5 Reasons Why You Should Warm-Up Your Emails Before Any Cold Outreach

Email marketing is the most successful lead generation channel in 2023, even in the time of social media outreach. There are 4.3 billion email users worldwide and 80% of email users prefer email as their primary business communication channel. 

This proves the efficiency of email marketing, especially cold email outreach. However, if you just create a new email address (or revive an inactive email account) and start sending cold emails, your emails will (definitely) land in spam folders. In the worst case scenario, your domain might get blacklisted. 

This is where email warm-up comes into play. You need to warm-up your inbox to maintain a positive sender reputation and high email deliverability rates.
You might wonder, why should you warm up your email accounts before cold outreach. Let’s take a look at its benefits. But first, let’s discuss what email warm-up is and how it works. 

What is Email Warm-Up?

Email warm-up is the process of improving the sender reputation of an inactive or now email account to increase its email deliverability. 

You can warm-up your email accounts manually by sending a gradually increasing number of emails to different recipients. However, it’s not scalable for a business. On the other hand, sales engagement platforms or cold emailing tools such as Smartlead offer fully automated email warmup to improve the sender reputation. 

Email warm-up consists of various actions such as sending a small number of emails, gradually increasing the number of emails sent daily, marking them as important, moving them from the spam folder to the ‘Primary’ folder, replying to those emails, etc. 

Many experts suggest that you should warm-up your email address for at least 8-12 weeks. However, the warm-up period can vary for new email addresses.

Smartlead’s algorithm emulates human sending behavior and gradually increases (ramps up) the number of emails sent each day. 

It's recommended to start with 10-20 emails per day and increase the sending limit once the active campaign is finished. You should at least warm-up your existing email account for 2 weeks. And if you are starting with a new domain, the ideal warm-up period is 2-3 months. 

5 Reasons Why You Should Warm-Up Your Email Account Before Cold Outreach

As we discussed above, email warmup is one of the most crucial aspects of cold emailing. It establishes a positive reputation for your domain. Here are the 5 reasons why you should warm-up your email account before cold outreach: 

1. Building Positive Domain Reputation 

Building and maintaining a positive domain reputation is a priority to achieving high email deliverability. High email deliverability is the key to reaching the primary inbox of your cold prospects. 

Instead of bombarding your recipients with emails (and getting flagged by the spam filters), a well-built warm-up strategy takes a measured approach. If you gradually increase the number of emails sent out, you make the email service providers (ESPs) believe that you are not just a random spammer, spamming.

Smartlead uses a unique "Custom warm-up identifier Tag" or a unique 2-word phrase assigned to each mailbox in your Smartlead account to replicate human sending behaviors. 

By consistently delivering relevant, engaging, and non-spam content, you achieve a positive sender reputation, which determines whether your emails will land in spam or the primary folder. 

2. Avoiding the Spam Folders

Imagine launching a cold email campaign with brilliant email copy in hope for positive responses. To your surprise, you don’t achieve the desired reply rates. Why? 

It’s highly likely that your cold emails landed on your prospects’ spam folders, instead of the primary inbox. Thanks to the spammers, email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail and Outlook are on the lookout for suspicious email activity. If they detect a sudden influx of emails from a completely new (or dormant) email account, they quickly mark that sender as spam.

This is where email warm-up comes in handy. Email warm-up is the gateway to bypass all spam traps and land in your prospects’ inbox. By gradually increasing your email sending volume and engaging with recipients who actively interact with your emails, you signal to internet service providers (ISPs) that you're a legitimate sender, thus improving your sender reputation. As a result, your emails are more likely to land where they should – the inbox.

3. Improving Email Deliverability Rates

Email deliverability is the kingmaker when it comes to email marketing, especially for cold email outreach (as you are sending unsolicited emails). It decides whether your message lands in the inbox or to the spam folder. Warming up your email account has a significant impact on your email reputation for cold outreach.

When you tailor your warm-up strategy to your specific domain, you're telling ISPs that you are a legit email sender, not a scammer. 

Consistency is the key for email deliverability. Email service providers need to see consistent positive email engagement and quality email practices in line with the CAN-SPAM act and GDPR. 

When you warm up your email accounts, ISPs begin to recognize your sender address and reputation. They'll prioritize your emails over those from unknown senders.

So, if you want your cold outreach emails to land in the primary inbox of your prospects, warm-up your inbox. Build that reputation, earn that trust, and watch your email deliverability rates go 🚀

4. Maximizing Audience Engagement

The goal of cold emailing isn’t just conversions or revenue generation, It's about building relationships, making meaningful connections, and getting your audience to not just open your emails, but also engage with them. So, by building trust and credibility through warm-up activities, you're increasing the chances of your recipients of not just opening your emails but also clicking on links and taking the desired actions.

If you warm-up your email accounts, you're essentially boosting your email marketing ROI. By improving deliverability and increasing engagement, your emails become more effective, leading to higher conversion rates and, ultimately, more sales. 

5. Offers Room for A/B Testing 

One of the most important aspects of warming up your email accounts is that it offers room for A/B testing. When you are strategizing your cold email campaign, instead of shooting in the dark, you can test your email copies and other variables through warm up emails. 

Begin by sending a small batch of emails to your most engaged subscribers or internally in your team. This is your chance to monitor the engagement. This way, gradually ramp up the volume and frequency of emails over a few weeks.

Why is it important, you think? 

It lets you experiment with different content, subject lines, and send times to figure out what works best with your audience. And by the time you'll launch a full-fledged cold email campaign, you'll already have insights and data to craft your emails. This will improve your cold email success rate dramatically. 

Want to dive deeper into A/B testing? Read Cold Email A/B Testing. 

Conclusion 

As an email marketer, if you don't warm up your email accounts properly, your efforts will go nowhere. Email service providers (ESPs) use algorithms to offer a spam-free experience to their users. That's where the warm-up comes in. By showing engagement, you can prove yourself to be a valid sender (and not a spammer). So, don't rush it – warm-up your email accounts, and watch your sales targets start soaring.