Email Warmup & Best Practices

Email deliverability is one of the most critical aspects of successful digital marketing and client communication. When you set up a new email sending domain, internet service providers (ISPs) and email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo don't automatically trust your domain. Without proper reputation building, even legitimate emails can end up in spam folders, severely impacting your marketing campaigns and client communications.


What is Email warmup?

Email warmup is the strategic process of gradually building your domain's reputation with email providers by demonstrating consistent, legitimate sending behavior. Think of it as establishing credit - you need to prove your trustworthiness over time through positive sending patterns and recipient engagement.

Why is this crucial for your business? A poor email reputation can result in:

• Emails landing in spam folders instead of inboxes
• Reduced open rates and engagement
• Potential blacklisting of your domain
• Damaged relationships with leads and clients
• Significant loss in marketing ROI

This comprehensive guide is designed to give TheraSaaS users everything they need to know to avoid the spam folder and ensure their emails land directly in recipients' inboxes. By following these proven strategies and best practices, you'll build a strong email reputation that supports your business growth and client communication needs.

Essential Email Best Practices

Now that your new sending domain is configured, it's essential to implement these critical best practices to ensure successful inbox delivery rather than spam folder placement. Before beginning your email campaigns, make sure you've established and followed these necessary protocols.

1. Establish a Dedicated Email Sending Domain

What is it? Your sending domain is how the internet routes your emails. Rather than using a shared domain that all users access (therasaas.com), a dedicated email domain is a private domain exclusively used for your email sending and receiving. Within TheraSaaS, when utilizing our email service, you have the capability to establish your own dedicated domain. If you're using an external SMTP provider, this functionality won't be available within the application.

Why it's essential: Without a dedicated email sending domain, your emails frequently end up in spam folders despite following proper email practices. When you establish a dedicated email sending domain, you gain complete control over your reputation and email deliverability. This allows you to work toward achieving consistent inbox placement while avoiding the spam folder.

Implementation steps: If you haven't already established one, we highly recommend setting up your own dedicated domain for email sending. To configure your dedicated email sending domain, follow our comprehensive step-by-step setup guide.

Troubleshooting existing domains: If you already have a dedicated email sending domain but your emails are still reaching spam folders, please refer to our troubleshooting documentation for additional guidance.

2. Configure a Dedicated Sending IP Address

What is it? Dedicated IP addresses provide a significant advantage by routing your email messages through a unique, exclusive IP address. Email service providers closely monitor IP address reputation and behavior to determine email deliverability for domains associated with that IP.

Obtaining a dedicated IP address provides your organization with exclusive ownership, granting you complete control over email sender reputation management and deliverability tied to that IP address.

Why it's important: If you have a TheraSaaS email dedicated sending domain, you share the same sending IP address with all TheraSaaS users. Email providers assign reputation scores to IP addresses, which could negatively impact your sending capabilities, particularly at high volumes. A dedicated sending IP address helps you maintain greater control over your email-sending health to build your own IP reputation. This becomes increasingly important when sending high volumes, especially 200,000+ emails weekly.

Setup process: While everyone benefits from a dedicated sending IP, businesses sending more than 200,000 emails weekly will see the most significant improvements from this service. To configure and learn more about dedicated sending IP addresses, consult our detailed setup guide.

3. Activate Email Validation

What is it? Email validation verifies whether the email addresses you're targeting are valid and deliverable. Sending to invalid email addresses can significantly harm your email deliverability metrics.

Why it's critical: Sending emails to non-existent or invalid addresses damages your domain reputation, leading to poor email deliverability. This means your emails will either go to spam or be rejected entirely by mailbox providers.

How to activate: We've streamlined email validation to make it as simple as possible - it's a setting within your account configuration.

Cost structure: We charge $2.50 for 1,000 email validations across all plans, significantly lower than major competitors like MailGun's $12/1,000 rate - that's 79% cheaper.

 Include Unsubscribe Links

What is it? An unsubscribe link allows recipients to opt out of future email communications from your organization.

Why it's essential: Not including an unsubscribe link will severely damage your email deliverability rates and may violate anti-spam regulations.

Setup options: We've made it simple to add unsubscribe links to all your emails through our email builder's "Footer" element. You have two options:

Default unsubscribe setup: If you're using TheraSaaS email, it's quick and easy to use our default unsubscribe links.

Custom unsubscribe setup: Create the optimal unsubscribe experience with full control over the process using our custom unsubscribe link setup documentation.

Stop Sending to Unengaged Recipients
What is it? Simply put - when sending to your email list, avoid sending to unengaged recipients. If subscribers don't open emails or take action in your campaigns, stop sending to them.

Why it matters: Sending to engaged recipients increases inbox placement rates. Lower engagement rates (fewer opens or clicks) result in emails being marked as spam by email providers.

Implementation: If you've been sending to recipients who haven't taken any action for weeks, reduce sending frequency or stop entirely. While it may be difficult to trim your list, it's worse to damage your email deliverability due to unengaged recipients. Focus your efforts on recipients who are actively engaging with your content.

Key principle: It's better to stop sending to unengaged recipients than to have them unsubscribe or mark emails as spam.

 Maintain Consistent Sending Frequency

What is it? Your sending domain's reputation is significantly influenced by email sending frequency. Sending email blasts only once monthly or every few weeks can negatively impact your reputation. Conversely, sending daily or multiple times daily can be equally harmful, especially if this represents a change from your previous sending patterns.

Why frequency matters: Consider your sending schedule carefully. When recipients have opted in and are engaging (opening emails, clicking links), you can send more frequently. For unengaged recipients, reduce to weekly sending. As mentioned above, stop sending to completely unengaged recipients entirely.

Our recommendations:

• For new double opt-in subscribers: Send daily emails for the first 5 days, then reduce to 2-3 weekly
• After 1-2 weeks of no engagement: Reduce to weekly sending
• After 2+ months of no engagement: Stop sending entirely
• Send special promotions as needed, but keep them brief and infrequent
• Always prioritize sending less rather than oversending
• Remember: It's better to stop sending to unengaged recipients than to have them unsubscribe or mark as spam

Email Warmup Process

Email providers often automatically spam emails from new dedicated domains. This makes sense because anyone can create a new sending domain (including spammers) and begin sending immediately. Utilizing the email best practices above and following these email sending recommendations will greatly improve your chances of reaching the inbox and converting leads.

Email Sending Volume Recommendations:

When sending your first emails to warm up your domain, only send to recipients who have opted in. You must follow these "Email Sending Volume Recommendations" to ensure you're not sending too many emails within a single day or hour.

Stage-by-Stage Sending Limits:

Stage 1 (Days 1-7):

• Maximum 100 emails per hour
• Maximum 1,000 emails per day

Stage 2 (Days 8-14):

• Maximum 300 emails per hour
• Maximum 2,500 emails per day

Stage 3 (Days 15-21):

• Maximum 500 emails per hour
• Maximum 5,000 emails per day

Stage 4 (Days 22-28):

• Maximum 1,000 emails per hour
• Maximum 10,000 emails per day

Stage 5 (After 28 days):

• Maximum 2,000 emails per hour
• Maximum 20,000 emails per day

Remember: These stages aren't just based on how long you've had the domain, but on your actual sending progression and reputation building.

Pro Tips for Initial Warmup Emails

1. Follow all email best practices outlined above
2. Adhere to the email sending volume recommendations
3. Send fewer emails per day/hour when possible during initial stages
4. Only send to opted-in emails with higher engagement potential
5. Avoid cold emailing during early warmup phases
6. Keep email content short and focused
7. Include appropriate images when relevant
8. Never use public link shorteners like bit.ly or tiny.url

Frequently asked questions:

Email delivery can be complex, with many factors affecting spam placement. For example, using URL shorteners significantly increases spam probability.

If your emails are going to spam, check the following:

• How long have you been sending emails? Domain warmup can take up to 4 weeks. If it's been less than four weeks, focus on email best practices and sending recommendations above while using our monitoring tools.
  
  

My Dedicated Domain is Already Set Up but Emails Still Go to Spam. What Now?

This is normal initially. If your domain has completed warmup (4+ weeks) and emails still go to spam, it's often better to set up a new sub-domain rather than trying to repair the current one's reputation.

Extra Tip:
During the warm-up period, you can instruct users via SMS to check their email including spam folder for additional instructions. With some email providers, adding a contact may help as well.

What Exactly is Email Warmup?

Email warmup is the process of gradually increasing your email sending volume to build a positive reputation with inbox providers. This systematic approach helps your emails avoid spam folders by demonstrating legitimate sending behavior.

Q: What is Email Deliverability?

Email deliverability refers to your ability to successfully land emails in recipients' inboxes instead of spam folders. It's influenced by sender reputation, list health, content quality, and recipient engagement rates.

Q: What is Domain Reputation?

Domain reputation is how email providers rate your domain's trustworthiness based on your sending behavior, recipient engagement, and compliance with email standards. A strong reputation ensures inbox placement, while poor reputation triggers spam filters.

Q: How Long Until a Domain is Fully Warmed Up?

Typically around 4 weeks of consistent, gradual sending following best practices. Monitor your performance metrics and maintain healthy sending patterns to build a strong domain reputation.

Q: What Happens if I Send More Than Recommended Amounts?

Sending too much too quickly can damage your domain's reputation and potentially result in blacklisting. Always follow volume guidelines to maintain a healthy sender reputation.

Q: What is a Dedicated Domain?

A dedicated domain gives you complete control over your email reputation by keeping your sending activity separate from other users. This isolation significantly improves inbox placement rates.

Q: How Do I Send Emails in Drip Mode?

Use bulk actions or automated workflows to stagger your email sends over time. This approach helps maintain a positive sender reputation by avoiding sudden volume spikes that can trigger spam filters.