Marketers' Space: The importance of warming up your sender domain

Marketers' Space: The importance of warming up your sender domain

Hello Marketers,
Welcome back to yet another post! Today, we'll talk about why warming up your sender domain matters. Imagine you've recently started a business and want to share the news with your customers. You've designed a great email campaign using Zoho Campaigns. Naturally, you're excited and want to send it to all your contacts in one go; but if you skip the domain warm-up step, there's a good chance your emails will end up in spam instead of your contacts' inboxes.

What is a domain?

A domain is the unique address that marks a person's or business's identity on the internet. It's used for creating websites and sending emails, and helps recipients and service providers recognize who the message or website belongs to and whether it's coming from a trusted source.
If your email address is adam@zylkermotor.com, then zylkermotor.com is your domain.

What is domain warming?

Domain warming is a way of introducing your new domain to email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, and Zoho Mail. Instead of sending an email campaign to all your contacts at once, you start with small batches and send them to the people who are most likely to open and interact with your emails. This step is important because ESPs want to make sure you're a genuine sender. When they see you sending emails slowly and consistently—and your recipients are opening them—they start trusting your domain. But if you suddenly send thousands of emails from a brand new domain, it may look suspicious to them, like spam activity. Since they don't have any record of your past sending behavior, they may block your emails or push them to the spam folder. Warming your domain helps avoid that by showing ESPs that you're a real business sending valuable messages to people who want to hear from you.

This isn't so different from other aspects of our day-to-day lives. For example, if we decide to start weight training, we don't walk into the gym and immediately try to lift the heaviest weight possible; we know that in doing so, we'll not only fail but also likely cause ourselves serious injuries. What we can do is start with lighter weights and fewer repetitions and allow our muscles and joints (in this case, our domains and IP reputations) to adapt to the stress gradually. This process of progressive overload is necessary to build the strength and capacity to handle heavier loads later. In the same way, sudden, massive email volumes are like lifting the "heaviest weight" at the gym; it stresses the receiving systems. A slow, controlled increase in volume helps you safely build your sending capacity without "injuring" your reputation.

Why domain warming matters

As ESPs identify new and unknown domains as suspicious, sending large volume of emails suddenly without a sending history can lead to the following consequences:
  1. Low deliverability: Your emails will consistently land in spam folders, rendering all of your campaign efforts useless.
  2. Higher bounce rates: Since your sender reputation hasn't been established yet, mailbox providers may reject your emails, which may cause excessive hard or soft bounces and signal poor sending hygiene.
  3. Reputation damage: Once your domain/IP is flagged as a potential spammer, it's very difficult and time-consuming to repair that bad reputation.
  4. Blacklisting: In severe cases, your sending domain could be placed on an industry-wide blacklist, halting your email efforts entirely.
  5. Lower engagement: When emails don't reach inboxes, few people see or interact with them, which means fewer opens, clicks, conversions, and lower overall campaign performance.

How to warm up your sender domain using Zoho Campaigns: A use case

Morris has recently expanded his store, Zylker Designs, into an online presence and set up a domain called zylkerdesigns.com. Excited about the launch, Morris wants to draft a welcome email campaign and send it to 20,000 subscribers in one go. He approaches Eva from the Zoho Campaigns Support team with his requirement, who warns him that sending a large volume of emails from a new domain can trigger ESPs to mark the emails as spam—which is not an ideal start for Morris' new business. She recommends that Morris warm up his domain using Zoho Campaigns before sending his email in bulk.
Importance of domain warming
Here's how he can achieve it:
  1. Step 1: Morris has to authenticate his sender domain under Settings → Domain Authentication using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to prove legitimacy and security.
  2. Step 2: Instead of targeting all 20,000 contacts at once, Morris can group his contacts into different segments, categorizing them based on most engaged and active subscribers (those who frequently open and click emails), moderately engaged, and so on.
  3. Step 3: He can then send his campaigns to small batches of these contacts, and then gradually increase the number of recipients. He can try sending the campaigns based on recipients' time zones or optimal open times to increase his chances that recipients will notice and open his emails.
  4. Step 4: For the next two to four weeks, Morris must slowly increase his daily sending volume after closely monitoring his open rates, bounce rates, and spam complaints under Campaign Reports.
  5. Step 5: When the engagement metrics start looking healthy and consistent, Morris can scale up and send emails to his entire audience, because by now ESPs will have recognized his domain as a trusted sender with a healthy reputation and good inbox reach.
By following this approach, Morris can ensure better deliverability, brand credibility, and email performance, laying a strong foundation for all his future email campaigns.

Wrapping it up

Warming up your sender domain isn't merely considered a best practice; it's a primary step that determines whether your emails reach your recipients' inboxes or not. By gradually building trust with ESPs, authenticating your domain, and sending first to contacts who engage with your emails, you can make sure to avoid deliverability problems right from the start. So before hitting "send" on your next bulk campaign, keep in mind that a warm domain earns a strong reputation, and a strong reputation earns better inbox placement, higher engagement, and healthier results.

Regards,
Aiswarya Jayaprakash
User Education
Zoho Campaigns

    • Recent Topics

    • MCP > Creator connection failing with Claude

      I'm trying to get claude to access any of my Zoho Creator apps and it keeps failing. I have enabled all tools for creator and ensured in claude settings that everything is authorised. Here is what claude says : Unfortunately, the error messages I'm receiving

    • Is it possible to sync data every 5–10 minutes in Zoho Analytics (CRM or Excel imports)?

      Hello Team, I want to know if Zoho Analytics supports near real-time syncing of data from different sources. My requirements: I am importing data from Zoho CRM → Zoho Analytics I also have some datasets maintained in Excel/CSV I want both data sources

    • Feature Request: Dynamic Dimension Control for zc_LoadIn Popups

      As detailed in this community discussion, Zoho Creator's zc_LoadIn parameter is a vital tool for opening components (forms, reports, or pages) in modal dialogs via HTML snippets, Notes, or Rich Text Fields. While powerful, this feature suffers from a

    • Subforms in stateless forms

      I think the title says it all. We need to be able to add subforms to stateless forms. Currently the only workaround is to create a Form and delete each record upon submission of the form. I need to build an interface to update our inventory. Basically

    • Text wrap column headers in reports?

      Is it possible to auto wrap column headers so that a longer multi-word header displays as two lines when the column is narrower than the width of the header title?

    • What’s New in Zoho Inventory — Latest Features, Integrations & Updates | December 2025

      Zoho Inventory has evolved significantly over the past months, bringing you smarter, faster, and more connected tools to streamline your operations. Whether you’re managing multichannel sales, complex fulfillment workflows, or fast-moving stock, our newest

    • Marketer’s Space - Multi-Channel Campaigns for the Biggest Shopping Week with Zoho Marketing Automation

      Hello marketers, Welcome back to another post in Marketers Space! The biggest shopping week of the year is almost here, and it’s your moment to shine without the stress. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, being present across email,

    • Pricing Strategies: #5 Stay local, Price & Sell Global

      Arun had always dreamed of taking his handmade craft business beyond his hometown. For years, he sold locally. Most of his customers are familiar faces, in our usual currency and with the exact expectations. But one day, a traveller visited his workshop

    • No feedback from Zoho Books regarding Yodlee feeds for Investec

      I reported on 6 Feb 2025 that the Bank Feeds for Investec bank via Yodlee are not working. To date there has been no resolution. You are charging us for a suite of products where the functionality does not work. Please advise how you will refund me for

    • Turn off Knowlege Base Follow options and Follower lists

      Is there a way to hide or turn off the option in the Knowledge Base for users to follow specific departments/categories/sections/articles? If not, is there a way to turn off the public list of followers for each of those things? Otherwise, customer names

    • Service One. Bill Another. Zero Hassle.

      In field service operations, one challenge often comes up: the person who needs the service isn’t always the one who pays for it. Think about tenants vs. property managers, corporate offices vs. their finance departments, or school buildings vs. central

    • Presenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision

      Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers

    • Can Zoho Flows repeat Actions more than once?

      I'm attempting to make an intentional Zoho Flow loop using the below layout. However, when "WithinLimit" condition is met, the program fails to execute the action "Get & Add Request Co..." again. Is this by design? Is Zoho Flows unable to repeat actions

    • Video interviews not compatible on mobile

      Hi Zoho,  The 2-way video interview feature you have added to Recruit would be great if the candidate was able to use the link to the video on a mobile phone, it doesn't work on Samsung browser, it doesn't work on chrome/firefox mobile version of browser,

    • Zoho Desk View Open Tickets and Open Shared Tickets

      Hi, I would like to create a custom view so that an agent can view all the open tickets he has access to, including the shared tickets created by a different department. Currently my team has to swich between two views (Open Tickets and Shared Open Tickets).

    • Enviro Recycling EHF Fee's

      ​​I'm in Canada and each province has it's own recycling program with it's own fee's. There are numerous categories that electronics fall into and each category has a taxable rate applied to it. I need a way to be able to apply the correct rate depending

    • Zoho Desk API - Influence which layout is used

      Hello, how can the ticket layout be changed using the API? I would like to choose the layout directly when creating the ticket. If this is not possible, my question would be how can I change it afterwards? Best regards, Sven

    • Has CSS Changed for Common Elements?

      I noticed today that the standard title headings on my Forms and Reports display smaller in size than before. Google Dev Tools (attached), seems to confirm my suspicion. Something appears to be overriding the 1.375rem to 1.125rem. The font size on the

    • Text field alignment

      Is it possible to align text in the text field? Or even better, is there a possibility to have a field which accepts only numbers?

    • email moderation issue when email is sent in the name of a mail group

      Symptom: an email that is sent by a mail group moderator in the name of a moderated mail group is held back for approval. Reproduction: Create a moderated mail group with members and moderators. Allow that mails can be sent in the name of the group (extended

    • Pipeline in Custom Modules

      I love the way the Sales Pipeline looks and functions with reports. I would like to add the save pipeline features and visualization to a custom module, however, I only see that these pipelines are only available for the Deals module. Is there a way to add pipelines to custom modules?

    • Tip #53- Remote Billing: Your End-to-End Billing Solution in Zoho Assist- 'Insider Insights'

      Manual invoicing, after every remote support session, can be time-consuming and often error-prone. As an MSP, IT admin, or even a freelance support technician, it may become overwhelming to keep track of session time, service rates, and client invoices.

    • Record history and ticket interaction tab in contacts and accounts

      Hello everyone! We have improved the History tab to help users trace updates in the interaction activity logs of the Contacts and Accounts detail pages in the Customer Module. This enhancement make it easier to get clear details about who made each update,

    • Is there an API to "File a Ticket" in Desk

      Hi, Is there an API to "File a Ticket" in Desk to zoho projects?

    • Keyboard UX for Assemblies

      The new Assembly module has a counter-intuitive behavior that ought to be corrected. When an Assembly is ready to be entered, there are two options given, the blue-highlighted "Assemble" and the gray "Save as Draft". This correctly implies that the normal

    • Why can't I see images uploaded by other users in the Library for Campaigns

      We are several users of zoho Campaign. I have uploaded visuals of our company, but my team members can't see them.

    • zoho sheet stuck

      I Need help. ZOHO sheets stuck on the loading screen. I've already deleted the system cache and cookies of my browser (google chrome) but it's still not opening. 

    • Tip of the Week #78 – Cut response time with multichannel shared inboxes

      If you’ve ever felt your team juggling between multiple email accounts, social pages, and chat apps just to reply to customers, you’re not alone. Managing conversations in multiple channels can quickly turn messy. Important messages across inboxes, replies

    • Need a way to run a client script longet than 10 seconds

      By The Grace of G-D. Hi, Currently, Client Scripts are Timing out at 10 seconds. We have complex logics that needs more time. Can you add a feature request to increase the timeout?

    • FSM Improvement Idea - Show an Import button when there is no data

      I am setting up FSM for a client and I noticed that there is no option to import data, see screenshot below. Even when you click Create Contact there is only an option to Import from Zoho Invoice. It is only after you add at lease 1 record that the Import

    • UI Improvement - Ability to Collapse Flow

      The UI for Flow is generally pretty good. However, when multiple decision trees are used, the layout can get pretty convoluted and hard-to-follow (see one of my Flows below): In these cases, even the auto-arrange fails to make this something that a normal

    • Tasks Statuses

      Hi, The task status "Completed" is a final status which closes the task. We need to have a status "Cancelled". However, when the status is set to "Cancelled", the task prompt still has a blue button to Close Task. When the customer clicks that and closes

    • Add Lookup Field in Tasks Module

      Hello, I have a need to add a Lookup field in addition to the ones that are already there in the Tasks module. I've seen this thread and so understand that the reason lookup fields may not be part of it is that there are already links to the tables (

    • Create New Tasks Layout in CRM

      I am able to do this in Leads, Contacts, Meetings, Calls - every other module, but cannot create a new layout in tasks. I have the appropriate access but it's simply not appearing as an option. Only "Standard" option shows. Please help!

    • Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes

      Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configure

    • Auto-sync field of lookup value

      This feature has been requested many times in the discussion Field of Lookup Announcement and this post aims to track it separately. At the moment the value of a 'field of lookup' is a snapshot but once the parent lookup field is updated the values diverge.

    • Zoho Recruit Subscription

      Hello Zoho Recruit Team, Good day! I would like to inquire about your recruitment subscription plans and would also like to verify the current subscription our company is enrolled in under Zoho Recruit. Thank you, and I look forward to your response.

    • Is it possible to create a meeting in Zoho Crm which automatically creates a Google Meet link?

      We are using Google's own "Zoho CRM for Google" integration and also Zoho's "Google Apps Sync" tools, but none of them provide us with the ability to create a meeting in Zoho CRM that then adds a Google Meet link into the meeting. Is this something that

    • Automatic Portal invite

      We have numerous customers we move through a blueprint in deals, when they get to a certain point we need to give them portal access, how can this be done through deluge or a workflow? Latest Update (December 2025): The option to automate portal invitations

    • Marketer's Space: Why mobile optimization deserves a place in your email strategy

      Hello Marketers, Welcome back to Marketer's Space! Today, we'll talk about the importance of creating mobile-friendly email designs. While mobile phones were once used only to make phone calls, today they're used for almost everything, including texting,

    • Next Page