And Why Some Are Better Than Others
Sending your first email campaign from a brand-new domain? Or maybe your reputation has nose-dived because so many people mark you as spam? Without warming or re-warming your domain up first, your chances of that next campaign hitting the inbox are not looking good. Your email won’t get blocked. It just gets ignored. Silently. Like that CV you sent in 2019.
You can warm up manually of course by targetting your most engaged audience and encouraging enagement with every tactic in your arsenal. Alternatively (or additionally), there’s the trusty warm-up tools.
These warm-up tools are designed to help you build a good sender reputation before you go live, or helping to recover a domain with bad engagement and reputation. But not all tools are built the same. Some give you a solid foundation. Others are all fluff and vanity metrics.
What do warm-up tools actually do, how are they different, and which ones are worth your time?
What Does Email Warm-Up Actually Mean?
Warm-up is the process of gradually building a domain’s email reputation with inbox providers. You start slow, send to friendly addresses, create some back-and-forth engagement, and slowly increase the number of emails sent.
You are proving to inbox filters that you are a real sender with a real audience. Not a spam cannon.
If you are starting from a brand-new domain, warm-up should take at least 90 days. Ideally longer, if you have the time. Go too fast, and your reputation tanks before you even start.
What Do Warm-Up Tools Actually Do?
The better tools do more than just send emails. They:
- Send from your actual domain and email address
- Deliver to a wide variety of real inboxes
- Pull emails out of spam folders
- Mark your emails as important or starred
- Send automated replies
- Spread the sending over time and simulate real behaviour
The goal is to make inbox providers see your email address as active, trustworthy and wanted. That way, when you do start real campaigns, your emails are more likely to land in the inbox.
Types of Warm-Up Tools
There are two broad types: Community-based and Network-based. Each has a different use case.
Community-Based Tools (Like Lemwarm)
These use a network of users (mostly small business mailboxes) to send and receive warm-up emails. You become part of the pool. Your emails get sent to other community users, and theirs get sent to you.
Pros:
- Low cost
- Good for B2B inboxes and cold email outreach
- Simulates varied inbox behaviours
Cons:
- Limited reach into big consumer platforms like Gmail and Outlook
- Doesn’t help much with B2C campaigns
- Mostly good for volume warm-up, not brand reputation
Use this if you are doing light B2B outreach or cold email and need basic warm-up coverage.
Network-Based Tools (Like Warmy.io)
These connect your domain to a wider range of inboxes. Think Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and Apple Mail. Some use their own internal network of verified mailboxes with deeper coverage and AI-based behaviours.
Pros:
- Helps with B2C and broader inbox trust
- Greater inbox diversity
- Often includes better reporting
Cons:
- Usually more expensive
- Some are a bit of a black box — hard to verify what’s happening behind the scenes
Use this if you are planning larger sends, B2C campaigns or want to go deeper with trust-building.
Can You Warm Up Without a Tool?
Yes, but it’s manual and slow. You need to:
- Send a growing number of emails each day from your new domain
- Get people to reply to them and mark then as “Not Spam”
- Run email placement tests to see if they go to inbox or spam
- Increase the volume steadily each week
This works if you are patient, technical and have time. Most people don’t. Warm-up tools automate this job and make it safer and faster.
The Warm-Up Timeline
Here’s a rough idea of what it should look like for a fresh domain:
- Day 1 to 30: Send under 20 emails per day. Focus on replies and engagement.
- Day 31 to 60: Increase to 50 per day. Add light automation.
- Day 61 to 90: Grow to 100–200 per day depending on performance.
- After Day 90: Begin light campaigns, keep the warm-up running and keep monitoring closely.
If you are not in a rush, or feel you’re going to challenge that reputation with “interesting” campaigns, just keep that warm-up running to build and maintain stronger trust. The more you invest, the better your cold campaigns will perform.
Things to Watch Out For
- Never send cold campaigns from a domain that has not been warmed up
- Never start with big volumes
- Don’t expect instant results. This is a slow burn
- Watch for tools that promise inbox placement without proof
Warming up properly is about trust. It’s not just about opens. It is about showing the algorithms that your emails belong in the inbox.
Need Help Choosing or Running a Warm-Up Plan?
At Quinset, we help recruitment agencies and smart marketers warm up their domains the right way. We match the tool to the audience, manage the schedule and watch your performance like hawks.
Want to get it right from day one? Contact us. We’ll keep your emails warm, friendly and very much inbox-ready.
