When you start sending email campaigns from Innercrowd, mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook need to learn that your domain sends legitimate mail. Without a sending history, a sudden spike in volume from your domain looks like the pattern of a spammer, even if every recipient has given consent. This is why warming up your domain is one of the most important steps before launching your first real campaign.
What is domain warmup?
Domain warmup is the process of gradually increasing your sending volume over several days. Instead of emailing your entire audience on day one, you start with a small segment and double the number of recipients each day. This gives mailbox providers a chance to see positive engagement (opens, clicks, few bounces) build up alongside your volume.
What happens if you skip the warmup?
Skipping the warmup and sending a large campaign right away puts your deliverability at risk. Mailbox providers may:
Route your emails to the spam folder instead of the inbox
Throttle or temporarily block your emails entirely
Damage your domain reputation, which takes much longer to repair than the warmup itself would have taken
Does this apply to me?
Yes, everyone needs to do a warm-up campaign when starting with a new CRM system. By skipping this step, you do not build a reputation, and there is a higher chance of being marked as spam. There is a difference between new and existing domains:
New domain: Your domain has no sending history at all. Mailbox providers have never seen emails from you, so trust starts at zero. A full warmup is essential.
Existing domain, new to Innercrowd: Your domain already has a reputation with mailbox providers because you have been sending emails from another platform. However, your emails are now being sent through Innercrowd's infrastructure, which is new. Expect your metrics to recover faster than with a brand new domain, but a warmup is still mandatory to introduce the new sending setup.
Note: The warmup method is the same for both situations. The main difference is that an existing domain with a good reputation will typically see stronger engagement from day one.
What's next?
Before you start your warmup, make sure your contact list is clean and ready to go. If you are importing an existing database into Innercrowd, read the next article on how to clean your contact list first.
If you already have a cleaned contact list, proceed to this article on how to warm up your domain.