Summary
Warming up a new subdomain for low-volume B2B email sends involves establishing a positive sender reputation through a gradual and strategic process. Experts and documentation agree that starting with a small, highly engaged audience is crucial, followed by a slow and steady increase in email volume over time. Continuous monitoring of deliverability metrics, bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement is essential for identifying and addressing any issues. Sending valuable, relevant content and properly authenticating emails are also key components of a successful warmup. For low-volume sends, a full IP warming may not be necessary, but careful management of domain reputation remains vital.
Key findings
- Gradual Volume Increase: Slowly and steadily increase email volume over time.
- Engaged Audience: Start with a small, highly engaged segment of your list.
- Monitor Metrics: Continuously monitor deliverability, bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement.
- Quality Content: Focus on sending valuable and relevant content to your audience.
- Authentication: Properly authenticate your emails using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
- List Hygiene: Maintain a clean email list by removing inactive or unengaged subscribers.
Key considerations
- Sender Reputation: Prioritize building and maintaining a positive sender reputation with ISPs.
- ISP Guidelines: Adhere to best practices and guidelines provided by major ISPs like Google and Microsoft.
- Content Relevance: Ensure your email content is relevant and engaging to your target audience to minimize spam complaints.
- Unsubscribe Process: Provide an easy and accessible unsubscribe process for recipients who no longer wish to receive your emails.
- Warming Duration: Plan for a sufficient warming period, typically several weeks, to gradually build your sending reputation.
What email marketers say
9 marketer opinions
Warming up a new subdomain for low volume B2B email sends involves a gradual process of building a positive sender reputation. The consistent advice is to start with a small, highly engaged segment of your audience, then gradually increase the sending volume over several weeks. Monitoring deliverability metrics, bounce rates, spam complaints, and subscriber engagement is critical. Sending valuable, relevant content and properly authenticating emails are also essential for a successful warmup.
Key opinions
- Gradual Increase: Gradually increase sending volume over time.
- Engaged Users: Start with a small, highly engaged segment of your list.
- Monitor Metrics: Closely monitor bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement.
- Valuable Content: Send valuable and relevant content.
- Authentication: Ensure emails are properly authenticated.
Key considerations
- Deliverability: Continuously monitor deliverability to ensure emails are reaching the inbox.
- Sender Reputation: Focus on building and maintaining a positive sender reputation.
- List Hygiene: Maintain a clean email list by removing inactive subscribers.
- Engagement Signals: Pay attention to engagement signals (opens, clicks) as indicators of email quality.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Reddit shares that for warming up a subdomain, start with a small, highly engaged segment of your list. Gradually increase the volume over several weeks, while closely monitoring bounce rates and spam complaints.
19 Jun 2023 - Reddit
Marketer view
Email marketer from Litmus advises focusing on sending relevant and engaging content to improve sender reputation. They also recommend authenticating your emails and monitoring your deliverability metrics.
3 Apr 2022 - Litmus
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
Warming up a new subdomain for low-volume B2B email sends requires a strategic approach, acknowledging that a full IP warming might not be necessary for such low volumes. Experts emphasize the need for a slow and steady domain/subdomain warmup process, starting with a small, engaged audience and gradually increasing volume. Prioritizing sends to different engagement groups over a short period (2-3 days) while meticulously monitoring deliverability metrics, engagement signals, bounce rates, and spam complaints is crucial. Maintaining a positive sender reputation and ensuring valuable content are essential considerations, with an emphasis on keeping cold email volume below 10% to avoid reputation damage.
Key opinions
- Low Volume Exception: Full IP warming might not be necessary for low volume B2B sends.
- Gradual Warmup: A slow and steady domain/subdomain warmup process is crucial.
- Engaged Audience: Start with a small, engaged audience.
- Quick Send Period: Consider sending to engagement groups over 2-3 days.
- Monitoring: Monitor deliverability, engagement, bounce rates, and spam complaints.
Key considerations
- Sender Reputation: Maintain a positive sender reputation.
- Valuable Content: Focus on sending valuable content.
- Cold Email Limit: Keep cold email volume below 10% of total sends.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that with a low volume of around 5000 emails sent twice a month to B2B domains, a full IP warming strategy isn't necessary as it's unlikely the IP will ever be 'warm'. Instead, for domain warming of a subdomain, the initial plan of sending to different engagement groups is fine, but suggests sending over 2-3 days, prioritising the most engaged users first. They also suggest being careful with cold email volume, keeping it below 10% of total sends to avoid impacting reputation.
16 Jun 2022 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes the importance of increasing email volume gradually when warming up a new subdomain. They suggest carefully monitoring deliverability rates, bounce rates, and subscriber engagement to ensure a smooth transition and positive sender reputation.
9 Nov 2023 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Warming up a new subdomain for low-volume B2B email sends, according to various documentation sources, centers on establishing a positive domain reputation. The recommended approach includes starting with a low email volume and gradually increasing it over time, focusing on engaged users initially. Essential practices involve authenticating emails, providing easy unsubscribe options, monitoring sender reputation in tools like Google Postmaster Tools, maintaining list hygiene by removing inactive subscribers, and segmenting lists to deliver targeted content.
Key findings
- Gradual Volume Increase: Gradually increase email volume over time.
- Engaged Users First: Focus initial sends on engaged users.
- Email Authentication: Authenticate your emails.
- Easy Unsubscribe: Provide an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe.
Key considerations
- Domain Reputation: Prioritize building a positive domain reputation.
- Sender Reputation Monitoring: Monitor sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools.
- List Hygiene: Maintain a clean list by removing inactive subscribers.
- Content Segmentation: Segment lists and send targeted content.
Technical article
Documentation from Google outlines best practices for bulk email senders. It emphasizes the importance of authenticating your emails, providing an easy way to unsubscribe, and monitoring your sender reputation in Google Postmaster Tools.
4 Aug 2023 - Google
Technical article
Documentation from SparkPost explains that domain reputation is crucial for deliverability. It recommends starting with a low volume of emails and gradually increasing it over time. Focus on sending to engaged users first to build a positive reputation.
22 Dec 2021 - SparkPost
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