Email vs domain warm-up - How are they different?

We know it’s confusing…

Email warm-up and domain warm-up are eerily similar concepts.

Both involve slowly increasing email sending volume and frequency to establish a sender reputation and avoid the spam folder.

But here's the catch: Some clear differences between them can impact your email deliverability and overall outreach success.

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Email and domain warm-up: Key differences 🗝️

The difference between email and domain warm-up is simple:

• Email warm-up is concerned with warming up an individual email, e.g.: youremail@yourdomain.com.
• Domain warm-up is about warming up an entire sending domain, e.g.: all email addresses for yourdomain.com.

Warming up an individual email is more straightforward than warming up an entire domain, which may require a more comprehensive strategy.

If, for example, you plan to send different types of emails, such as transactional, marketing, and internal communication emails, then you need to incorporate them into your email warm-up strategy. A thorough domain warm-up also takes longer than warming up an individual email.

However, if you only use your sending domain for email outreach, then an elaborate domain warm-up strategy isn’t necessary.

For low-volume email outreach, even warming up a single email could do the job.

As you scale your outreach, you'll want to warm up more emails. You should keep the number of daily emails sent per email address to a maximum of 50.

Why email warm-up matters… a lot!

A new email address (or sending domain) lacks what is called a sender reputation.

Most of your cold emails will go to your recipient's spam folder without a good sender reputation.

You can’t start sending hundreds of daily emails out of the blue. You need to build up your sender reputation slowly.

An essential step towards a better sender reputation is warming up your email. By slowly increasing your sending volume and frequency, while also getting engagement on your emails, you can build a sender reputation.

Once you have a strong sender reputation, your inbox placement will improve drastically, allowing you to book more meetings and generate more revenue.

lemwarm facilitates the warm-up process ♨️

lemwarm is an email deliverability booster that can warm-up your email on autopilot.

Here are some of its standout features:

• ➡️ Uses real people’s accounts to send and receive warm-up emails
• ➡️ Replies to your warm-up emails in the same email thread, just like a natural email conversation
• ➡️ Lets you send warm-up emails to a network tailored to your industry
• ➡️ Your warm-up emails will be personalized
• ➡️ Enables you to use your own templates for more relevant warm-up content
• ➡️ Allows you to monitor your deliverability in real time with lemwarm’s deliverability score
• ➡️ Warns you when deliverability problems arise
• ➡️ Runs DNS checks to ensure your technical setup is in order (helps you avoid the spam folder)
• ➡️ Tells you where your warm-up emails are landing (inbox or spam)

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The #1 mistake people make when warming up an email ⚠️

Email warm-up is a delicate process. To minimize issues that could arise, it's best to use a trusted tool like lemwarm.

When doing warm up manually, or when using a subpar warm-up tool, many mistakes can be made that could ruin your deliverability.

However, the biggest mistake we see is that people stop warming up their email after the initial phase.

A good email warm-up tool tends to your sender reputation behind the scenes, and lets you know when issues arise, so they can be taken care of before they cause serious problems.

Even if your actual outreach doesn’t get much engagement, an email warm-up tool helps to balance the number of emails you send vs the number of replies you get. It ensures enough of your emails get engagement so that internet service providers consider your emails valuable.

If you stop the warm-up process, your deliverability and sender reputation will suffer—and soon, your revenue will, too!

Should you use your primary domain for email outreach?

Protecting your main domain’s reputation should be one of your priorities.

Therefore, you should NOT use it for email outreach.

And what about a subdomain?

Using a subdomain is cost-effective and allows for branding consistency. However, it still poses a risk to the main domain’s reputation.

The safest bet is to use a separate domain altogether, to keep your main domain separate from your outreach.

Of course, you'll still have to follow email outreach best practices since there will be a connection between your emails' content and your business (domain name).

Final Thoughts 🧠 👓

Warming up your email and domain is a critical task toward outreach success.

Whether you only need to warm up a couple of email addresses for low-volume outreach or need a comprehensive warm-up strategy for your whole domain…

…email warm-up is an ongoing effort to maintain trust with ISPs and your audience.

Investing time in proper warm-up practices and using the right tools will ensure that your emails land where they belong: in your recipient's inbox.

To learn more about email warm-up, read: What Is Email Warm-up and Why Is It Important?

To find out how long it takes to warm-up your email check out: How long does it really take to warm up an email?