Warming up a domain
A brand-new domain (or one that hasn’t sent in 6+ months) carries no sender reputation. Mailbox providers treat sudden volume from an unknown domain as suspicious — usually delivering to spam, sometimes blocking outright.
The cure is gradual ramp-up, paired with the kind of mail providers actually want to deliver.
What “warm” actually means
Section titled “What “warm” actually means”A warm domain has:
- A history of consistent send volume.
- A bounce rate under 2%.
- A complaint rate under 0.1%.
- Engagement signals from recipients (opens, clicks, replies) — not just delivery confirmations.
Mailbox providers (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) score domains on the above and adjust inbox placement accordingly.
Suggested ramp schedule
Section titled “Suggested ramp schedule”| Day | Send volume | Audience |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | Most engaged — past openers / clickers only |
| 2 | 250 | Same |
| 3 | 500 | Add recently-active subscribers |
| 4 | 1,000 | Same |
| 5 | 2,500 | Add the rest of valid contacts |
| 6 | 5,000 | Full audience mix |
| 7 | 10,000 | |
| 8+ | Double daily until you hit your target |
Throughout: keep bounce rate under 2% and complaint rate under 0.05%. If either spikes, hold volume flat for 2–3 days before continuing.
What to send during warm-up
Section titled “What to send during warm-up”The goal is engaged mail. Order matters:
- Internal seeds first — your team, vendors, anyone who’ll definitely open.
- Most engaged subscribers — people who’ve opened or clicked in the last 30 days from another domain.
- General active — opened in the last 90 days.
- Long-dormant — last.
Don’t include “valid but unverified” contacts in the first week — they’re more likely to bounce or never engage.
Domain warm-up vs IP warm-up
Section titled “Domain warm-up vs IP warm-up”These are separate:
- IP warm-up — handled automatically by 3AVA Mail’s warmup orchestrator. New IPs ramp from 50/day to 100k/day over ~25 days.
- Domain warm-up — handled by you, by sending the right volumes to the right audiences over the first 2–3 weeks.
If both your IP and your domain are new, run both warm-ups in parallel — but stay at the lower of the two daily caps.
Subdomain trick
Section titled “Subdomain trick”Warming a mail.acme.com subdomain is faster than warming acme.com because the root domain often has positive corporate-mail history that anchors the subdomain’s initial reputation. See Subdomain vs root domain.
Common mistakes
Section titled “Common mistakes”- Sending 50,000 from day 1. Even with a “warm” IP, providers don’t trust unknown domains at that volume.
- Including dormant subscribers early. Dead addresses bounce; semi-dead ones don’t engage. Both hurt warm-up.
- Skipping seeds. Without engaged opens/replies in the first week, providers have no positive signal to balance against complaints.
- Throttling too slowly. Stretching warm-up across 6 weeks doesn’t add safety — it just delays you. The schedule above is the right pace.