What are the best practices and schedules for warming up an IP address for email sending?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Litmus emphasizes the importance of a methodical IP warm-up, they suggest starting with a small segment of your most engaged subscribers and gradually increasing volume. Closely monitor deliverability metrics and adjust the schedule as needed to avoid issues like bounces and spam complaints.
Email marketer from HubSpot recommends segmenting your contacts by engagement level and gradually increase the volume of emails you send to each segment, and closely monitor your sender reputation.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that a common strategy is to double your volume every day for the first week. Then, slow it down. Monitor your reputation, and if you see bounces increase beyond 5%, then reduce your volume until the bounces normalize.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares that a successful email warm-up is critical. Begin by sending small batches of emails to engaged contacts, gradually increasing volume based on open and click rates. Watch out for deliverability issues and modify your approach accordingly.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid shares that starting with a small segment of your most engaged subscribers is crucial and monitor engagement closely. The warm-up process should be tailored to your specific sending situation, so adapt the schedule if you see issues like bounces or spam complaints. Aim for gradual, steady increases.
Email marketer from Mailchimp recommends segmenting your audience and starting with highly engaged subscribers. Gradually increase the volume and frequency of emails while closely monitoring your bounce rates, unsubscribe rates, and spam complaints. Adjust your strategy as you gain more data about your sending reputation.
Email marketer from SendPulse shares that IP warm-up is important. Start small and increase daily volume with your most engaged users first and monitor engagement for issues.
Email marketer from Quora suggests starting with sending transactional emails first, then gradually introducing marketing emails. Focus on building a good reputation by sending quality content and maintaining a clean list.
Email marketer from Neil Patel explains that a proper IP warm-up is essential for email deliverability. He suggests starting with your best contacts and gradually increasing volume based on positive engagement. Monitor key metrics and adjust your sending schedule if you see any warning signs.
What the experts say13Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks recommends Jennifer Lantz's guide to IP warming: <https://www.spamresource.com/2022/01/the-definitive-guide-to-ip-warming.html>.
Expert from Email Geeks shares a SendGrid help document they've used before for IP warming schedules: <https://sendgrid.com/en-us/resource/email-guide-ip-warm-up#chapter-5-sample-transactional-email-schedule>
Expert from Email Geeks shares their general information and reasoning behind IP warming, providing links to their articles: <https://wordtothewise.com/2014/04/warmup-ip-addresses/> and <https://wordtothewise.com/2017/09/warmup-advice-gmail/> and <https://wordtothewise.com/2024/06/warmup-is-communication/>.
Expert from Email Geeks states they are more conservative with IPs and also defers to ESPs due to their greater data on current successful strategies.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that warming is a form of communication with mailbox providers. The goal is to show providers that you send wanted mail to real, engaged users.
Expert from Email Geeks responds to question about issues during IP warming, suggesting to 'back off; slow down'.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that they generally target a 30% daily growth but will push to 50% if performance is good and will sometimes suggest 0% growth or a pull back on growth.
Expert from Email Geeks explains the distinction between warming a cold IP with a new domain versus just moving domains around, highlighting different communication goals.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that IP warming involves carefully sending email to real people who want it so they will engage with it. You should start with low volume and increase slowly, focusing on engagement. Don't worry too much about specific daily or weekly numbers; focus on getting positive signals from your recipients.
Expert from Email Geeks recommends the Salesforce article he helped develop: <https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.mc_es_ip_address_warming.htm&type=5>.
Expert from Spam Resource provides a definitive guide to IP warming which discusses defining your goals, understanding reputation metrics, setting up authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), segmenting sending volume and gradually increasing volume and monitoring key metrics like bounce rates and complaint rates.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests limiting growth to no more than double daily volume week over week.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares warmup advice specific to Gmail. It focuses on sending wanted mail to real subscribers who are likely to engage. It focuses on good list hygiene, engagement and authentication
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools mentions gradually increasing sending volume is important. They emphasize the need to authenticate your emails and adhere to their sender guidelines to establish a positive reputation. Monitor your reputation using their tools and adapt based on the data.
Documentation from SparkPost outlines that IP warm-up is a strategy to establish a good sending reputation. The best practice involves beginning with small, targeted sends to engaged users and increasing volume gradually as your reputation improves. They advise close monitoring of bounce rates, spam complaints, and blocklist status.
Documentation from SendGrid explains that IP warming is the process of gradually increasing the volume of email sent from a new IP address to establish a positive sending reputation with ISPs. They recommend starting with low volume and gradually increasing it daily or weekly, monitoring deliverability and engagement metrics to adjust the schedule as needed.
Documentation from Amazon SES outlines IP warm-up as a key step. They suggest beginning with your highest-quality email and steadily increasing volume. Monitoring bounce rates and complaints is vital for adjusting your sending schedule and maintaining a positive reputation. Review best practices on throttling your email sending rates.
Documentation from Mailjet explains that warming up an IP address involves steadily increasing your sending volume over a period of time. They suggest starting by sending to your most engaged subscribers and scaling gradually. Aim for consistent volume and monitor your sender reputation closely.