Email Warmup Guide: Importance, Benefits & Tools

Often your sales team sends out tons of emails, but most of them end up in spam folders. That’s a huge productivity killer, right? For SMB founders, CEOs, and sales managers, this is a big roadblock. 

Here’s a mind-blowing stat—in 2023, 45.6% of all emails sent daily were found to be spam, which adds up to about 14.5 billion spam emails every single day! No wonder ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are so strict about email warmups to protect users from all that junk.

Without properly warming up your email account, you're basically fighting against deliverability issues. So, what do you do? Well, email warmup services are the key. These services help gradually build trust with email providers, letting you send up to 2,000 emails per day while boosting your open rates. It’s all about improving your sender reputation and getting those emails into the inbox where they belong.

Fig: Global spam volume as a percentage of total e-mail traffic from 2011 to 2023 (Source: Link)

In this blog, we’ll break down why email warmup is so important, how you can get started, and which email warmup tools are best for your team. 

What is Email Warmup?

Email warmup is all about gradually building trust with email service providers (ESPs). When you first start sending emails, you don’t want to go all-in. Instead, you begin by sending just a few emails, and then slowly increase the number over time. This helps improve your reputation as a legitimate sender.

Source: Link

To warm up your email account, you’ll start by sending small batches of emails. It's also important to engage with other emails—open them, reply to them, and so on. As your reputation grows, you can start sending more emails. It’s a simple way to make sure your emails land in the inbox and not the spam folder.

Why Warming Up Your Emails Is Essential?

Cold emails can be a game-changer for your business and sales strategy, but their success hinges on one critical factor: deliverability. 

Sending emails to the right inbox at the right time is essential, and that’s where email warmup comes into play. Without proper warmup, even the best-crafted emails can end up lost in the spam folder, costing you valuable leads and opportunities.

Source: Link

When you train for a marathon, you wouldn't just run 26 miles on your first day, right? You’d build your stamina over time. The same idea applies to email volume. If you start sending too many emails all at once, spam filters are going to notice and flag you as a potential spammer. There are more reasons to warm up an email account. Let’s look at what they are:

Builds a Strong Sender Reputation

"When it comes to email marketing, trust is built one message at a time." Marketing Expert, Sarah Collins

A solid reputation is everything when it comes to email marketing, as presented in the quote above. The more consistent your warmup process is, the stronger your reputation becomes with email service providers (ESPs) and internet service providers (ISPs). 

Source: Link

Without this process, your email account could be flagged as spam, especially if you’ve got a new email account or domain. In the worst-case scenario, you might get IP blocklisted, and that means your future emails won’t even have a chance to reach your audience. The bottom line? Trust is built over time, one email at a time.

Helps Avoid the Spam Filters and Boost Deliverability

When creating brand new email accounts or domains, they can wrongly categorize them as spammers. If there is no proper warmup procedure, such newer installations may face significant issues with emails going through, thus blocking any communication from potential clients or business partners.

When you sign up for a new email account or create your own domain, ISPs (Internet service providers) do not recognize this account as a known sender. That's why sending so many emails initially triggers an unusual spam filter response.

One of the best benefits of email warmup is avoiding spam filters. Gradually increasing your email volume helps you build trust with ISPs, which means you’re much more likely to have your emails land in the inbox rather than the spam folder. And when your emails reach the right audience, you’ll see a better ROI.

This process ensures better email deliverability, crucial for businesses aiming to drive revenue through email marketing. According to a report by Campaign Monitor, email delivers an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent, but only when those emails reach their intended audience.

Improves Engagement and Higher Open Rates

When your email account is properly warmed up, your engagement improves. Your open and reply rates will go up because your emails are landing where they should—in the inbox. According to HubSpot, the average open rate for B2B emails is around 21%, but with a good warmup strategy, you could easily achieve better rates and see more meaningful conversations and sales.

Better Inbox Placement

The email warmup process ensures your messages land in inboxes rather than spam folders. By gradually increasing your email volume, ISPs recognize your sending behavior as trustworthy, improving inbox placement. With this gradual process, even well-designed email campaigns avoid being flagged as spam, harming your overall campaign success.

Consistency is critical to building trust with ISPs. A sudden surge in email volume raises red flags, triggering spam filters. Ultimately, email warmup aims to create a positive sender reputation, ensuring future emails reach your target audience's inboxes. This trust-building approach leads to higher open rates, better engagement, and more effective email marketing campaigns, positioning you for long-term success.

Boosts Readiness for Larger Campaigns

Once your email account is warmed up, you’re ready to scale. You can start sending larger, more complex email campaigns without worrying about damaging your sender reputation. With a strong reputation, you can confidently increase your email volume while maintaining high deliverability rates, ensuring that more of your emails reach the right people.

This process enables the smooth transition to higher volumes without compromising the success of growing businesses. With a strong sender reputation, you can scale effectively, focusing on crafting campaigns that engage your audience and drive results.

With the understanding of benefits, let’s see how you can warm up your email!

How to Warm Up Your Email the Right Way

If you are going to send less than ten emails? There is no need for AI email warmup services; save yourself the money and do a few warmups manually. If you are going to send 1000+ emails, then yes, using an automated email warmup service saves time and prevents emails from going to spam.

Manual Warm-Up: The DIY Approach

Manual email warm-up is the most hands-on method, giving you complete control over the process. It’s ideal for those just starting out or for smaller campaigns. This approach involves gradually increasing your email volume and ensuring each interaction feels natural. You can begin by sending emails to trusted contacts and slowly ramp up your activity over time.

How to warm up manually:

• Start small: Send 10–20 emails per day to active contacts who are likely to engage with your messages.
• Increase volume gradually: Increase your email volume by 10–20% every few days, giving your sender reputation a chance to grow organically.
• Monitor engagement: Keep track of open rates, replies, and clicks to gauge the effectiveness of your emails. Adjust as needed based on the responses.
• Be patient: Over the course of a few weeks, your email reputation will improve, and you'll be able to send larger email campaigns with higher deliverability.

Pros:

• Personalized Engagement: Since you're sending emails to real contacts, you can engage with them in a more personalized way, which helps signal to email service providers (ESPs) that you're a legitimate sender.
• Full Control: You have total control over the content and timing of your emails, allowing you to tailor your outreach to specific recipients.
• Gradual Growth: By increasing the volume of emails slowly, your sending reputation grows organically, which is more likely to be accepted by ESPs.

Cons:

• Time-Consuming: Manual warm-up can be a slow process that requires a significant amount of time and effort.
• Consistency Required: If you stop or break the pattern of sending emails, your sender reputation may suffer, potentially slowing down the progress.
• Limited Reach: You’ll need help from contacts or rely on a small pool of email accounts, limiting the scale of your warm-up.

Automated Warm-Up: A Smarter, Faster Solution

For larger campaigns or for those who prefer a more hands-off approach, automated email warm-up tools offer an efficient solution. 

These tools take the reins by automatically sending, replying, and engaging with your emails to simulate natural human behavior. With advanced features like volume control, reputation monitoring, and in-depth analytics, automated warm-up tools help you achieve optimal sender reputation quickly and efficiently.

Why choose automated warm-up:

• Efficiency: Automated tools can ramp up email volumes quickly, often reaching optimal sender reputation within just 1-2 weeks.
• Simulated Human Engagement: These tools engage with your emails by opening, replying, and marking them as important, mimicking natural behavior that ESPs look for in legitimate senders.
• Comprehensive Analytics: Many automated tools offer detailed reports that track performance metrics such as inbox placement, open rates, and spam complaints. This data helps you adjust your outreach strategy and optimize results.

Pros:

• Time-Saving: Automated tools handle the process for you, freeing up time for other important tasks.
• Consistent Engagement: These tools maintain a steady level of engagement by automatically interacting with your emails, helping you maintain a healthy sender reputation.
• Advanced Features: Automated tools provide features like spam checks, sender health monitoring, and detailed analytics to track and improve email performance.

Cons:

• Less Personalization: Automated messages may lack the personal touch of a manual approach, potentially alienating recipients if not carefully configured.
• Dependence on Technology: You must trust the tool’s ability to mimic human interactions accurately, as relying on technology to manage engagement can sometimes result in less authentic communication.
• Cost: While automated warm-up tools can save time, they do come with a cost, which may not be ideal for smaller campaigns or those with limited budgets.

Manual vs. Automated Warm-Up: Key Differences

Since you know the difference between manual and automated warmup methods, let’s look at some email warmup tools that can help you automate the process.

5 Best Email Warmup Tools

Warming up your email account is essential for improving deliverability and avoiding spam filters. The right tool can help build your sender reputation and increase engagement. Here’s a list of the top email warm-up tools, each offering unique features to optimize your outreach and ensure better campaign success.

1. Alisha AI SDR by Floworks

Alisha AI SDR is an advanced tool that automates outbound emails, follow-ups, and keeps leads engaged. By utilizing AI-driven targeting, Alisha creates personalized messages tailored to each prospect, improving engagement and response rates. A cost-effective solution compared to human SDRs, Alisha automates workflows and increases ROI at a fraction of the cost.

Features:

• AI-driven personalization for targeted outreach
• Automated email sending and follow-ups
• Seamless CRM integration (e.g., HubSpot)
• Lead qualification and meeting scheduling
• Cost-efficient compared to human SDRs
• Automated workflows and reporting

2. TrulyInbox

TrulyInbox is a simple yet highly effective email warm-up tool that focuses on delivering optimal deliverability rates. It gradually increases your sending volume over time, simulating natural email behavior to help build a positive sender reputation. TrulyInbox is user-friendly with easy setup and integration options, including SMTP, native Microsoft integration, and Google OAuth. It allows warming up unlimited email accounts without additional costs.

Features:

• Unlimited email accounts warm-up
• Gradual email volume increase to mimic human behavior
• Easy setup with multiple integration options (SMTP, Microsoft, Google OAuth)
• Deliverability monitoring tools
• Auto-stop function for improper SPF, DKIM, or DMARC configurations
• No extra charges for multiple email accounts

3. Warmy.io

Warmy is an AI-powered email warm-up tool designed to enhance email deliverability through automated warm-up powered by "Adeline," its AI engine. A key feature is the ability to add your email templates to the warm-up process, improving the deliverability of specific templates. It also provides valuable insights into deliverability, enabling users to make more informed decisions on their outreach strategy.

Features:

• AI-powered warm-up with “Adeline” engine
• Customizable warm-up with language and topic options
• Ability to add email templates to the warm-up process
• Deliverability insights for optimized outreach
• White-labeling for agencies
• Integration with various productivity and sales platforms

4. WarmUp Inbox

WarmUp Inbox uses a vast network of over 30,000 real inboxes to warm up your email accounts. It includes an ESP Warmup feature that specifically targets ESPs like Gmail, boosting engagement and improving deliverability. The tool helps build trust with email service providers and ensures that your emails land in the inbox instead of the spam folder.

Features:

• 30,000+ real inbox network
• ESP-specific warm-up (e.g., Gmail)
• Tools like DMARC Record Generator, SPF Generator, and Email Spam Checker
• Customizable language options for email warm-up
• Ability to create cold email sequences
• Free tools for email optimization and reputation monitoring

5. Mailivery

Mailivery is an email warm-up tool that leverages AI algorithms and a peer-to-peer network of over 20,000 users to improve email deliverability. It ensures your emails are removed from spam by simulating real interactions, which positively impacts your sender reputation. Additionally, Mailivery provides detailed analytics to track spam rates and email health.

Features:

• AI-powered email warm-up with real interactions
• Peer-to-peer network of 20,000+ users
• Customizable warm-up strategy with options like time zones and weekend sending
• Analytics dashboard for spam rate and email health tracking
• Team management features
• Blacklist monitoring and reporting

With this covered, let’s also learn about some common mistakes that you can easily avoid.

Common Email Warmup Mistakes to Avoid

Warming up your email domain is crucial when it comes to cold emails. However, common mistakes—like aggressive ramp-up strategies and lack of engagement—can harm deliverability and lead to being blacklisted. All of these must be avoided to ensure the sender's reputation and, thus, a good run of the email marketing business.

Sending too many emails too soon

You wouldn’t expect to build a successful business overnight, right? So why would you expect to send 1,000 emails right out of the gate? One of the biggest mistakes newbies make is sending too many emails too quickly. This triggers spam filters, can get you IP blacklisted, and damage your sender reputation before you even have a chance to get started. It’s like starting a sprint when you should be warming up for a marathon.

Lack of Engagement

Just sending emails isn’t enough. People actually need to engage with them—meaning they should open, read, and respond to your messages. 

If nobody interacts with your emails, ISPs (the people who manage your email inboxes) will take it as a sign that your emails aren’t valuable, which can hurt your reputation. Consistency is key. Don’t suddenly stop sending emails or ramp up the volume too quickly either; ISPs like to see steady and consistent email activity.

Skipping Email Authentication

This one’s huge—email authentication is essential. Without it, ISPs may block your emails or send them straight to the spam folder. Tools like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC help prove you’re a legitimate sender. 

If you skip this step, you’re setting yourself up for a reputation problem. Authentication shows ISPs that you’re trustworthy, so don’t skip it if you want your emails to reach their destination.

Poor Email Content and Maintenance

High-quality, relevant content is essential to keep recipients engaged and maintain a positive sender reputation. No one likes boring emails! Regularly check your email performance reports to spot any potential issues before they affect your campaigns.

Irregular Emailing Practices

Avoid sending emails on a haphazard schedule. Inconsistent emailing may raise red flags and harm your reputation. Stick to a consistent sending routine to foster trust and build credibility over time.

Neglecting the Spam Folder

Make it a habit to check if your emails are being flagged as spam. If they are, encourage recipients to mark them as "safe" and move them to the inbox. This action can significantly boost your email deliverability.

Skipping Warm-up for New Campaigns

Never skip the warm-up phase when launching a new email campaign, even if you have a solid reputation. Skipping this crucial step can negatively impact your deliverability. Always ensure email accounts are properly warmed up before sending large volumes of messages.

All these mistakes are easily avoidable; you just need the support of the right tool.

Choosing the Right Tool for the Job

When choosing an email warmup tool, focus on what matters most to you. If you want full automation, Alisha AI SDR is a great choice, as it handles sending, replying, and engaging with emails. If you prefer more control, choose a tool that lets you customize your sending volume and engagement settings.

Email warmup is essential for improving deliverability, boosting engagement, and building a strong sender reputation. 

By gradually increasing your email volume and staying consistent, you avoid spam filters and increase your chances of landing in the inbox. It’s the first step to scaling successful email marketing campaigns and connecting with more leads, ultimately driving better sales results.

At Floworks, we make this process simple with Alisha AI SDR, which helps you warm up your email account and build a solid sender reputation without the hassle. Ready to take your email marketing to the next level? Watch Alisha in action and see the difference!

Get started with Floworks today and ensure your emails land in the right inbox every time!

Alisha AI SDR

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Frequently Asked Questions 

What is an email warmup?

Email warmup is the gradual process of sending more emails from a new or inactive email address. This supports building the sender's reputation, lowering the chances of mails being flagged as spam or rejected by email providers.

What is a warmup for a new email?

Warming up a new email address means slowly introducing it to sending activity. Initially sending low volumes of emails and gradually increasing the frequency, you build a positive sender reputation with email service providers.

What is the best email warmup tool?

The best email warmup tools include Warmup Inbox, Mailwarm, and Lemlist. These tools automate the process, increasing your email-sending volume and interacting with recipients to boost engagement.

How long does email warmup take?

Email warmup typically takes 2 to 8 weeks, depending on the email service provider and the volume of emails. The length of the warmup period varies based on the account's initial reputation and activity.

Do email warming services work?

Yes, email warming services are effective. They help build a positive reputation for your email address by gradually increasing email volume and improving deliverability rates, reducing the chances of landing in spam folders.

How do I warm up my email server?

To warm up an email server, start by sending a small number of emails (20-50 per day) and gradually increase this volume over several weeks. Consistent interaction, like email opens and replies, is crucial to establishing a positive sending reputation.

What is a warm email list?

A warm email list consists of recipients who have previously engaged with your emails or have shown interest in your content. These contacts are likelier to open and interact with your emails, improving deliverability and engagement rates.

Is email warmup necessary?

Email warmup is necessary for new or inactive email accounts to build trust with email providers. Without warming up, sending many emails could be marked as spam, reducing your deliverability.

How do I check if my email is warmed up?

You can check if your email ID is warmed up by monitoring its metrics, such as deliverability, bounce rates, and spam reports. If your emails consistently land in inboxes and engagement rates improve, your address is likely warmed up. Some tools, like Warmup Inbox, also provide detailed progress reports.