How to Warm Up An Email for Cold Email Outreach [ Best Practice 2024 ]

Your perfectly planned email sequences are ready! Catchy subject lines, clear CTAs, and a verified lead list are prepared, and you have launched a flawless email campaign.

But wait, what? 

Zero clicks, zero opens, and zero responses? Wondering how’s that even possible. 

About 14.5 billion emails are marked as spam every single day. Advertising-related spam is predominant globally. The problem is the new email accounts aren’t warming up.

With the Google spam update, it’s challenging to reach the inbox, as most emails are marked as spam. 

We understand it’s discouraging, and that’s why you need to warm up an email account ahead of cold outreach. 

“Properly warming up your email account is a key step to avoid landing your emails in a spam folder“, says Umesh Joshi, founder of blogger outreach agency TrafficKite.

This makes your email account seem as legitimate as a human before you utilize your automated email tool. 

Let’s learn how to make Google think you’re a real person through email warm-up.

What Is Email Warmup?

Email warmup establishes a reputation for a new email account and increases 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 service provider sets daily sending limits. However, a fresh account cannot be used 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 achieve maximum email deliverability. Depending on the volume of emails and engagement in the warmup process, the email may get ready faster. However, if the recipient’s engagement level is too low, the email warmup may take longer than anticipated.

Why Is Email Warm-Up Important?

Email warmup builds reputation and offers higher delivery rates. It is essential when planning a large-volume cold email campaign with a new account to ensure emails land in inboxes.

In a cold email campaign, the first step is to reach the recipient’s inbox. 

Once you are there, good engagement will build a more significant relationship. An email warmup before sending cold emails helps avoid spam filters, deliver to the inbox, and witness a higher open rate.

Here are three essential benefits coming from an email warming service –

Build Reputation

Warming up emails helps build a positive reputation with email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail and Outlook. 

When you create a new email account, it starts with a neutral reputation. Your actions and those of your recipients—like sending and receiving a few emails daily—build a positive reputation. 

However, sending many ignored or spam-marked emails lowers your reputation. If it drops too much, ESPs may block your emails. Email warm-up mimics normal email use to improve or restore your reputation.

Avoid Spam Filters/Folders

Sending a large number of emails from a new address without a warming email can lead to being marked as spam. This means your emails will go to spam folders or get blocked, making your campaign ineffective. 

Warm up your email address first to reduce spam rates.

Improve Email Deliverability

The main goal of email warm-up is to ensure your email lands in the recipient’s inbox.

When you send an email, email service providers (ESPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) first check your email history and user engagement.

If you have a new or inactive email account, you need to warm it up before starting a large email campaign. Without this step, your emails may be caught by spam filters.

How To Manually Warm Up Your Email?

Learn how to manually warm up an email to convince Google that your cold email account belongs to a real person. Use the below steps to optimize your account for email deliverability.

Account Setup 

Before you start sending cold emails, you need to create an email account.

1. If your company doesn’t already have a domain, get one from Google. 

2. Set up G Suite for your domain—it’s like Gmail for businesses.

3. Ensure your email is linked to a website during setup to look more credible. The website choice doesn’t matter much now; you can change it later.

4. New domains start with a neutral reputation. Building a good or bad reputation takes time, which affects email deliverability. 

5. If using a new domain for outreach, wait at least 12 weeks before starting campaigns. However, you can start in as little as 2 weeks for an existing domain with a strong reputation.

Domain Authentication

Authentication is a key step when setting up a new email account. It ensures that your emails bypass spam filters and are delivered directly to the recipient’s inbox.

There are four key email authentications:

1. SPF [Sender Policy Framework]: This sets rules in your Domain Name System that list authorized email servers for your domain. 

When a recipient’s email service provider (ESP) sees SPF authentication, it confirms the sender’s legitimacy.

2. DomainKeys Identified Mail: 

DKIM adds a digital signature to your emails, preventing spoofing and ensuring they arrive safely.

3. DMARC [Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance]: 

DMARC builds on SPF and DKIM to verify email authenticity and protect against fraudulent activities.

4. Custom Domain: 

Using your own domain for emails enhances credibility. It assures both the sender and ESP that links and documents are from a trusted source.

Send Individual Emails

1. To effectively warm up your email domain, send 10-20 personalized emails to friends and colleagues from your new account. 

2. Engage consistently to build trust and gradually increase email volume. This will signal to your email provider that your activities are genuine.

3. During this manual phase, send emails to various services, like Yahoo, Outlook, iCloud, Godaddy, Zoho, Aol, Exchange, and Yandex. 

4. This diversification establishes a positive reputation with major email service providers’ spam filters.

Remember to use personalized subject lines in your initial emails to improve responses.

Subscribing to Newsletters

1. If you work in sales, marketing, recruitment, or any other field, many publications send out weekly newsletters. 

2. Subscribe to at least 10-15 of these newsletters. Confirm each subscription from your inbox to validate your account and boost your incoming emails. 

Getting regular emails is crucial for warming up your new email account, just as sending emails is.

Maintaining Conversation Threads

Email accounts aren’t just for sending messages; they should also prompt responses. 

1. Initiate conversations from your alternate email accounts and reply from your new one.

2. Consistent engagement over 8-12 weeks is vital. 

3. Add your new email address to your website for inbound emails and respond promptly to improve your conversation rate.

This approach demonstrates genuine email activity to service providers.

Perform A Test Campaign

While waiting for your new email address to become active, you probably prepared your first cold email content. After following the steps and waiting at least 12 weeks, it’s time to start testing.

Select 10 to 20 verified email addresses and launch an automated test campaign. 

This helps you learn your cold emailing tool and understand how to avoid Google’s spam filters when writing and sending emails.

Recipients in your test campaign must reply to your emails, and you reply back. This demonstrates to Google that your business emails are relevant and engaging, not spam.

Email Warm-Up Service Using GrowMeOrganic

GrowMeOrganic’s email warmup system allows you to send and receive emails from other GrowMeOrganic users. It’s all done on autopilot, without you lifting a finger.

How Does It Work?

When you connect your email account with GrowMeOrganic, we send emails to other GrowMeOrganic users’ emails using your account with unique content. 

Our smart content algorithm generates a unique message and subject line. This is important because email providers (e.g. Gmail) will evaluate and analyze it.

Once it’s active each hour, we will send emails from your senders to the community and our pool of senders. They will reply to your emails, and we will automatically move your emails that go in SPAM to INBOX to increase your reputation.

The biggest advantage of these conversations is that you’ll be joining a mailbox network that consists of 20K+ people from many countries. 

GrowMeOrganic doesn’t allow fake email addresses to participate in this pool, as they ruin our email domains.

So, you’ll be exchanging emails with real people and highly reputed companies across the world. (without actually doing it manually)

How Do You Set Up Your Email Warm-Up System?

1. Sign in to your GrowMeOrganic dashboard.

2. Navigate to the Senders Tab in GrowMeOrganic CRM 

(This is where you connect a new email account to GrowMeOrganic CRM).

3. Connect your email account with GrowMeOrganic if you haven’t done so.

4. Once you connect your email account, you’ll be able to see the warm-up button.

5. In the warm-up tab, you’ll see a self-explanatory popup asking you to set daily send limits and increase the number of emails sent daily.

Our Recommendation:

1. Number of warm-ups and emails to send per day: 45
2. Daily email limit to increase: 2
3. It is recommended to warm up all the email addresses on a bigger sales team at the same time.

How Long Does It Take To Warm Up Your Email?

The average time before your email is adequately warmed up and ready to send is one month. If you want to send emails during the warmup process, always keep sending volumes lower. 

Increase gradually and keep GrowMeOrganic warmup active so your email address stays warm.

In case you want to send emails during the warmup process, we strongly suggest keeping lower sending volumes. Here’s what we mean:

• 25–50 emails a day during week 1
• 50–100 emails a day during week 2, etc.

You can also check the analytics on sending, receiving, and inbox vs spam emails. 

Other Email Warmup Best Practices To Follow

Here are some more strategies to warm up your email account efficiently. 

• Send Individual Emails Slowly – Send personalized emails to a small group of people who are likely to open and respond. 

Sending too many emails (more than 10-30 per day) initially can harm your new email account’s reputation. It’s best to begin with a few emails per day and gradually increase over several weeks.

Khizar Sajid agrees with us that emails should be sent slowly. Gradually increasing the number will make them relevant and real. 

• Establish Credibility – Convince people to listen to you in your email by stating your credibility. Consistently show why you’re important in your message. 

Without a compelling reason, recipients of cold emails won’t be inclined to pay attention. Highlighting an achievement can help you do so. 

• Offer Value – Do you walk into an interview and immediately start asking for favors? Then why would you do so in a cold email? 

Instead, offer something valuable—something of high value with low commitment, which increases the chance of getting a positive response. Build relationships by giving first, and you’ll likely receive in return later on.

• Creating Disengagement Trigger – When setting up a cold email campaign, use the disengagement trigger. It stops sending emails automatically to contacts who haven’t responded after multiple tries (like ten messages). 

This prevents your sender score from dropping and safeguards your domain’s reputation.

• Clean Your Email List Regularly – Sending emails to invalid addresses harms your email reputation and wastes resources. If you send emails to 1,000 contacts but 900 are invalid, your emails will likely be rejected, making your account suspicious to email providers. 

Regularly clean your email lists or purchase updated lists from a service provider like GrowMeOrganic.

• Use the Email Warmup Tool – The quickest way to warm up your email account is to use tools like GrowMeOrganic. It automates the process over several weeks, enhancing your email deliverability. Manually sending emails daily can be tedious and less effective. 

• A/B Testing Cold Emails – A/B testing your cold outreach can make your emails more engaging. Send different versions of the same email to prospects simultaneously to gauge which gets better responses. 

Experiment with new email formats, like removing links or making other significant changes for optimization.

• Monitor Closely – After sending your cold email campaign, monitor its performance closely. Watch the number of emails sent and check the open rate, click-through rate, and bounce rate. 

If these metrics suddenly drop or exceed the usual 90-day average, it may mean your email address is warming up too fast and needs to cool down. If your bounce rate becomes too high, pause cold emailing and implement email validation to prevent future bounces.

Do’s and Don’ts Of Email Warmup

Now that you understand email warm-up—its purpose and how to do it—let’s summarize these points in one section. 

Here are the essential DOs and DONTs of email warm-up.

Do’s	Don’ts
Begin with a small mailing list, increasing it gradually.	Don’t buy email lists from non-compliant sources.
Choose a reputable service provider for warming up email.	Do not use large attachments in emails.
Maintain a steady daily email volume to prevent abrupt increases in sending activity.	Say no to the high image-to-text ratio.
Personalize emails by including names and other details.	Excessive capitalization and personalization must be avoided.
Segment leads based on prospect behavior and characteristics.	No misleading content or subject lines.
Keep email content relevant and engaging	Avoid too many links in email.
Engage subscribers through social media and blogs as well to build trust.	Do not send emails to inactive accounts.

If you don’t want your recipients to feel your cold email – cold, make it personal. As Anum Shan shares, a cold email was effective and memorable for him due to its personalized touch. 

Even with a few errors, the human touch made it work. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started. 

Conclusion

Warming up an email in 2024 is a simple yet effective sales outreach strategy. By following the above email warmup strategies, you can enhance email deliverability and domain reputation. 

Personalize your emails, show genuine interest, and provide value upfront. In short, remember to act human!

With this, you’ll be well on your way to master warming up your cold email outreach in 2024. Happy emailing!

For more on email warm-up, visit GrowMeOrganic. Whether you want to build, repair, or maintain your sender reputation, we are here to help!

Frequently Asked Questions:- 

1. Why Is It Important To Warm Up An Email? 

Email warm-up helps build trust with email providers, improve inbox placement, and boost response rates. It ensures that your emails reach the right people and engage them effectively.

2. How To Warmup Mail For Cold Outreach? 

Follow steps like domain authentication, personalizing your account, and performing test drip campaigns to warm up email. Send small volumes of emails to trusted contacts, gradually increasing the volume over time. Use engaging content and consistent interaction to build the sender’s reputation.

3. How Many Follow-Ups Should I Send After A Warm-Up Email?

The number of follow-up emails you should send after a warm-up email depends on the situation and the recipient’s response. If you don’t receive a response initially, 1-2 follow-up emails are recommended. Space them out and avoid being pushy.

4. How Long Should A Warm-Up Email Be?

A warm-up email should be concise and to the point. Aim for a length of around 3-4 short paragraphs or 150-200 words. Ensure your message is clear and easy to read. Recipients are more likely to respond to shorter and on-point emails.

5. How To Warm Up A New Email Domain? 

To safely warm up a new domain, start sending emails manually in the second or third week after registration. Begin by sending just a few emails each day.

6. How Long Does It Take To Warm Up An Email Address?  

Warming up an email address typically takes about 4-8 weeks. This gradual process ensures your emails are less likely to be marked as spam.

7. How To Warmup Email For Cold Outreach? 

After setting up your email, begin warming it up manually. Gather a list of confirmed email addresses, like those of friends and business partners. Use this chance to reconnect with them, but avoid sending sales emails.

8. How Long Should The Email Warmup Last? 

It’s best to warm up a new email or domain for 2-4 weeks before sending cold emails. This helps build a good reputation.

9. How To Warm Up SMTP Server? 

Send a small volume of emails initially for SMTP warmup. Over days and weeks, gradually increase the number of emails sent according to a planned schedule. 

10. Are There Free Email Warming Tools?

YES! GrowMeOrganic offers a 14-day Free Trial to get started. 

11. What Is The Email Warmup Sequence? 

The email warmup sequence involves gradually increasing the volume of emails sent to establish domain reputation. For instance, you might send 25-50 emails in the first week and increase it to 50-100 in the second. 

12. How To Warm Up A Facebook Account? 

To warm up a Facebook account, create engaging posts and interact with other users slowly. Avoid excessive activity at first to build trust and avoid being flagged for spam.

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