you are emailing.
- Clicks and replies: these are your best signs that things are working.
When to slow down
If something looks wrong, don't push through. Drop back to your previous volume, fix the cause, and then continue. A few extra days of patience is cheaper than repairing a damaged reputation.
Next steps
Zaap Mail lets you schedule campaigns, send to your most engaged segments first, and watch bounces and clicks in real time as your volume grows.