Email Warmup

Email Warmup automatically builds sender reputation for new mailboxes by sending and receiving engagement emails at a controlled pace. This ensures your outbound emails land in the inbox, not spam.

Why Warmup Matters

New email accounts have no reputation with inbox providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo). Sending a high volume of cold emails from a new account triggers spam filters. Warmup solves this by gradually increasing send volume while generating positive engagement signals (opens, replies, moves from spam to inbox).

Starting Warmup

1. Go to Settings → Domains or Settings → Mailboxes
2. Find the mailbox you want to warm up
3. Click Start Warmup
4. Configure warmup settings (see below)
5. Click Save

Warmup runs automatically in the background. No manual action is needed once started.

Warmup Settings

Setting	Description	Recommended
Daily limit	Maximum emails sent per day during warmup	Start at 5, ramp to 40+
Ramp-up speed	How quickly daily volume increases	Gradual (2-3 weeks to full volume)
Reply rate	Target percentage of warmup emails that get replies	30-40%

Tip

Keep warmup running for at least 2-3 weeks before sending cold outbound. Even after outbound starts, keep warmup active to maintain reputation.

Warmup Providers

graph8 supports two warmup providers:

Provider	Best For
Instantly	Default provider, works with most mailboxes
SmartLead	Alternative provider, used with purchased domains

Your admin can switch providers per domain in Settings → Domains.

Monitoring Warmup Progress

View warmup analytics for each mailbox:

• Daily send volume - how many warmup emails were sent
• Reply rate - percentage of warmup emails that received replies
• Inbox placement - percentage landing in inbox vs. spam
• Reputation trend - improvement over time

Check these metrics weekly. A healthy warmup shows:

• Increasing daily volume
• Reply rates above 25%
• Inbox placement above 90%

Placement Testing

Test where your emails actually land across different inbox providers:

1. Go to Settings → Domains and select your domain
2. Click Run Placement Test
3. Configure the test:
   • Mailbox - which mailbox to test
   • Test frequency - one-time or recurring
   • Receivers - which inbox providers to test (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.)
4. Click Start Test

Reading Results

Test results show placement per provider:

Provider	Inbox	Spam	Other
Gmail	95%	3%	2%
Outlook	88%	10%	2%
Yahoo	92%	5%	3%

• Overall score - weighted average across all providers
• Inbox - delivered to primary inbox
• Spam - landed in spam folder
• Other - promotions tab, quarantine, or not delivered

Caution

If placement drops below 80% inbox rate, pause outbound sending and let warmup rebuild reputation for 1-2 weeks before resuming.

Scheduled Tests

Set up recurring placement tests to catch deliverability issues early:

1. In the placement test configuration, select Recurring
2. Choose frequency (daily, weekly, bi-weekly)
3. graph8 runs tests automatically and alerts you if placement drops

Best Practices

• Start warmup before you need it - begin 2-3 weeks before your first campaign
• Don’t skip warmup on purchased domains - new domains have zero reputation
• Keep warmup running alongside outbound - warmup maintains reputation during active sending
• Monitor weekly - catch deliverability drops early with placement tests
• Use multiple domains - spread sending across domains to protect reputation

Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
Warmup not starting	Verify mailbox SMTP credentials are valid. Reconnect if OAuth token expired
Low inbox placement	Reduce daily send volume, check DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
Warmup paused unexpectedly	Check mailbox health in Settings - provider may have flagged the account
Can’t switch warmup provider	Contact admin - provider switching requires domain-level access

Related

• Mailboxes → - Connect and configure email accounts
• Domains → - DNS setup and domain management
• Purchase Domains → - Buy domains with auto-configured DNS