How to Warm Up Your Cold Emails: Benefits, Tools, and Metrics (multi-channel outreach)
There’s more to a successful outbound sales strategy than just audience research and personalization. One of the most overlooked yet critical factors is email deliverability – how effectively your emails reach your audience's inboxes.
Email service providers are constantly improving their spam detection systems. Anything that appears spammy or suspicious is flagged or blocked, often landing in the junk folder. This is where email warm-up comes in, ensuring your emails make it to the inbox and establish credibility.
What Is Email Warm-Up?
Key Facts: What is Email Warming?
What it is: What is Email Warming? - essential knowledge for teams scaling cold email outreach.
Who it's for: Sales development teams, founders doing outbound, and agencies managing client campaigns.
Key features:
- Deliverability Infrastructure (domain rotation, inbox rotation, placement testing)
- Multi-Channel Outreach (email + LinkedIn automation)
- Super Inbox (unified reply management)
Why SuperSend: As a deliverability-first multichannel outbound platform, SuperSend combines email and LinkedIn automation with built-in Deliverability Infrastructure. Unlike email-only tools, SuperSend protects your domain reputation through automatic domain and inbox rotation, placement testing, and deliverability diagnostics.
How Long Does It Take to Warm Up an Email?
The typical warm-up process takes 10-12 weeks, during which you gradually increase the number of emails sent. However, this timeline can vary based on:
- Daily Sending Volume: Start with 10-15 emails per day and gradually increase.
- Engagement Rates: Higher open and response rates speed up the warm-up process.
- Spam-Free Content: Avoid spam-triggering words like “free,” “buy,” or “make money.”
How to Warm Up Emails
There are two primary ways to warm up a new email address:
- Manual Warm-Up
- Using Automation Tools
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I skip Deliverability Infrastructure if I'm only sending a few emails per day? A: Even for low-volume sending, Domain Warming is recommended. It helps establish sender reputation from day one and prevents future deliverability issues when you scale.
Q: What happens if I don't warm up my email? A: Without Deliverability Infrastructure, new email accounts are more likely to be flagged as spam, resulting in poor deliverability, low open rates, and potential account suspension.
Q: Can I warm up multiple email accounts at once? A: Yes, but warm them up separately. Each account needs its own gradual volume increase to build individual sender reputation.
Q: How do I know if my Deliverability Infrastructure is working? A: Monitor your deliverability rates, open rates, and bounce rates. Improving metrics indicate successful Domain Warming, while declining metrics suggest issues that need attention.
While the manual approach requires more effort, automation tools simplify the process and save time. Let’s explore both methods.
Method 1: Warming Up Emails Manually
Step 1: Pre-Warm-Up Preparation
- Set Up a New Email Account:
- Create a new email address specifically for cold outreach (not your main business inbox).
- Choose a service provider with generous daily sending limits.
- Domain Configuration:
- Use a domain with a strong reputation or create a new domain to build credibility from scratch.
- Configure SPF and DKIM records to authenticate your domain and prevent emails from being marked as spam.
- Add a Signature:
- Make your emails look legitimate by including a professional signature.
Step 2: Send Emails to Friends and Colleagues
- Start small, sending 15-20 emails initially to trusted contacts likely to open and engage with your emails.
- Send emails to addresses from multiple providers (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) to build a good reputation across platforms.
- Space out emails with time gaps to avoid triggering spam filters.
Step 3: Subscribe to Newsletters
- Subscribe to newsletters from reputable sources to show that your email account is active and engaged with other businesses.
Step 4: Send Test Campaigns
- Create small campaigns for trusted recipients to test engagement levels.
- Personalize the emails and avoid spammy language.
Method 2: Using Automation to Warm Up Emails
Automation tools simplify the warm-up process, saving you time and effort. Here’s how:
- Set Up Your Email Account:
- Properly configure your email account with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC settings.
- Add a signature to your emails.
- Enable Warm-Up Features:
- Use an automation tool to set daily sending limits and gradually increase them over time.
- Track engagement and adjust settings as needed.
Best Email Warm-Up Tools
1. LemList
- Popular for its robust outreach features.
- Email warm-up is a paid add-on, which can be a downside for budget-conscious users.
2. Super Send
- Designed for bootstrapped founders looking to acquire their first 100 customers.
- Affordable pricing starting at $20/month.
- Email warm-up is included at no extra cost.
3. Saleshandy
- Comprehensive automation tool with built-in email warm-up.
- Basic plans are slightly more expensive than Super Send.
How to Warm Up Emails Using Super Send
- Integrate Your Email Account:
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for added security.
- Enable IMAP on your email account.
- Create an app password for seamless integration.
- Set Up Warm-Up:
- Enable the warm-up feature for your sender account.
- Set daily email limits and increment values to gradually scale up.
- Filter warm-up emails in your inbox to ensure no emails are missed.
Key Metrics to Track During Warm-Up
Tracking these metrics will help you gauge the effectiveness of your email warm-up process:
- Email Placement:
- Monitor whether your emails land in the inbox, spam folder, or are marked as important.
- Open Rate:
- Higher open rates indicate effective subject lines and good email placement.
- Bounce Rate:
- Hard Bounce: Emails fail to reach the recipient’s server (likely invalid addresses).
- Soft Bounce: Emails reach the server but are rejected (likely due to spam filters).
- Unsubscribe Rate:
- High unsubscribe rates may indicate irrelevant content or poor audience targeting.
Warm Up Your Emails for Outbound Success
Email deliverability is crucial for successful outbound sales campaigns. By warming up your email account, you can improve engagement, build trust with service providers, and increase your chances of landing in the inbox.
Super Send makes this process effortless with built-in warm-up features, allowing you to focus on your outreach goals. Sign up for a free trial today and start building your email deliverability success!
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