Email Warm-Up Checklist for New Domains
Want your emails to land in inboxes, not spam? Here’s the deal: Warming up a new domain is critical for building trust with email providers like Gmail and Outlook. Without it, your emails could get flagged as spam or even blacklisted. A proper warm-up can boost inbox placement rates to 92% and improve open rates by 50%.
Key Steps to Warm Up Your Domain:
- Set Up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC: These authentication protocols verify your emails and protect against spam.
- Gradually Increase Volume: Start small (30–50 emails/day) and scale up over 6–12 weeks.
- Write Spam-Free Emails: Personalize content, avoid spammy language, and test designs.
- Monitor Metrics: Track open rates, bounce rates, and complaints to adjust your strategy.
- Scale Infrastructure: Add mailboxes and secondary domains to handle larger volumes.
Pro Tip: Tools like Primeforge automate technical setup and make warm-up easier, saving you time.
Step 1: Set Up Technical Domain Settings
Before sending your first email, it's crucial to ensure your domain has the proper technical setup. This step establishes the credentials that signal to email providers that you're a legitimate sender. Without the correct DNS records in place, your emails could end up flagged as spam. To build your sender reputation, start by configuring these essential technical settings.
Set Up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Records
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are three key authentication protocols that work together to verify emails sent from your domain:
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework) specifies which mail servers are allowed to send emails on behalf of your domain.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a digital signature to confirm the email's integrity.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) provides a policy framework that tells receiving servers how to handle emails failing SPF or DKIM checks.
These records are essential. The FBI has reported that Business Email Compromise scams have caused losses of approximately $50 billion. Without proper configuration, your emails could be flagged as spam or even rejected outright.
"DMARC, DKIM, and SPF are important for protecting your domain. Using them together provides a more secure and controlled email environment." – Laura Clayton, Email Marketing Expert, Warmup Inbox
Manually setting up these records can be tricky and prone to mistakes. Tools like Primeforge simplify the process by automating SPF, DKIM, and DMARC configuration when you set up your mailboxes. For DMARC, it’s best to start with a policy of "p=none" to monitor email activity without enforcement. Over time, you can transition to stricter policies like "p=quarantine" or "p=reject." Keep in mind that 75% to 80% of domains with DMARC records face challenges in achieving proper enforcement. After setting up these protocols, you’ll also need to configure MX records and reverse DNS to finalize your domain’s technical setup.
Configure MX Records and Reverse DNS
MX records ensure that incoming emails are routed to the correct mail server.
Reverse DNS (rDNS), on the other hand, links your IP address back to your domain name. This step is vital for email authentication and requires a dedicated IP address along with proper PTR record configuration. To set up reverse DNS, verify that your IP address resolves correctly to your domain through a PTR record. If you don’t have direct access, consult your hosting provider for assistance.
Primeforge streamlines this process by offering US-based IP addresses with reverse DNS already configured, removing the need for manual setup.
Verify Domain in Google Postmaster Tools
Google Postmaster Tools provides valuable insights into how Gmail views your domain’s reputation and email performance. Since Gmail handles a large share of email traffic, understanding their evaluation of your domain can help you maintain strong deliverability.
To verify your domain, add the TXT record provided by Google Postmaster Tools after setting up your Google account. Once verified, you’ll gain access to dashboards that track metrics like spam rates, IP reputation, domain reputation, authentication status, encryption levels, and delivery errors. Monitoring these metrics during your email warm-up phase allows you to address any authentication or delivery issues before they affect your campaigns.
Though the verification process only takes a few minutes, meaningful data will start to populate once you begin sending emails. Regular monitoring is key to maintaining a healthy sender reputation.
Step 2: Follow a Gradual Volume Schedule
Now that your technical setup is ready, it’s time to focus on building your domain’s reputation by gradually increasing your email volume. Major email providers like Gmail and Outlook keep a close eye on sending patterns from new domains. A sudden surge in email activity can raise red flags, leading to spam issues. To avoid this, take a steady approach - slowly increase your sending volume while keeping an eye on metrics like bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement levels. For instance, SuperOffice notes that over 20% of marketing emails fail to reach subscribers' inboxes. Typically, it takes about 3–6 weeks to establish a solid sender reputation. Below is a weekly plan to help you scale your email volume effectively.
Week 1: Send 30–50 Emails Daily
Start small by sending 30–50 emails each day to verified and engaged contacts. Spread these emails across major providers, such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook, with about 10–15 emails sent to each. This diversified strategy helps build your reputation across different platforms.
Keep a close watch on your metrics. If you notice a spike in bounce rates or complaints, reduce your volume by about 25–30% before scaling up again. Also, ensure these initial emails are highly personalized and conversational. Avoid overly promotional language that could land you in the spam folder.
Week 2: Scale Up to 75–100 Emails with Automation
Once you’ve established a baseline reputation, incorporate automation tools to safely scale your efforts. For example, Primeforge offers automated warm-up features that allow you to increase your daily volume to 75–100 emails while maintaining consistency. Other tools like Warmbox and Mailwarm offer similar options with varying pricing.
During this phase, continue monitoring key metrics like bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement. If the data looks good, you can increase your volume further. However, if you notice poor engagement with a specific provider, reduce your volume for that provider while continuing to grow with others.
Week 3: Combine Warm-Up with Outreach (150–200 Emails)
By the third week, your domain should have enough credibility to mix warm-up activities with actual outreach campaigns. At this point, you can scale to sending 150–200 emails daily. Split this volume between warm-up emails and real outreach efforts.
This hybrid strategy not only strengthens your domain’s reputation but also starts to deliver measurable business results. Gradually increase your volume by 20–50% each day.
During this phase, focus on quality over quantity. With one-fifth of cold email campaigns achieving an open rate of just 20% or less, crafting engaging and varied content is crucial. Avoid sending identical emails to large groups, and space out your emails throughout the day to mimic natural sending patterns.
Even after reaching your full sending volume, many successful senders continue using warm-up tools to maintain their reputation and ensure consistent deliverability.
Step 3: Write Emails That Avoid Spam Filters
Getting your email through spam filters is just as important as setting up your technical systems and scheduling your sends. With nearly one in five emails getting flagged as spam, crafting the right message is key to maintaining deliverability. Spam filters check everything - subject lines, body text, images, and links - for red flags. Personalizing your emails not only helps bypass these filters but also increases engagement. Now that your sending volume is established, it’s time to focus on creating emails that resonate with your audience.
Personalize Subject Lines and Content
Personalization isn’t just a buzzword - it’s a proven way to improve both deliverability and engagement. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened . Even better, personalized content can lead to 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click rates. Start by using merge tags to include the recipient’s name, company, or location. Just don’t go overboard - keep subject lines concise, ideally under 9 words and 60 characters, to ensure they display properly on mobile devices, which account for 55% of email opens .
You can also use behavioral data to make your emails feel like a natural continuation of the recipient’s journey. For instance, if someone downloaded a whitepaper, reference it in your follow-up. Or, if they visited your pricing page, address potential cost-related concerns.
Avoid using spammy phrases that might trigger filters, like "LIMITED TIME OFFER!!!" Instead, take a more thoughtful approach, such as "Quick question about [Company]'s goals." Limit punctuation to three marks per subject line, and if you use emojis, stick to one at a time - they should enhance your message, not replace it.
Follow Email Design Best Practices
A clean and professional design not only appeals to your audience but also signals to spam filters that your email is legitimate. Consistency is key - your emails should align with your brand, website, and social media channels to build trust and recognition.
Balance is everything. Use a good mix of text and images, keeping your design simple and polished. Stick to 2–3 font styles and avoid overly decorative fonts that might look unprofessional. Don’t underestimate the power of white space in your emails. As Daniel Uribe, Email Strategist at Thryv, puts it:
"In email, white space is your best friend. It makes emails easier to read, helps your message stand out, and just looks cleaner. Give your content room to breathe – no one wants to read a wall of text."
Limit your color palette to 2–3 colors that reflect your brand while ensuring readability. Hyperlinks should be kept to a minimum and only point to reputable, relevant pages.
Before hitting send, test your email design across different devices and email platforms to make sure it looks great everywhere. A/B testing can also help you fine-tune your design and figure out what works best for your audience.
Finally, timing matters. Tuesdays tend to have the highest open rates (around 27%), while Sundays see the lowest (just 4%). Sending your emails at the right time can make all the difference during your warm-up period. By combining these content strategies with a solid technical setup and a smart sending schedule, you’ll have everything you need for a successful domain warm-up.
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Step 4: Monitor and Adjust Your Progress
Once you've set up your technical configurations, established volume schedules, and implemented spam-resistant email practices, the next step is to monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed. Keep a close watch on delivery rates, inbox placement, and engagement metrics to protect your sender reputation. With your technical setup and content already in place, this monitoring phase helps fine-tune your warm-up strategy.
Pay attention to key performance indicators (KPIs) during this phase. For instance, aim for a deliverability rate between 96% and 99%, click rates in the range of 0.2% to 0.4%, and keep your opt-out and spam complaint rates below 0.2%. Additionally, your bounce rate should stay between 2.5% and 3.5%. A critical metric to watch is your unique open rate - it should remain at or above 35% throughout the warm-up period.
Track Inbox Placement Rates
Monitoring where your emails land is crucial for maintaining your sender reputation. Primeforge’s dashboard can provide real-time insights into inbox placement. To gain a deeper understanding, consider using specialized tools like GlockApps, which can help you determine whether your emails are reaching primary inboxes or getting flagged as spam. Additionally, platforms like Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS offer valuable data about your sender reputation. Review these tools at least twice a week, focusing on trends over time rather than daily fluctuations.
Identify Low Engagement Accounts
Low engagement can harm your sender reputation, so it’s essential to identify and address unresponsive contacts early. Flag accounts with open rates consistently below 20% after the first week and take action - either re-engage them or remove them from your list. Continuing to email unengaged contacts increases the likelihood of triggering spam filters.
For example, Outfunnel ran a cold email campaign and focused on cleaning their email lists. As a result, they achieved open rates between 33% and 51%, with engagement rates (replies and/or clicks) ranging from 3% to 6%. To protect your sender reputation, consider implementing a sunset policy: send a re-engagement campaign to inactive contacts, and if they remain unresponsive, remove them from your list. If engagement rates drop significantly, it’s time to concentrate on recipients who show genuine interest.
Test Different Sending Times
Fine-tuning your sending schedule can significantly improve your warm-up results. Use A/B testing to experiment with different sending times and days, ensuring you align with the recipient’s time zone. For example, split your daily email volume across various time slots - such as mid-morning versus early afternoon - to identify when your audience is most likely to engage. Testing different days of the week can also help uncover patterns unique to your contacts.
| Metric | Target Range / Minimum | Action Required If Below |
|---|---|---|
| Unique Open Rate | ≥35% (flag if consistently <20%) | Review subject lines and sender name |
| Click Rate | 0.2–0.4% | Optimize email content and calls-to-action (CTAs) |
| Bounce Rate | 2.5–3.5% | Clean your email list and verify addresses |
| Spam Complaint Rate | ≤0.2% | Revise your content and adjust sending frequency |
Step 5: Scale Your Email Infrastructure
To effectively scale your email infrastructure, it's crucial to spread the sending load across multiple resources instead of relying on a single domain or mailbox. This strategy minimizes the risk of spam filters flagging your emails and provides backup options if one component encounters deliverability issues. Start by increasing the number of mailboxes to distribute the sending volume more efficiently.
Add More Mailboxes for Higher Volume
The first step in scaling your email volume is to add more mailboxes. By spreading your sending activity across multiple addresses, you reduce the likelihood of any single address being flagged.
Primeforge simplifies this process with automated DNS setup for new mailboxes. Each mailbox undergoes its own warm-up process, helping to maintain a stable reputation.
"Scale your email infrastructure by automatically creating dozens of email addresses - if one runs into trouble, we'll seamlessly switch to another. No interruptions, no worries - just consistently high deliverability for a fraction of the cost if done via Google!" - Mailshake
When setting up new mailboxes, remember that they need a gradual warm-up period. Start with a low sending volume and slowly increase it over 3–5 weeks. A key guideline is to limit each email account to no more than 40 emails per day and cap the total at 120 emails per day across the entire domain.
"Due to the ever-tightening antispam regulations, we now recommend not to send out more than 40 emails/day per email account (I don't send more than 30 in my own outreach!) and 120 emails/day across the entire sending domain. This number includes both warmup and outreach emails." - Tal Baker-Phillips, Sales Leader @ lemlist
If one mailbox faces issues, you can seamlessly switch to another without disrupting your campaigns.
Rotate IP Addresses for Large Campaigns
For larger email campaigns, rotating IP addresses is essential. This technique involves using multiple IPs to send emails, which helps maintain a positive sender reputation and reduces the risk of blacklisting.
Primeforge provides access to US-based IP addresses, which can boost credibility with major email service providers. By rotating between multiple IPs, you evenly distribute the sending load, preventing any single IP from being flagged.
When implementing IP rotation, gradually increase the sending volume on new IPs to establish a good sender reputation. Make sure your email authentication protocols - DKIM, SPF, and DMARC - are properly configured for each IP to further enhance your reputation. If one IP encounters deliverability issues or gets temporarily blacklisted, the other IPs in the rotation can continue sending emails without interruption.
Once your internal scaling measures are in place, you can expand further by adding secondary domains.
Add Secondary Domains After 6 Weeks
After warming up your primary domain for six weeks, it's time to introduce secondary domains to further distribute your email load. Secondary domains are a key part of scaling while protecting the reputation of your primary domain.
Select secondary domains that align with your primary domain. Options include Country-Specific domains (e.g., yourcompany.co.uk), Brand Extensions (e.g., yourcompanymarketing.com), or Prefix/Suffix Domains (e.g., getyourcompany.com).
Each secondary domain needs the same careful setup as your primary domain. Redirect these domains back to your main site, and ensure proper configuration of redirections, authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and email warm-up.
Warm up secondary domain email accounts for at least 15 days to build their reputation and trust. Monitor their performance closely - if deliverability drops below 95%, pause their usage and initiate a two-week warm-up process.
Conclusion
Getting a new domain ready for email outreach demands a structured plan - covering technical setup, gradually increasing email volumes, and closely monitoring performance. Typically, domains can achieve reliable, full-scale email deliverability within 3–6 weeks.
By following the five key steps outlined in this checklist, you can build one of the most critical components of email deliverability: your domain reputation. This process is vital because deliverability issues often prevent emails from landing in recipients' inboxes, making a proper warm-up an essential step for successful cold outreach campaigns. Tools like Primeforge simplify the technical side of this process. With automated DNS configurations for SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, US-based IPs, and fast mailbox provisioning, Primeforge directly supports these steps, helping you overcome technical hurdles. Starting at just $4.50 per mailbox per month, it provides enterprise-grade infrastructure that integrates seamlessly with any cold email platform.
Investing in a thorough domain warm-up ensures better deliverability, increasing the likelihood that your emails reach your prospects' inboxes. By sticking to this checklist and utilizing tools like Primeforge, you'll lay the groundwork for scalable and effective email outreach.
FAQs
Why do I need to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records when warming up a new email domain?
Setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records is a must if you want your emails to earn trust and actually land in inboxes. These records act as your email's security team, confirming that your messages are legitimate, protecting against spoofing, and keeping them from being flagged as spam.
- SPF: This record ensures that only specific, authorized servers can send emails on your domain’s behalf. Think of it as a whitelist for email servers.
- DKIM: It’s like adding a tamper-proof seal to your emails. A digital signature confirms the message hasn’t been altered and verifies its authenticity.
- DMARC: This is the policy layer that tells email providers what to do if a message fails SPF or DKIM checks, helping protect your domain’s reputation.
By setting these up, you’re not just improving deliverability - you’re showing email providers that you mean business. It’s a critical step in ensuring your emails are trusted and reach their intended audience.
How can I track the progress of my email warm-up to ensure good deliverability?
To keep tabs on your email warm-up progress and ensure strong deliverability, rely on tools designed to track critical metrics like inbox placement, open rates, and sender reputation. Services such as Warmbox or Mailwarm can give you valuable insights into your warm-up performance, allowing you to tweak email volume and frequency as needed for better results.
You might also want to explore deliverability monitoring tools like SendGrid or Return Path, which offer detailed performance reports and alerts. These tools can help you quickly spot and address potential issues, ensuring your domain maintains a positive reputation and steers clear of spam filters. By regularly analyzing these metrics, you can refine your approach and maximize your email outreach success.
Why should I use Primeforge to automate the email warm-up process for a new domain?
Using Primeforge to streamline your email warm-up process comes with some clear perks. It strengthens your domain and IP reputation, which means your emails are less likely to end up in the spam folder. Plus, it takes the hassle out of setting up essential DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC - saving you both time and the risk of manual mistakes.
The platform also handles warm-up campaigns seamlessly, scaling your email sending volume gradually to boost deliverability. On top of that, Primeforge tracks performance metrics, giving you valuable insights to fine-tune your outreach strategy and achieve better results with less effort.