How to Warm Up an Email Account Before Sending Cold Emails?

Email deliverability is a significant concern when you are doing a cold email campaign(sequence). According to a report by SuperOffice, more than 20% of emails fail to reach the inbox. Time and again at Saleshandy, we see a new email account used for sending cold emails gets blocked as soon as the campaign begins. 

The problem is the new email accounts aren’t warmed up. With the Google spam update at the beginning of 2019, it’s becoming harder to reach the inbox as the majority of the emails are marked as spam. To avoid that before you start a cold email outreach campaign(sequence), it is essential to warm up your new email account.

In this blog, I will explain to you how to warm up an email account before sending cold emails so that your email delivers into the inbox rather than SPAM.

What is Email Warm-up?

The email warm up is a way you establish a reputation for a new email account and increase the email sending limit. The warmup process includes sending emails from a new email account, starting with a smaller number, and gradually increasing the number of emails each day.

When a user creates a new email account, the email service provider gives daily sending limits. However, a fresh account can’t use it entirely. For Example, Google provides 2000 emails/day for a G Suite account. But from day one, you can’t send it all; you get a smaller limit. To use it to its full potential, you have to build a good reputation, which can be done by email warm up.

Ideally, it takes 8-12 weeks to accomplish maximum deliverability. Depending on email volume and the engagement in the warm up process, the email gets ready faster. The email warmup may take a longer time than anticipated if the recipient engagement level is too low.

Why is Email Warm up Important?

Email warmup is a process required to build a reputation and have a higher delivery rate. It is essential when you are planning a large volume cold email campaign(sequence) with a new account to make sure emails land in inboxes.

In a cold email campaign(sequence), the first thing you need is to reach the recipient’s inbox. Once you are there, having a good engagement will build a more significant relationship. If the email is very well warmed before sending cold emails, it will avoid the spam filter, get delivered in the inbox, and have a higher open rate.

So without any further ado, let’s dive deep and find out how to warm up an email account before sending cold emails that make your email account more efficient, increase your sender reputation and improve your email deliverability.

How to Warm up an Email Account Before Sending a Cold Email?

Step 1: Authenticate Your Account
Step 2: Send Individual Emails
Step 3: Maintain Conversation Threads
Step 4: Subscribe Newsletters
Step 5: Maintain Time Gap Between Two Consecutive Emails
Step 6: Setup a Personalized Test Campaign
Step 7: Best Bonus Practices

1. Authenticate Your Account

With a new email account, the first thing required is account authentication. Authentication makes your account guarded against the SPAM filters and makes your emails delivered right in the inbox.

There are four essential email authentications:

• SPF

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an authentication technique that creates a record in your DNS (Domain Name System), which lists down all the servers that are authorized to send emails on behalf of a domain. Whenever the recipient’s ESP finds an SPF Authentication from the sender side, it provides a clean chit to the sender’s domain.

• DKIM

DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) is an authentication method that adds a digital signature with your domain, which prevents email spoofing and makes your email reach the right place.

• DMARC

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) records to use your SPF and DKIM records to assure the receiver’s ESP that no deceitful activities are associated with the email.

• Custom Domain

Adding a custom domain with your emails, make your links, and documents more authentic by providing it with your domain. This makes the sender, as well as his ESP, assure that the links and documents are from an authentic source.

Read this Guide: What are SPF & DKIM Records and How to Set It Up?

2. Send Individual Emails

The email warmup process starts by sending manual emails to your friends and colleagues to build a conversation.  In the beginning, you should send 10-20 individual emails from the new email account. Make sure the initial emails have a consistent engagement, which is going to help you increase the volume of the emails. With the increase in conversation, your email service provider gets assured about your authentic activities and gradually makes your email account ready for email campaigns. 

During this manual process, make sure you are sending emails to various email services like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, iCloud, Godaddy, Zoho, Aol, Exchange and Yandex. This will help you build a good reputation at all the top email services provider’s spam filters. 

PS: Write a personalized subject line in the manual process to get a better response.

3. Maintain Conversation Threads

Email accounts are not meant just to send messages; you should get some response too. To achieve maximum deliverability, creating engagement in your warm up emails is essential. So start the conversation by sending emails from your other email accounts and reply to those emails from the new one. 

Here having some regular conversations is vital as it’s a continuous process of 8-12 weeks. So if possible, add your new email address on your website for inbound emails and swiftly reply to those to have a better conversation rate.  

This simple process assures the email service provider about your authentic email activities. The continuous email conversation increases your email sending quota and gradually makes your account eligible for sending mass emails.

4. Subscribe Newsletters

If you are in sales, marketing, recruitment or any other profession, there would be a lot of publications sending out weekly newsletters. Go out and subscribe to a minimum of 10-15 newsletters. Every newsletter needs a confirmation, get back to your inbox and confirm every subscription. It will validate your account and will increase the email inflow. Regularly receiving emails is equally important than sending to warm your new email account.

5. Maintain Time Gap Between Two Consecutive Emails

Every email service provider has distinct algorithms to check how the emails are sent and received. So make those algorithms realize that you are not a robot, avoid sending too many emails at once. If you send a lot of emails continuously, it will affect your domain reputation. 

So the best way to avoid it is to keep a huge time interval between two emails while you are warming up your new account. Avoid sending too many emails at one go; such activities trigger spam filters, which may lead to blocking your account temporarily or permanently.

6. Setup a Personalized Test Campaign

After you have completed 12 weeks of manual warmup, your account will get prepared for automated email campaigns(sequence) using Saleshandy. However, it’s good to start small and simple. Begin the first campaign(sequence) with a small list of 20-30 trusted recipients with friends and colleagues added so that you get a response.

• Personalize Your email

When your primary goal is warming up your email account, you need to make your recipients open your email and reply to it. Personalizing your email will do the trick for you. 

Using Saleshandy, write a personalized email and sound like a human. Along with that, create a personalized subject line to have the best open rate. The personalized message is critical to increasing the number of replies.

• Avoid Spammy Content

Including spam content in your emails makes your account more vulnerable to the SPAM filters. Avoid using words like FREE, GRAB, 50%, etc. in your emails, which attracts the attention of SPAM filters. 

Avoid content that creates an adverse effect on your sender’s reputation. Keep the content clean, simple and plain with limited numbers of links to get the best delivery. 

• Add Unsubscribe Link

Even though you are sending a test campaign(sequence) to a small list, it’s advisable to include an unsubscribe link in your email. While warming up your email account, you should limit every possibility that the recipient gets to spam your emails. Even a single spam report against a new account can negatively affect your reputation.

Adding an unsubscribe link in your emails allows your recipients to choose if they want to receive your emails or not. This feature not only makes your recipients happy but also keeps your emails away from SPAM filters.

7. Best Bonus Practices

Following the above best practices to warm up an email account before sending cold emails will help you activate your account’s large list of cold email campaigns. Below, I am listing some other bonus tips that will be helpful to you for maintaining your sender reputation and email deliverability. 

• Write like a real human
• Use limited links in your email content
• Choose your email service provider wisely according to your need
• Use limited media files like images, videos and GIF
• Avoid automation while email warmups

Use an email campaign(sequence) tool like Saleshandy for sending your cold email campaigns(sequences) in the best way.

When Can You Stop Warming Up Your Email Account?

It is healthy and advisable to keep your email warm-up activity running.

Doing this will not hinder your email campaign(sequence) at all but create a positive impact. It will constantly maintain a healthy balance of the email activities to make sure your email deliverability is unaltered.  And also act as an indicator to your email service provider that you’re not spamming the user but are an authentic sender.

Final Words

The complete algorithm restrictions are to keep a hold on spammy content. Following the best practice will help algorithms know that you are a real human being, not a spammer. 

Last but not least, always remember; it’s easier to build a positive reputation as a sender, rather than improve the reputation of a spammer.