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

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Exporting All Custom Functions in ZohoCRM

        Hello, All I've been looking for a way to keep about 30 functions that I have written in Zoho CRM updated in my own repository to use elsewhere in other instances. A github integration would be great, but a way to export all custom functions or any way

      • Optimum CRM setup for new B2B business

        Can some advise the most common way to setup Zoho CRM to handle sales for a B2B company? Specifically in how to handle inbound/outbound emails. I have spent hours researching online and can't seem to find an accepted approach, or even a tutorial. I have

      • filter on sheets mobile (iOS, iPadOS) does not work

        I have this issue on every spreadsheet, whether imported or created natively in Zoho Sheets. I can use on desktop without issue: desktop screenshot on iOS the filter dropdowns are not there and there is no way to add them mobile iPadOS looks the same

      • 【Zoho CRM】商談タブへのデータインポート

        Zoho使用前にエクセルで管理していた商談情報を、Zoho一括管理のため、商談タブにインポートしたいのですが、お客さまの氏名だけが紐づけられませんでした。 「Zoho CRMにインポートする項目を関連付ける」のところが画像のようになっています。 （弊社では、「姓」を「★個人データ名」という項目名に変更し、フルネームを入れて使用しています。） どのようにしたら氏名をインポートできるかご存じの方がいらっしゃいましたら、ご教示いただきたく、よろしくお願いいたします。 （投稿先が間違っていましたらご指

      • Zoho Often Lag

        Desk Team, We've noticed that Desk, Creator & other apps seems to lag more these days. We often refresh multiple times.

      • Canva Integration

        Hello! As many marketing departments are streamlining their teams, many have begun utilizing Canva for all design mockups and approvals prior to its integration into Marketing automation software. While Zoho Social has this integration already accomplished,

      • Can't edit Segments

        Happening with 2 different Zoho One environments, in different browsers. Please fix.

      • Zoho Sheet for Desktop

        Does Zoho plans to develop a Desktop version of Sheet that installs on the computer like was done with Writer?

      • From Zoho CRM to Paper : Design & Print Data Directly using Canvas Print View

        Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce a new addition to your Canvas in Zoho CRM - Print View. Canvas print view helps you transform your custom CRM layouts into print-ready documents, so you can bring your digital data to the physical world with

      • Transfer ownership of files and folders in My Folders

        People work together as a team to achieve organizational goals and objectives. In an organization, there may be situations when someone leaves unexpectedly or is no longer available. This can put their team in a difficult position, especially if there

      • Consumer Financing

        Does Zoho currently have a payment gateway (such as Stripe, Square, etc) which offers financing for customers? So, let's say the estimate we give the customer is greater than what they can afford at the time, but we can sell the service now, letting them

      • How can Data Enrichment be automatically triggered when a new Lead is created in Zoho CRM?

        Hi, I have a pipeline where a Lead is created automatically through the Zoho API and I've been trying to look for a way to automatically apply Data Enrichment on this created lead. 1) I did not find any way to do this through the Zoho API; it seems like

      • validation rules doesn't work in Blueprint when it is validated using function?

        I have tried to create a validation rule in the deal module. it works if I try to create a deal manually or if I try to update the empty field inside a deal. but when I try to update the field via the blueprint mandatory field, it seems the validation

      • Subform edits don't appear in parent record timeline?

        Is it possible to have subform edits (like add row/delete row) appear in the Timeline for parent records? A user can edit a record, only edit the subform, and it doesn't appear in the timeline. Is there a workaround or way that we can show when a user

      • Zoho CRM - Option to create Follow-Up Task

        When completing a Zoho CRM Task, it would be very helpful if there was an option to "Complete and Create Follow-Up Task" in the pop-up which appears. It could clone the task you are closing and then show it on the screen in edit mode, all the user would

      • Mandatory Field - but only at conversion

        Hello! We use Zoho CRM and there are times where the "Lead Created Date & Time" field isn't populated into a "Contractor" (Account is the default phrase i believe). Most of my lead tracking is based on reading the Lead Created field above, so it's important

      • Zoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade

        Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everything

      • File Upload field automatically replaces spaces with underscores – support experience

        Hi everyone, I want to share my recent experience regarding the File Upload field behavior in Zoho Creator and my interaction with the Zoho support team. When a user uploads a file, the system automatically renames the document by replacing spaces in

      • Deluge function to copy parent record file upload field to child record file upload field

        I'm stuck trying to write a deluge function that is triggered via automation in child record "Appointments," confirms if a file is in file upload "Report" field of parent "Contacts" record via Contacts lookup field "Contact_Name". If no file is in parent

      • Zoho Books Sandbox environment

        Hello. Is there a free sandbox environment for the developers using Zoho Books API? I am working on the Zoho Books add-on and currently not ready to buy a premium service - maybe later when my add-on will start to bring money. Right now I just need a

      • Make panel configuration interface wider

        Hi there, The same way you changed the custom function editor's interface wider, it would be nice to be able to edit panels in pages using the full width of the screen rather than the currently max-width: 1368px. Is there a reason for having the configuration panel not taking the full width? Its impossible at this width to edit panels that have a lot of elements. Please change it to 100% so we can better edit the layouts. Thanks! B.

      • Image Compression Options

        Much better if we have level of options to compress the image [20%, 40%...] We are dealing with service reports daily that has before and after photos (image field)- the file size too large and one thing, the current limit is 10mb or 15mb for report

      • Cannot get code to work with v2.mergeAndStore!

        Please can someone help me pass subform items into a repeating mail merge table row using v2.mergeAndStore? I have a mail merge template created in Writer and stored in Workdrive. This template is referenced by a custom CRM function which merges all of

      • How to hide or archive a blog post temporarily in Zoho commerce website builder?

        I would like to temporarily hide or archive a blog post in zoho commerce website builder so that it doesnt appear on my website till I enable it again. I tried to look for this option but could not find it.  It only allows me to permanently delete a blog

      • Founders using Zoho — are you leveraging Zoho Campaigns + Zoho Social for thought leadership… or just sending emails?

        I’ve noticed something interesting in the Zoho ecosystem. Many founders use Zoho Campaigns and Zoho Social for basic marketing—newsletters, scheduled posts, and announcements. But very few are using these tools strategically to: • Position themselves

      • WATERFALL CHART IN ZOHO ANALYTICS

        Hi Team, I would like to know whether Zoho Analytics currently supports a Waterfall Chart as a built-in visualization type. If yes, could you please share the steps to create one? If not, is there any workaround or recommended method to build a Waterfall

      • How to mix different types of inputs (such as dropdown list and textbox)

        Hi, I'm creating a form called "Room Reservations" for a company. I created a "table" using "Matrix Choice". I created "Room 1", "Room 2" and "Room 3" with the "Questions". I would then like to create two columns with the "Answers", one called "Department"

      • Full Context of Zoho CRM Records for Zia in Zoho Desk for efficient AI Usage

        Hello everyone, I have a question regarding the use of Zia in Zoho Desk in combination with CRM data. Is it possible to automatically feed the complete context of a CRM record into Zia, so that it can generate automated and highly accurate responses for

      • Ability to assign Invoice Ownership through Deluge in FSM

        Hi, As part of our process, when a service appointment is completed, we automated the creation of the invoice based on a specific business logic using Deluge. When we do that, the "Owner" of the invoice in Zoho FSM is defaulted to the SuperAdmin. This

      • Reply to Email for SO/PO

        Hello, We are new to Zoho Books and running into an issue. Our support@ email is our integration user. When our team is sending out PO/SO's we are updating the sender email, but for some reason many of our responses are coming back to our support@ email

      • How to Convert NSF to PST Format Effortlessly? - SYSessential

        It is highly recommended to obtain the error-free solution of the SYSessential NSF to PST converter to convert NSF files from Lotus Notes. Using this professional software, it becomes easier to convert all NSF database items, including emails, journals,

      • Zoho Commerce - Poor Features Set for Blogging

        Hi Zoho Commerce team, I'm sure you will have noticed that I have been asking many questions about the Blogs feature in Commerce. I thought that it would be useful if I share my feedback in a constructive way, to highlight the areas which I feel need

      • Pass shipping info to payment gateway Zoho Books to Authorize.net

        For some reason the integration from Zoho books to Authorize.net does not pass the shipping address. Authorize.net is ready to receive it, but zoho books does not send it

      • Massive Zoho Books failure

        We have not received any communication or notification from Zoho, but we have detected that Zoho Books is not working for all our users. We cannot access or use Zoho Books. This is critical. We are trying to contact Zoho on the Spain telephone number,

      • Does the Customer “Company Name” field appear anywhere in the Zoho Books UI outside of PDFs?

        Hi everyone, I’m trying to understand how the Company Name field is actually used in Zoho Books. There is a Company Name field on the customer record, but when viewing transactions like a Sales Order in the normal UI (non-PDF view), that field doesn’t

      • Email outbox is now available in the sandbox

        Hello all! Testing emails without visibility has always been a blind spot in the sandbox. With the new Outbox, that gap is closed. You can now view and verify every email triggered from your sandbox, whether it’s through workflows, approvals, or mass

      • Zoho Desk blank screen

        opened a ticket from my email, zoho desk comes up blank, nothing loads. our receptionist also gets the same thing under her login on her computer. our sales rep also gets same thing on zoho desk at his home on a different computer. I tried clearing cache/history/cookies,

      • Looking For Recruit Developer

        Hi everyone, I am looking for a Zoho Certified Developer to assist with a development project for MetalXpert. We are building a software system designed to bridge the gap between a candidate mobile app and an employer web portal using Zoho Recruit as

      • sales IQ issue on website

        i integrated the zoho sales IQ code on the website but it is comming in distroted form i am sharing the screenshot below the website is bulit in wix platform

      • Multi-currency and Products

        One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. There

      • Next Page