What is the best practice for warming up a new email sending domain for a small list of cold contacts?

Email marketer from Woodpecker recommends that during domain warm up you should send personalized emails to people who you know and who will engage, this helps to build positive engagement with your domain.

Email marketer from Hunter.io says prior to email warm-up you should ensure that your email list is validated, check for bounces, spam traps or invalid emails and remove these to increase deliverability.

Email marketer from Mailerlite recommends the importance of personalization during warm-up emails to encourage engagement, use dynamic content, address by name etc.

Email marketer from Reddit emphasizes the importance of a well thought out warm-up plan that could take several weeks in order to build up a solid reputation.

Email marketer from Reply.io shares the need to increase engagement during the first 30 days to get the domain to be highly engaged to get out of the spam folder and that this is one of the key factors to success.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares the importance of checking email lists for spam traps that have been setup by blacklist companies and email providers. Sending emails to these can lead to domain black listing.

Email marketer from Mailjet suggests maintaining consistent sending volumes and frequency during the warm-up period. This helps establish a predictable sending pattern that ISPs can recognize and trust.

Email marketer from GMass advises segmenting your list and starting with your most engaged contacts for the initial warm-up sends. This helps build positive sender reputation quickly.

Email marketer from Reddit recommends focusing on recipient engagement by sending valuable and relevant content. High engagement rates (opens, clicks) signal positive sender reputation to ISPs.

Expert from Email Geeks shares Google's suggestion to start with a batch of 10 emails, wait a few hours, and repeat a few times when warming up a domain.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that Gmail is among the most sensitive ISPs during domain warm-up, so following best practices for Gmail often translates well to other providers, allowing for a potentially more aggressive approach elsewhere.

Expert from Email Geeks recommends ensuring the domain is not a brand new registration and advises putting up a website, even if it's just a redirect to the main website, for email warm-up.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that sub-brand hostnames should ideally link to an appropriate website. The content doesn't matter much, as long as it identifies the company for postmasters verifying email legitimacy.

Expert from Email Geeks mentions the domain should not be brand new and should be registered for at least 30 days or 7 depending on who you ask, Ken O'Driscoll suggests 90 days to rule out registration issues

Expert from Spam Resource emphasizes the importance of maintaining a consistent IP address during the domain warm-up process to establish a reliable sending reputation with ISPs.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests being clear about where the address was obtained in the first messages, such as mentioning a conference booth.

Expert from Email Geeks advises doubling the batch size each subsequent day and batching per recipient domain during domain warm-up.

Documentation from Microsoft suggests monitoring feedback loops (FBLs) to identify and address any deliverability issues promptly. FBLs provide insights into spam complaints and other negative signals.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools recommends gradually increasing the volume of emails sent from a new domain to build a positive reputation with email providers. This gradual ramp-up helps to avoid being flagged as spam.

Documentation from Sparkpost shares the importance of monitoring your domain and IP reputation throughout the warm-up process. Use tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Sender Score to track your progress and identify any issues.

Documentation from Sendgrid emphasizes setting up proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) before starting the warm-up process. This verifies the sender's identity and improves deliverability.

Documentation from Postmark shares that if you get blacklisted during warm-up you should immediately stop sending and contact the blacklist to get removed.