A new sending domain has no reputation. Inbox providers — Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail — have never seen email from it before. When you immediately send a large campaign from a brand-new domain, those providers flag it as suspicious. Spam rates spike. Deliverability drops. And once your reputation is damaged, rebuilding it takes weeks.
Email warm-up is the process of building that reputation gradually before you need it. Anyone who has researched this challenge while setting up GoHighLevel or similar platforms knows the answer is always the same: slow start, consistent sending, steady growth.
What Warm-Up Actually Does
Warm-up trains inbox providers to recognize your domain as a legitimate sender. By starting small and sending to your most engaged contacts first, you build a track record of high open rates and low complaints — the signals that tell Gmail and Outlook you're worth letting through.
The Warm-Up Schedule
- Week 1: 25–50 sends per day to your most engaged contacts
- Week 2: 100–200 per day, continuing to prioritize engaged contacts
- Week 3: 300–500 per day, engagement metrics should be strong by now
- Week 4+: Scale to your full list size
Steps
Complete email authentication first
Warm-up has no effect if SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not in place. Authentication must come first.
Segment your most engaged contacts
In MONDAi, go to
Contactsand create a smart list of contacts who have recently opted in, purchased, or shown active interest.Send your first campaign to that small segment
Keep the email genuinely useful — a welcome message, a resource, something worth opening.
Monitor open rates and spam reports
Healthy warm-up open rates run 30% or higher. Any spam complaints at this stage are a signal to slow down and review the list.
Expand sending volume each week
Follow the weekly schedule above. Do not skip ahead because your list is large or you have a launch coming.
Do not send cold outreach during this period
Warm-up relies on sending to people who want to hear from you.
- Launching a full campaign the day after connecting your domain — the most common and most damaging mistake.
- Treating warm-up as optional — it's optional until your first campaign disappears into spam.
- Sending the same email repeatedly during warm-up — vary content even during low-volume ramp-up.
- Stopping warm-up too early — consistent sending maintains the trust you've built.
Next steps
- Why Your Emails Are Going to Spam — full breakdown of every deliverability variable
- How to Send a Broadcast Email — once your domain is warmed, this is where campaigns are built
Still stuck?
- Search the MONDAi Help Center
- Email support@mondai.io with a Loom video
- Ask inside the ArchiTech Channel
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