Warm a new domain for two to three weeks before sending full cold volume, starting cold sends at 10 a day in week one. Keep automated warmup running afterwards at a reduced rate.
What warmup does
Mailbox providers trust domains with history: sent mail that gets opened, replied to, moved out of spam. A new domain has none. Warmup services exchange real-looking mail between member inboxes and mark it as not spam, building that history faster than you could by hand.
The schedule
| Week | Warmup emails/day | Cold emails/day per inbox |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 to 20 | 0 to 10 |
| 2 | 20 to 40 | 15 to 25 |
| 3 | 40 | 30 to 40 |
| 4 onward | 15 to 20 | 40 |
When it is working
Warmup dashboards show inbox placement near 100% for warmup mail, which proves little. The real test is Google Postmaster Tools: domain reputation at medium or high, spam rate flat near zero. Send a few cold emails to seed addresses you control at Gmail and Outlook and see where they land.
Never stop entirely
Cold email generates no positive engagement signals of its own. Warmup at a low rate provides them. Teams that switch it off see placement drift down over four to eight weeks.
Turn a daily volume into inboxes, domains, warmup ramp and monthly cost. Click any domain to see its inboxes.
Questions
Can I skip warmup on an aged domain?
Only if the domain has recent sending history. An old domain that has never sent mail is cold; warm it for two weeks.
Does warmup fix a domain that is already in spam?
Sometimes, slowly. Stop cold sends, run warmup only for two to three weeks, and check Postmaster. If reputation stays low after that, retire the domain.