You’ve done the hard part: crafted a sharp, personalized cold email. Your subject line is strong. The body is tight. The CTA is clear.
But no one responds. Not because your message is bad. But because it never made it to the inbox.
This is the hidden battle behind cold email. It’s not just what you say — it’s whether mailbox providers trust you enough to let you say it.
And if you’re sending from a cold domain or unproven inbox, that answer is usually “no.”
After reading this post, you’ll have a clear picture of what email warm-up is and how it can help you land in your prospect’s inbox.
Too many senders think warming up a domain is about sending 10 emails today, 20 tomorrow, 30 the next day. But mailbox providers don’t just care how much you send — they care what happens next.
These are engagement signals. They shape your domain reputation.
And email warm-up, when done correctly, isn’t about sending more — it’s about sending smarter.
With Mailivery, warm-up isn’t passive. It’s not a box you check off before moving on. It’s an active system that builds real trust with mailbox providers by simulating the kinds of interactions they reward.
Your mailbox joins a peer-to-peer network of real, monitored inboxes — some owned by users, some by Mailivery. These are not fake accounts or throwaway addresses. Every inbox is part of a closed loop designed for deliverability training.
Every email your inbox sends is:
This isn’t random behaviors ... it’s the exact behavior mailbox algorithms are trained to interpret as positive sender reputation.
If your emails land in spam, we move them to the inbox. That action alone sends a powerful signal to Gmail, Outlook, and others: this sender deserves to be seen.
4. Natural Ramp-Up Patterns, Not Guesswork
Mailivery gradually increases your sending volume — but only as your domain earns trust. The pacing follows natural user behavior, not artificial thresholds that risk triggering spam filters.
Email providers are using smarter algorithms every year. Gmail and Yahoo’s 2024 deliverability policies made it clear: engagement and authentication are no longer optional.
Spam filters now factor in:
Without domain warm-up, you’re sending from a mailbox that hasn’t earned any of those trust points. And the penalty is steep: your emails go unseen.
Emails with a reply rate above 6% are 3x more likely to reach the inbox than emails with no engagement. (Source: Validity, 2023)
Domain warming isn’t just for new domains.
You need warm-up if:
In short, if you're going to use the domain or mailbox for cold outereach, you should always have warm up turned on.
Some teams still try to warm up manually — sending a few emails to personal accounts and marking them as “not spam.”
The logic isn’t wrong. But the execution falls apart fast, because it's:
Meanwhile, deliverability is dynamic. What you did yesterday matters less than what you’re doing this week.
Mailivery automates all of it:
It doesn’t just warm up your inbox. It keeps you warm.
Q1. Do I really need SPF, DKIM, and DMARC before hitting “send”?
A: Yes. These three authentication records prove you’re the legitimate sender. Without them, mailbox providers either quarantine your message or mark it as spoofed—so the best-written email never even surfaces in the inbox.
Q2. If I keep my send volume low, won’t providers trust me automatically?
A: Volume alone doesn’t earn trust—engagement does. Mailbox algorithms track opens, clicks, replies, and spam complaints. A small batch of ignored emails can hurt you just as much as blasting thousands.
Q3. Can I warm up my domain by emailing internal or fake inboxes?
A: No. Providers look at the reputation of the recipients too. Interacting with low-quality or manufactured inboxes sends a signal that your network isn’t credible, undermining the very trust you’re trying to build.
Q4. Is it okay to jump from zero to 500 emails a day once my list is ready?
A: That spike looks like bot or spam behavior. Gradual ramps—think 20-25% daily increases—give providers time to see steady, positive engagement. Sudden jumps trigger throttling or outright blocking.
Q5. My reputation is solid now—can I turn warm-up off?
A: Reputation decays when activity stops or changes abruptly. Keep a baseline warm-up running, especially when adding new lists, changing content, or scaling volume, so your sender score stays fresh.
If you warm up your inbox using real engagement, monitored by a network built for cold outreach, here’s what changes:
Example: A Mailivery user went from over 30% spam-folder delivery rate to 91% inbox placement in 21 days — without changing a single line of copy.
If you're relying on cold email to drive business, deliverability isn’t just a technical concern — it’s the difference between getting seen and getting ignored.
And deliverability starts with reputation.
Mailivery gives you the infrastructure to earn that reputation:
Warm-up isn’t optional. It’s the difference between wondering why no one replied… and watching your campaign convert at scale.
The easiest way to get responses to your cold emails.
