Email domain warming is one of the most important and most misunderstood aspects of cold email outreach. A new email domain has no sending reputation. Internet service providers treat emails from new domains with suspicion and are more likely to send them to spam. Warming up your domain gradually builds a positive sending reputation that allows your cold emails to reach the inbox consistently.
What is Domain Warming?
Domain warming is the process of gradually increasing the sending volume from a new email account over a period of weeks. By starting with low sending volumes and increasing gradually, you signal to internet service providers that your account is a legitimate sender rather than a spam operation. Warming also involves sending and receiving real emails that generate positive engagement signals.
How Instantly’s Warming System Works
Instantly has a built in warming network called Instantly Warmup. When you enable warming for an email account, Instantly automatically sends emails from your account to other accounts in the warming network and generates positive engagement signals including opens, replies, and moving emails out of spam. This simulates the behavior of a legitimate, active email account and builds your sender reputation automatically.
Warming Best Practices
Enable warming on every new email account immediately after connecting it to Instantly. Run warming for a minimum of two to four weeks before sending any cold outreach. Keep warming enabled even after you start your campaigns so your sender reputation continues to strengthen over time. Monitor your warming statistics in Instantly regularly and pause warming on any account that shows declining health scores.
Signs of a Healthy Warmed Account
A healthy warmed account shows a high inbox placement rate in Instantly’s health monitoring. Warming scores above 90 indicate a strong sender reputation. If your warming score drops below 80, pause your campaigns on that account, reduce your sending volume, and allow the warming system to rebuild your reputation before resuming outreach.
