This guide outlines the key steps to follow after completing your email domain warming process so you can maintain strong deliverability and scale your email program effectively.
Why Post-Warming Steps Matter
Warming helps establish your sender reputation, but maintaining and improving that reputation requires a consistent strategy.
After warming, your focus should shift to:
Optimizing engagement
Expanding your audience carefully
Monitoring performance
Before You Continue
If you haven’t completed domain or IP warming yet, do that first.
Warming is essential for:
Building trust with inbox providers
Avoiding spam placement early on
Establishing a stable sending foundation
1. Create an Engagement-Based Sending Schedule
After warming, avoid sending the same emails to all users at the same frequency.
Instead:
Segment users based on engagement (active, moderately active, inactive)
Create different sending cadences (daily, weekly, monthly)
Align messaging with user behavior
This helps:
Improve open rates
Reduce unsubscribes
Maintain a healthy sender reputation
Learn more: What is Sender Reputation and Why It Matters
2. Gradually Enable Advanced Flows
Some flows are riskier because they typically have lower engagement.
These include:
Winback campaigns
Re-engagement flows
Sunset flows
After warming:
You can safely enable these flows
Use them strategically to clean and re-engage your list
3. Use Advanced Segmentation
Post-warming is the right time to refine your segmentation strategy.
You can:
Target users based on behavior and engagement
Personalize messaging more effectively
Improve campaign performance across channels
Better segmentation leads to more relevant communication and higher engagement.
4. Optimize Email and Form Experience
Make Unsubscribing Easy
A clear unsubscribe option:
Reduces spam complaints
Builds trust with users
Avoid hiding or styling unsubscribe links in a way that makes them hard to find.
Collect and Use Customer Preferences
Use forms and preference centers to collect:
Content interests
Communication frequency preferences
This allows you to:
Personalize emails
Send more relevant content
Improve engagement over time
5. Monitor Performance Closely
After warming, continue tracking key metrics:
Open rate
Click rate
Bounce rate
Unsubscribe rate
Spam complaint rate
If performance drops:
Adjust your targeting
Reduce sending frequency
Clean your list
Learn more: Email Deliverability FAQs
6. Follow Ongoing Sending Best Practices
Send Only to Opted-In Users
Always ensure your contacts have explicitly subscribed.
Sending to non-consented users can:
Increase spam complaints
Damage your sender reputation
Maintain Regular List Cleaning
Keep your list healthy by:
Identifying inactive users
Suppressing or removing them
This improves engagement and protects deliverability.
Focus on Engaged Sending
Continue prioritizing engaged users even after warming.
You can:
Gradually expand your audience
Adjust engagement windows (e.g., last 30, 60, 90 days)
This ensures your emails are sent to users who are most likely to interact.
Key Takeaway
Warming your domain is just the beginning. Long-term success depends on maintaining strong engagement, sending strategically, and continuously optimizing your email program.