Deliverability
Warming up a new sending domain without hurting your reputation
Why new domains and mailboxes need a ramp-up period, what to set up first, and how to know when you are ready to send campaigns.
Coldvenue team 6 min read
Mailbox providers decide where your email lands largely on reputation, and a brand-new domain has none. Sending hundreds of cold emails from it on day one looks exactly like what spammers do. Warmup is how you build a track record first.
Set up authentication before anything else
Before the first message, publish the DNS records that prove you are allowed to send for your domain:
- SPF lists the servers allowed to send for the domain.
- DKIM signs each message so receivers can verify it was not altered.
- DMARC tells receivers what to do when SPF or DKIM fail, and where to send reports.
Ramp up gradually
Start with a handful of messages a day and increase slowly over a few weeks. Warmup traffic should look like real email: conversations that get opened, replied to, and moved out of spam when they land there.
Watch the signals, not the calendar
- Bounces: a rising bounce rate usually means list quality problems, not warmup problems.
- Spam placement: messages landing in spam during warmup are a reason to slow down.
- Replies: genuine conversations are the strongest positive signal you can send.
When placement stays healthy at your target volume, start campaigns gradually too, and keep warmup running alongside them.