Domain Warm-up Guide
Warming up a new domain is a crucial step to ensure high deliverability rates for your emails. This guide will walk you through the process of warming up your new domain effectively.
Why Warm-Up is Necessary
When a domain starts sending through a new IP address (like you are with Bento), it must be “warmed up” correctly. Warming up means gradually increasing the volume of emails sent to build a good reputation with ISPs like Yahoo and Gmail. This is necessary because ISPs are suspicious of anything new they see.
What is an IP address? An IP address is best thought of as a "server" that can send and receive emails. When you sign up to Bento, we assign you to an IP Pool (a group of addresses) that you send from.
What to Expect
Somtimes during the initial stages of the warm-up, you may experience lower deliverability rates. It's common for the first few campaigns to land in the Spam folder, especially with Gmail or Hotmail. However, if you are sending wanted and expected emails, ISPs will eventually recognize your domain and IP as trustworthy.
Our goal is always to be sending emails that people expect and want to receive. If you keep that as your north star, you'll have amazing engagement rates for years to come on our platform.
Steps to Warm-Up Your IP Address
Begin by sending a small amount of emails each day using automations. Automations typically have great engagement rates with real users which is exactly what inbox providers want to see. These emails are naturally dripped out over the course of the day whilst your users are filling out forms or doing other activities on your website.
Do this for a period of 1 to 2 weeks.
When you are ready to send your first broadcast email to all your users, consider sending emails just to recipients who have recently interacted with your emails (opened or clicked) or are confirmed customers. Do not send to old users, subscribers, or possible inactive users. Triple check that you have also unsubscribed all users who have opted out of your emails or bounced as sending to those users can harm your reputation.
Throttle the speed of your email sending to ensure a gradual warm-up. We typically recommend that our customers start sending as slow as they can stomach. For some people with strong stomachs, this means sending a broadcast email over a period of 7-14 days — we've seen some even send one broadcast over 30 days!
Simple example: for a list of 20,000 you could send it at a speed of 100 emails per hour (20000/(7*24)).
If you are a higher volume sender then aim for a speed that delivers them over a period of 8-12 hours (list/(8*1)).
Utilize tools like Bento's Deliverability Monitor to track your campaigns during the warm-up period. Ensure you know your baseline engagement rates and adjust your strategy based on feedback. If at any time you notice something suspicious contact us at [email protected] to help!
Summary
Warming up your domain and IP address is essential for maintaining high deliverability rates. By following these steps and gradually increasing your email volume, you can build a strong reputation with ISPs and ensure your emails reach your recipients' inboxes.