Why Warming a New Domain is Crucial for Email Deliverability
Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses to reach their target audience and communicate their message effectively. But when it comes to sending emails from a new domain, there's a risk that those emails may end up in the spam folder or get blocked altogether. This is where the concept of "warming a domain" comes in.
What is warming a domain?
Warming a domain is a crucial process in email marketing that involves gradually building a positive reputation for a new sending domain. By sending a limited number of emails initially and gradually increasing the volume over several weeks, businesses can establish trust with email service providers and mailboxes.
But first, why would you need or have a new domain?
Good question!
When sending marketing emails, it's important to use a separate domain and IP address that are specifically dedicated to sending those emails. This is because using your corporate domain and IP address for marketing emails can put your corporate domain reputation at risk.
Email service providers use sophisticated algorithms to assess the trustworthiness of email senders based on various factors, including the sender's domain and IP reputation. If your corporate domain reputation is damaged by poor email deliverability, it can have a negative impact on all of the emails you send from that domain, including important business communication.
To avoid this risk, many businesses use a marketing automation platform to send their marketing emails, and configure their platform to use a separate domain that is dedicated solely to marketing emails. The marketing automation platform will typically have its own dedicated IP address, which is used to send the marketing emails from a separate domain.
The benefits of warming a new domain for email marketing
Establishing trust with email service providers and mailboxes results in higher deliverability rates and ensures that emails reach the recipient's inbox instead of being marked as spam. With a well-planned warming strategy, businesses can build a strong foundation for their email marketing efforts and achieve better results.
Let's explore the steps involved in warming a new sending domain to create a positive sending reputation with mailboxes, and ensure optimum deliverability for your emails.
Steps to Warming a New Domain
From staggering your email sends to gradually increasing the number of recipients, there are a few steps that you should take to warm your new send domain.
Stagger your email sends to build trust with mailboxes
When it comes to warming a new sending domain, staggering your email sends is a crucial step in establishing a positive reputation with ISPs and mailboxes. To do this effectively, it's recommended to start with small batches of email sends and gradually increase the volume over several weeks.
It's important to avoid doubling the number of sends from one email to the next, unless you are a larger company, as this can trigger spam filters and negatively impact your deliverability rates.
Ideally, the process of warming a domain should take between 4-8 weeks. Rushing this process by increasing the number of sends too quickly can also have negative consequences for your email deliverability rates. It's important to be patient and take the time to gradually increase your email sends in a way that is safe and sustainable.
Let's look at an example of how to gradually increase email sends:
| Week 1 | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |
| Daily volume | 50 | 100 | 200 | 400 | 800 | 2,000 |
Send emails to your most engaged contacts for higher deliverability
It is also essential to carefully consider the recipients of your email campaigns. Creating lists that are based on email engagement can help you identify contacts who are least likely to unsubscribe or mark emails as spam. We can break it down by weeks.
Weeks 1-2:
During the first two weeks of your warming period, it's recommended to send emails only to your most active subscribers - those who have opened or clicked on your emails in the past 30 days. By targeting this segment, you can increase the likelihood that your emails will be well-received, helping to build your domain's reputation.
Weeks 3-4:
As you progress into weeks three and four, you can begin to expand your list to include subscribers who have engaged with your emails in the past 60 days.
Overall first 6 weeks:
During the first six weeks of your warming period, it's important to avoid sending emails to subscribers who haven't opened or clicked on your emails in the past 90 days. By doing so, you can avoid triggering spam filters and negatively impacting your domain's reputation.
To further boost engagement and ensure that your emails are being delivered to recipients' inboxes, it can be helpful to add your employees' personal email addresses to your email list. This way, they can open, click, respond to or move emails out of the junk folder, thereby boosting your engagement rates and establishing your domain's reputation as a trusted sender.
Use your best performing content to boost engagement
Using your best performing content during the warming process can significantly impact the success of your email campaign. Your best-performing content typically includes emails that have received high open and click-through rates, indicating that your audience has found the content valuable and engaging. By using this content, you're increasing the chances that your audience will engage with your emails, leading to improved email deliverability and reputation.
Additionally, it can help you build a positive reputation with ISPs, ensuring that your emails are delivered to your audience's inbox and not marked as spam. This can make or break the success of your future email campaigns.
Identifying your best-performing content
To identify your best-performing content, you can analyze your email metrics to see which emails have received the highest open and click-through rates. Once you've identified these emails, you can use them as a template for future emails or repurpose the content to ensure that it resonates with your audience.
Warming a Domain: The Key to Successful Email Marketing
Warming a domain is a crucial process for businesses looking to establish a positive reputation with email service providers and ensure that their emails reach their target audience. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can build a strong foundation for your email marketing efforts and achieve better results.
Interested in learning more? Contact our team at Aptitude 8 for tailored recommendations on rolling out your new email domain.
