Email Warming Best Practices

Proven strategies to maximize your email deliverability and sender reputation

Recommended Warmup Timeline

Follow this schedule for best results

Week 1-2: Foundation

5-10 emails per day

Start slow with internal team communications and existing contacts. Focus on building positive engagement signals from day one.

Week 3-4: Expansion

15-25 emails per day

Increase volume to warm prospects and newsletter subscribers. Maintain high engagement rates while scaling up.

Week 5+: Full Scale

30-50 emails per day

Ready for cold outreach campaigns. Keep warming running alongside live sends to maintain reputation.

Important: Never stop warming when you start prospecting. Keep it running to maintain your sender reputation.

Do's

Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC before warming

Start with low daily limits and gradually increase

Keep warming running even after starting campaigns

Monitor your deliverability score regularly

Use custom domain email (not @gmail.com)

Create inbox filters to organize warmup emails

Wait at least 2-4 weeks before cold outreach

Use realistic reply rates (25-35%)

Don'ts

Don't start cold outreach without warming first

Don't set daily limits too high too fast

Don't stop warming when starting campaigns

Don't ignore DNS authentication setup

Don't use free email providers for business

Don't send to purchased or scraped lists immediately

Don't warm accounts on shared/public WiFi

Don't exceed 50 warmup emails per day

Key Metrics to Monitor

Keep these numbers in healthy ranges

<2%

Bounce Rate

Keep bounces under 2%

<0.1%

Spam Complaints

Absolute maximum

>20%

Open Rate

Minimum target

Pro Tips

Use Subdomains for Cold Outreach

Send marketing emails from sales.yourcompany.com to protect your main domain reputation.

Warm Multiple Accounts

Distribute sending volume across multiple warmed accounts for better deliverability and higher capacity.

Maintain Consistency

Send emails at consistent times daily. Sudden spikes or drops in volume look suspicious.

Monitor Google Postmaster

Set up Google Postmaster Tools to track your domain reputation with Gmail directly.

DNS & Authentication FAQ & Troubleshooting