Starting with a fresh email account can be risky. Statistics reveal that around 55% of emails might not reach the intended inbox but instead get flagged as spam. Warming up an email account is a crucial step to avoid this pitfall. It’s about gradually establishing trust with email providers by responsibly increasing your sending volume.
This process ensures your messages are received as intended, not sidelined as unwanted spam. This blog will guide you through the steps to effectively warm up your email account, ensuring your communications are both seen and heard.
Main Takeaways
- Before you dive into a full-fledged email marketing campaign, you should warm up your email to improve your email deliverability.
- In early 2023, Google banned automated email warm-up services, so if you are using a Gmail account, your best bet is to warm up manually.
- The time it takes to warm up your email can vary, but generally, it takes 8 to 12 weeks.
- You should start slow when sending emails and slowly ramp up the number of emails you send out as you warm up the domain.
What Is an Email Warm Up?
Warming up your email is like training to run a race. You start slowly, sending a few emails from a new account and then sending more as time passes. This helps you look good to email providers so they know you’re not just sending spam.
It’s all about showing email providers that you’re a real person or business sending genuine emails. When you start small and increase gradually, they learn to trust you and deliver your emails where they should go.
You can warm up your email by sending each one by hand or using a tool that does it for you. Sending them yourself might take longer, but it can feel more personal. Using a tool is quicker and less effort.
Why Should You Warm Up Emails Before Cold Emailing?
Warming up your email before diving into a cold email campaign is crucial for several reasons. Primarily, it establishes a reputation for your new email account, which is crucial for avoiding being flagged as spam.
By starting with a smaller number of emails and gradually increasing the volume each day, you’re signaling to email providers that you’re a legitimate sender, thereby increasing your email sending limit.
Additionally, a well-executed warm-up process builds and maintains a positive domain reputation, which is essential for high email deliverability. This is key to ensuring your messages reach the primary inbox of your intended recipients rather than getting lost in spam folders or not being delivered at all.
A positive reputation with email providers means they’re more likely to trust your account and deliver your emails accordingly.
The gradual increase in emails sent from a new account is also about avoiding spam filters. Previously, it might have been possible to warm up an account purely based on the volume of emails sent, but now, the quality and consistency of your sending behavior are also crucial.
This gradual process helps in establishing a trustworthy sender profile, which is vital for successful email campaigns.
How to Manually Warm Up an Email Account
Manually warming up an email account is a hands-on approach that involves a series of strategic actions to establish and improve your sender’s reputation. It’s about creating a genuine engagement signal in your new inbox that signals to email providers your account is trustworthy. This is the best option for warming up your email as it is the method that Google approves. Therefore, you are not likely to be penalized for manually warming up your email. Here’s how to do it:
1. Authenticate Your Account
Start by setting up essential email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These are technical measures that prove to email providers that the email is not forged and legitimately comes from you. A personalized domain also adds credibility and professionalism to your emails.
2. Send Personalized Emails
Begin by sending a small number of emails to people you know, like friends, family, or colleagues. Personalization is key here. Craft each email to be unique and relevant to the recipient. Starting with 15-20 email IDs is ideal. This helps to avoid triggering spam filters and ensures your emails are more likely to be opened and read.
3. Engage in Genuine Conversations
Respond to any replies you receive and keep the dialogue going. This two-way communication is vital as it shows email providers that your emails are engaging and desired by the recipients. Also, consider subscribing to newsletters and engaging with them. This reciprocal interaction further establishes your account’s legitimacy.
4. Gradual Increase in Volume
Slowly increase the number of emails you send over time. This gradual increase is crucial as a sudden spike in email volume from a new account can raise red flags with email providers. Monitor the response to your emails and adjust your approach as needed.
5. Monitor and Adjust
Keep a close eye on your email deliverability and how recipients engage with your emails. If you notice many of your emails going unanswered or, worse, marked as spam, take a step back and adjust your strategy. Maybe you need to slow down the increase or improve your email content.
By taking a manual approach, you have complete control over the warm-up process. It might take longer, but it allows for a more personalized and careful strategy, ultimately resulting in a better sender reputation and higher email deliverability rates.
Automated Email Warm Up
In January of 2023, Google banned automatic email services. These automatic systems made the email warm up process MUCH easier as they would automatically send emails to various domains in their email networks, automating replies and, in turn, sending back good signals to Google’s security. Google’s machine learning bots can now detect automated email warm up tactics, and using them can come with significant consequences.
While you can still use automated email warm up tools for Zoho, Outlook, Yahoo, and other email domains, they are not a viable option for Gmail.
Email Warm Up Services
There are numerous email warm-up services available, each offering unique features and pricing models to suit different needs. Nowadays, most email warm up services won’t be applicable to a Gmail account unless you use a company that utilizes manual techniques. Here are a few popular email warm up services.
Proven Concept (Best Option for Gmail Accounts)
This company will assist you with your cold email campaign every step of the way, from setting up your domain, warming up your email, and actually sending out emails and obtaining leads. Proven Concept uses manual email warming, so you can rest assured that Google won’t flag your email domain.
Tools to Warm Up Non-Google Accounts
Several services offer manual and automated warm-up solutions for domains other than Google. These include.
- Smartlead.ai: Offers a mid-high quality service for $39/month with unlimited inboxes, suitable for those looking for a balance between price and quality.
- Warm Up Your Email: Priced at $29/month per inbox, it’s touted as the highest quality mid-price option.
- Mailflow.io Auto Warmer: A free, mid-quality option for those starting out or with limited budgets.
- Saleshandy: Another affordable option at $34/month for unlimited inboxes, providing a mid-quality service.
- Warmup Inbox: Offers automated email sequences, IP rotation, and reputation monitoring to simulate real user interactions and establish positive engagement patterns with ISPs.
- Woodpecker: Provides free warm-up for its users to warm up their email addresses and domains, with the note that it’s no longer available for Google users from 6th February 2023.
- MailReach: Claimed as the “number one email warm-up service” by some, with thousands of businesses using its software.
- Reply.io: Helps build and maintain a good sender reputation with its cold email warm-up tool priced at $29 per month.
Tips and Strategies for Warming Up an Email Account
Here are seven effective strategies for warming up an email account, each providing a unique approach to establishing and maintaining a positive sender reputation.
1. Don’t Ask for Anything Initially
Avoid starting your email by asking for something. Instead, offer something valuable without expecting anything in return. This approach establishes a relationship based on trust and generosity, making recipients more receptive to future communications.
2. Briefly Build Credibility
Introduce yourself briefly and highlight your credentials or experience. This helps establish why the recipient should pay attention to your email and consider your offer or message seriously.
3. Use Your Best Pitch
Make your initial offer compelling, high in value, and low in commitment. A well-crafted pitch increases the likelihood of a response and sets a positive tone for future interactions.
4. Mention a Reason For Your Offer
Provide a clear and simple reason for your offer. This helps legitimize your proposal and makes it more appealing, as it assures the recipient of the offer’s genuineness and value.
5. Consider Your Prospects
Identify and understand your target audience. Segment your list according to different customer profiles and tailor your emails to meet their specific needs and interests. This increases the relevance and effectiveness of your emails.
6. Monitor Your Metrics
Keep an eye on key email metrics like open rates, click rates, and bounce rates to gauge the success of your warm-up process and make data-driven adjustments.
7. Streamline Your Cold Emailing Process
Organize and streamline your emailing process. Use tools and services to help you find email addresses, but remember to keep your approach personalized and human. Efficient processes save time and allow for more effective follow-ups and relationship-building.
How Long Do You Need to Warm Up an Email Before Cold Emailing?
The answer to this obviously depends, but generally, the ideal duration for warming up an email account before starting cold emailing campaigns is between 8 and 12 weeks.
This period allows you to establish a solid sender reputation and achieve optimal deliverability. The exact timing can vary based on the number of emails sent and the level of recipient engagement during the warming phase.
For domains with a solid existing reputation, you might start cold emailing after as few as two weeks. However, for new domains or those without established credibility, a full 12-week period is recommended to avoid penalties and ensure a positive reputation.
How Do You Know Your Email Is Warmed Up?
So, now you know how to warm up your email and why it is important. But how do you know when your email is warmed up and ready for your marketing campaign?
Here are key indicators that your email is warmed up.
1. Inbox Delivery
Consistently, your emails should go straight to the recipient’s inbox, not the spam or junk folder. This means that email providers trust your account and see it as a legitimate sender.
2. Engagement From Recipients
You’ll notice more people are opening your emails and responding to them. When people interact with your emails by opening and replying, it tells email services that your messages are useful. This is a big deal because it shows real people find your emails valuable.
3. Solid Sender Reputation
Over time, your email account earns a good reputation. This isn’t just about sending emails; it’s about how people react to them. If more people are happy with your emails and not marking them as spam, it’s a good sign. The more good signs your domain receives, the better your email reputation will be.
Email services and algorithms are always watching how you send emails and how people handle them. Doing well here means you’re seen as a good sender.
4. Successful Responses From Sales Emails
If you’re using your email for business, like sending offers or information, you’ll start seeing better responses. More replies and interest from people mean your emails are hitting the mark.
This is especially important for business emails because they can sometimes look like spam. A warmed-up email avoids this problem.
5. Gradual Increase in Volume
As your email gets warmed up, you’ll be able to send more emails without issues. This doesn’t mean sending a ton all at once; it means slowly increasing the number and still having them delivered well. Keep this gradual to avoid problems.
Remember, warming up an email properly can take several weeks. You need to be patient and watch these signs. If you’re doing things right, you’ll see these positive changes.
Always Warm Up Before Cold Emailing!
In short, in the process of warming up your email account, taking the entire operation seriously is essential as it significantly boosts your email campaigns, potentially leading to improved revenue. As you can see, while automatic methods exist, manual is the way to go. If sending email after email manually seems like too much of a pain, you can hire a service to do it for you.
As you increase your sending volume, automated methods might be more feasible. Ultimately, the choice depends on your specific needs and resources. As you move forward, remember that the effort put into warming up your email account paves the way for more effective, reliable, and successful email engagements.
References
https://www.growbots.com/blog/google-bans-cold-email-warmup/
https://woodpecker.co/blog/manual-vs-automated-email-warm-up/
https://sendgrid.com/en-us/blog/10-tips-to-keep-email-out-of-the-spam-folder