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Email warm-up strategy for a brand new domain — what actually works

warmup_will

Just went through the process of warming up a new sending domain for our SaaS product. Here is the schedule that worked and the mistakes to avoid.

Week 1-2: Foundation

  • Send only to your most engaged users (opened/clicked in last 30 days)
  • Start with 50-100 emails per day
  • Focus on transactional emails (these have highest engagement)

Week 3-4: Ramp up

  • Double volume every 3-4 days
  • Add marketing emails gradually
  • Monitor bounce rate (keep under 2%) and complaint rate (under 0.1%)

Week 5-8: Scale

  • Continue doubling until you reach your target volume
  • Start sending to less engaged segments
  • Enable BIMI if you have the resources

Key lessons

Patience is everything. We tried to rush week 2 and saw a spike in Gmail deferrals. Slowing back down and gradually increasing fixed it within 48 hours.

#warm-up#domain#reputation
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6 Comments

deliverability_danDeliverability Expert

Solid warm-up schedule. One addition: monitor Google Postmaster Tools daily during warm-up. If your domain reputation drops below 'Medium', cut volume in half immediately.

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deliverability_danDeliverability Expert

Adding BIMI during warm-up is an interesting idea but I would wait until your domain reputation is established. Focus on fundamentals first.

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retention_rachelRetention Strategist

We warm up new client domains by starting with the most engaged subscriber segment. This gives the ISPs strong positive signals from the start.

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b2b_brian

Patience is key. We tried to rush warm-up once and it set us back 3 weeks. Slow and steady wins the deliverability race.

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cold_email_king

What ESP are you using for warm-up? Some have built-in warm-up tools that manage this automatically.

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warmup_will

We used Brew for the warm-up. They have a warm-up mode that automatically throttles volume based on reputation signals.

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