From Cold to Hot: The Ultimate Guide to IP Warming
- Ryan Kosanic
- Mar 18
- 2 min read
Migrating to a new email platform is no small feat, and ensuring your emails land in the inbox—not the spam folder—is critical. With over 15 years of email marketing experience, we’ve seen it all. That’s why we’re sharing our top 10 IP warming tips to make your transition smoother. Follow these best practices to maintain high deliverability rates and set your email program up for long-term success.
Top 10 IP Warming Tips
Plan Like a Pro: Before hitting send, create a detailed IP warming plan. This means segmenting your audience, determining your starting volume, and setting up a gradual sending schedule. A solid plan ensures a smooth and controlled warm-up process.
Start with Your VIPs: Your most engaged subscribers are your secret weapon. They’re more likely to open, click, and interact with your emails, which signals positive engagement to ISPs. Begin with them, then slowly expand to less engaged segments as your IP reputation grows.
Keep It Clean: A pristine email list is essential for good deliverability. Remove inactive subscribers, bounced email addresses, and spam traps. A clean list strengthens your sender reputation and minimizes the risk of landing in spam.
Content is King: During the warming phase, your content needs to shine. Focus on crafting emails that drive opens, clicks, and engagement—ISPs take notice of these signals.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Start small and scale gradually. For example, Covalent Marketing recommends beginning with no more than 100 emails and increasing your volume by up to 75% daily until you reach your usual sending levels. If your goal is 1,000,000 emails per day, give yourself a few weeks to ramp up. A steady approach tells ISPs you’re a legitimate sender.
Consistency is Key: Establish a regular sending cadence and stick to it. Sudden spikes or drops in volume can raise red flags with ISPs, so keep it steady.
Keep an Eye on Metrics: Monitor open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints. If something looks off, adjust your strategy before issues escalate.
Authenticate Everything: Implement email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These verify your emails’ legitimacy, prevent spoofing, and boost trust with ISPs.
Leverage Tracking Tools: Use tools like Google Postmaster, MXToolbox, 250ok, and Return Path Sender Score to monitor your sender reputation and spot potential issues before they become big problems.
Patience is a Virtue: IP warming isn’t an overnight process. It takes time to build a solid sender reputation, so trust the process and stay consistent—the results will come.
Keep Your Momentum Going
Successfully warming your IP address is just the beginning. Maintaining your sender reputation requires ongoing monitoring and adjustments to your strategy - it's not a "one and done" activity. Keep an eye on deliverability metrics and be ready to pivot as needed.
Looking for more insights? Check out our guide on BIMI and Email Authentication to take your email marketing to the next level.