In email marketing, domain reputation is key for inbox placement. As ISPs crack down on spam, it directly affects deliverability and open rates.

Many clients struggle with emails landing in spam, wasting resources and hurting brand image.

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1. What is Domain Warm-Up?

Domain warm-up is not about physically “warming up” a domain but rather a strategic process of gradually building the sender reputation of an independent domain through planned email sending tasks. This ensures that emails consistently land in the inbox during subsequent email marketing campaigns.

The core goal of warm-up is to help ISPs (such as Gmail, Outlook, etc.) gradually adapt to and trust the sending behavior of the domain, preventing emails from being flagged as spam.

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2. Why is Domain Warm-Up Necessary?

Common Challenges

Many clients experience significant success when they first start sending marketing emails. However, as the volume and frequency of emails increase, open rates gradually decline. Further testing often reveals that emails are landing in the spam folder. This situation often forces clients to purchase new domains and start over, but the problem quickly resurfaces.

Root Cause

The primary reason for this issue is the lack of domain warm-up. To ISPs, a new domain is a “stranger,” and they closely monitor its sending behavior. When sending volume suddenly increases or recipients frequently unsubscribe or complain, ISPs may classify the domain as a spam sender, directing emails to the spam folder.

When is Domain Warm-Up Needed?

Newly verified domains: Domains that have never sent emails before.

Domains migrated to a new platform: Historical average deliverability is below 20%.

Sending to > 20,000 target emails: Large-scale email campaigns require special attention.

Benefits of Warm-Up

Improves domain reputation: Helps establish a good sender reputation and boosts deliverability.

Optimizes contact lists: Filters out invalid email addresses, reducing bounce rates.

Monitors ISP performance: Tracks how different ISPs score the domain, optimizing future sending strategies.

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3. SmartPush’s Warm-Up Solution

At SmartPush, we provide clients with a comprehensive warm-up process to ensure steady improvement in domain reputation. This includes the following three steps:

Invalid Email Verification

We help clients filter out invalid, inactive, and phishing email addresses to avoid being flagged as a spam sender by ISPs.

Did you notice Klaviyo’s latest pricing changes? If you don’t clean your contact list in time, your costs could skyrocket. At SmartPush, we help you filter out low-quality emails, control costs, and protect your domain.

Independent Domain Authentication

Domain authentication is the foundation of warm-up. We’ve long provided clients with a one-stop authentication solution:

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification)

These authentications not only enhance email credibility but also display brand logos in the inbox, further building user trust.

Automated Domain Warm-Up

SmartPush offers automated domain warm-up. Clients simply select the domain to warm up, and we generate an appropriate warm-up plan based on user data, including target audiences and sending volumes.

During the warm-up process, clients can monitor ISP scores and warm-up results in real time. We also dynamically adjust the warm-up plan based on performance to ensure success.

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4.How to Effectively Warm Up a Domain?

Here are our recommended warm-up strategies:

Tips:

Recent n-day purchasers can be replaced with recent n-day website visitors.

If the target list size exceeds 16,000, extend the warm-up period and gradually increase sending volume (each send = previous send × 1.3).

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5. Key Metrics During Warm-Up

The following metrics are critical during warm-up:

When metrics exceed thresholds, it’s time to review email content, subject lines, and contact list quality. For example:

• High complaint rates: May indicate email content doesn’t align with user interests.

• High bounce rates: May indicate a contact list with many invalid emails.

At SmartPush, if the system detects abnormally high complaint or bounce rates, it automatically pauses email sending, and our expert team assists clients in optimizing their email strategy.

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6. Case Study: Significant Warm-Up Results

Here’s the actual performance data of a client who used SmartPush for domain warm-up:

• Before warm-up: Deliverability 85%, open rate 8%, complaint rate 1.2%.

• After warm-up: Deliverability 99.2%, open rate 23%, complaint rate 0.3%.

After a 10-day warm-up cycle, the client’s spam folder placement rate dropped from 15% to 0.5%, significantly improving marketing ROI.

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7. Conclusion

Domain warm-up is an essential part of email marketing. Through scientific warm-up strategies and efficient execution, you can not only improve email deliverability but also enhance user experience and maximize marketing ROI.

At SmartPush, we are committed to providing clients with simple, effective email warm-up solutions. If you’re looking to optimize your email marketing results, contact us today!

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