Email offers a powerful and cost-effective way for businesses to market their products and keep customers informed. Because it delivers a substantial ROI, nearly 90 percent of marketers use email marketing. However, if your emails end up in spam folders, you miss critical customer contact and risk harming your reputation. The answer may lie in warming up an email domain.
Internet mailbox providers, such as Outlook or Gmail, look at several factors to determine whether to send incoming emails to the inbox or so the spam folder. One critical factor that separates a legitimate business from a spammer involves positive email engagement.
Warming up an email domain plays an essential role in demonstrating this positive email engagement. It refers to the process of building up email volume to a new IP or domain gradually, over a period of several weeks. By sending personalized emails to carefully chosen recipients who engage with the emails, an organization builds trust with mailbox providers.
Why Is Warming Up an Email Domain Necessary?
Anti-spam filters look suspiciously on emails from a new domain. This can also apply to emails from a new dedicated IP address in a trusted domain. If the filters suddenly see a large number of emails coming from a fresh domain, they are likely to see them as spam and bounce them.
Bounced messages negatively affect the company’s email reputation. Other factors can harm an email reputation, as well. These include spam complaints, lack of engagement, invalid email addresses, authentication issues and third-party block listing. As with any reputation, an email reputation takes a long time to build and no time at all to destroy.
To build a good reputation, the organization must show that recipients want the emails they send. For instance, when emails go to recipients who specifically opted in to a mailing list or who send a reply, this improves the sender’s reputation. Developing that reputation takes time and planning.
Basic Steps to Follow
The first step, obviously, entails registering a new domain for outbound email. But before sending any emails from the new domain, take time to map out the warmup. Keep in mind that you should spend several weeks warming up an email domain before initiating a campaign. Take four weeks at the very least. Experts recommend eight to twelve weeks.
Once you have configured the new email address, send a few emails manually (no automated email yet) to recipients you know. This can include friends, colleagues, and others you know will open the emails. Try to send to multiple mailbox providers, such as Outlook and Gmail. Send real messages and ask recipients to reply.
After two or three weeks of sending and receiving emails, put together a very small, automated campaign. Include only 10 to 20 trusted email addresses that you know will not bounce. This can include some of your most engaged subscribers who have opened or clicked on your emails in the past month.
Over the next few weeks, gradually increase the email volume, monitoring email deliverability with each campaign. During the warmup period, only send to subscribers who have engaged with your emails in the last 60 to 90 days. Focus on the key goals of small volume and high engagement.
Tips for Success in Warming Up an Email Domain
A few best practices will help you get the most out of the email domain warmup period:
- Avoid setting up more than one account at a time.
- Make sure the new domain name reflects a connection to your main website.
- Be careful not to send a flurry of emails from a new email address. Start with just five to ten emails per day.
- Never exceed your email provider’s sending limits. For instance, G Suite limits senders to 500 emails per day, initially. Users that exceed that limit find their accounts locked for 24 hours. Keep in mind that providers change their sending limits periodically.
- Send emails on a consistent basis, at least weekly.
- Clean your email lists regularly, making sure not to include invalid addresses.
- Personalize your emails appropriately, keep content simple and avoid spammy language.
Improve Email Deliverability with MXINSPECT
Partnering with email marketing experts will help you maximize your company’s email deliverability. MXINSPECT, from eMazzanti Technologies, offers a comprehensive email solution. Services include implementing the right authentication methods, conducting regular reputation monitoring, and delivering critical email security features.
