Email Warm-Up Playbook (Step-by-Step)

Overview

Warming up a new sending domain (or IP) is about sending small, consistent volumes to engaged recipients and proving you’re a trustworthy sender. This playbook gives you a practical sequence that’s “boringly safe” and likely to be followed successfully by most teams.

Prerequisites

• Authenticate your domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC). See Domain Setup.
• Use a monitored From/Reply-To (humans can reply; don’t use no-reply@ if you can avoid it).
• Prepare an engaged seed (recent opt-ins, customers who open/click, your own team).
• Suppress risk (bounces, unsubscribes, complainers, stale/inactive > 12–18 months).
• Send predictable content (clear purpose, utility value, plain-text alternative).

Choose a Ramp Profile

Pick the profile that matches your end goal. You can always slow down if indicators dip.

Day-by-Day Plan (First 14 Days)

Here’s a conservative schedule most senders can follow safely. If you see issues (bounces, complaints, sudden drops in opens), hold or step back a day before resuming.

Days 1–2:   50 → 100/day
  • Audience: internal accounts + most engaged customers (opened/clicked in last 30–60 days)
  • Mix providers: ~50% Gmail, 25% Outlook/Hotmail, 15% Yahoo/AOL, 10% other

Days 3–4:   150 → 250/day
  • Keep highly engaged; add recent signups (opened in last 90 days)
  • Same content, same cadence; reply path ON

Days 5–6:   400 → 600/day
  • Add moderately engaged (opened in last 120–180 days)
  • Split sends over 2–3 windows (e.g., morning + afternoon)

Days 7–8:   900 → 1,300/day
  • Start light reactivation: “Still want to hear from us?” with 1-click unsub
  • Watch spam complaints closely; prune hard

Days 9–10:  2,000 → 3,000/day
  • Introduce promotions carefully; keep value-first, not image-heavy
  • If metrics wobble, pause growth and repeat volume for 1–2 days

Days 11–14: 4,500 → 7,000/day
  • Maintain consistency: similar send times, template, From name
  • Graduate to your normal content mix if metrics healthy

Weeks 3–4: Scale with Guardrails

• Increase volume by 20–40% per step, not more than every 2–3 days.
• Keep provider mix balanced; avoid sudden surges to a single mailbox provider.
• Sunset unengaged contacts; run re-permission campaigns separately.
• Move highly engaged traffic to your “production” cadence once stable.

Metrics to Watch

When to Pause or Roll Back

• Unexpected bounce spikes or blocks at a major provider.
• Noticeable rise in spam complaints or unsubscribes after content changes.
• Open/click collapse after a volume jump.

Action: hold volume increases for 1–3 days, send only to recent engagers, fix issues, then resume at the last stable level.

Content & Template Tips

Value > design gimmicks. Keep HTML clean, add a plain-text part, and sound like a person.

Warm-up friendly template

Hi {{first_name}},

Quick update from {{brand}} — here’s something useful we made for you:
• {{one clear benefit or link}}

If you ever want fewer updates or a different cadence, you can choose here:
{{preferences_link}}

You can reply to this email and we’ll get back to you.

— {{signature}}

• One primary CTA; minimal images; descriptive alt text.
• No link shorteners; use branded links with clear anchor text.
• Include a working unsubscribe and physical address.

Seed List & Provider Mix

Your first audience should be a mix of engaged recipients across providers. This signals healthy engagement everywhere instead of spiking on one network.

Recommended split (adjust to your audience):
• Gmail: 40–60%
• Outlook/Hotmail: 20–30%
• Yahoo/AOL: 10–20%
• Other (custom/corporate): 10–20%

FAQ

Next Steps

• Authenticate your domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) before you start.
• Read: How to Keep Emails Out of Spam for copy/layout best practices.
• Use the Email API to schedule controlled batches during warm-up.