Email Warm-up: how it works and how to set it up

This article explains how to add your email accounts to warm-up, how the process works, and how to set up warm-up settings for best results.

Step 1: Choose an account and set warm-up settings

Step 2: Select a warm-up strategy

Step 3: Add email content

Step 4: Start warm-up and monitor progress

Final step: Deliverability check

Why use Snov.io Email Warm-up:

 

1) Free to try and scalable – Included in every plan. The higher your plan tier is, the more email accounts you can warm up at the same time with higher limits.

2) Works with any provider – Supports accounts from any email provider and can perform a targeted warm-up.

3) Fully automated – The process runs automatically once you start it. Your only task is to track the warm-up progress and check how your deliverability grows.

4) Specific strategies – for new email accounts and accounts with deliverability issues.

How Email warm-up works

Once you start a warm-up, your email account becomes part of the warm-up pool with other real users' accounts and our system mailboxes.

During the warm-up campaign, it will automatically send and receive emails which create an emailing history and positive engagement for your email account.

Using both real and pre-configured mailboxes for warm-up guarantees optimal results, as the activities are authentic and consistent.

During warm-up, helpful actions include:

• Sending and replying to emails
• Moving emails out of spam
• Marking emails as read
• Marking your emails as important (starred)

How to set up a warm-up

Go to the Email Warm-up page and click Add mailbox to start the setup.

Step 1: Warm-up settings

In the first step, customize the general settings for your warm-up. The sender account is the only required, but make sure to review all the settings to adjust the warm-up for yourself.

Sender account:

Add the sender email account you want to warm up. The menu shows the accounts you've connected to Snov.io. Before warming up, connect them on the email connection page first.

This email account will be added to the warm-up pool. During the warm-up, it will send emails that will use its daily limit - consider this when setting your daily limit for campaigns in email account settings. It will also receive emails which means some mailbox storage is needed.

Email providers:

Select the providers you want to warm up your account with. Use this option to restore a positive reputation with specific providers.

A targeted warm-up helps improve deliverability for recipients who use those providers. Learn more in this knowledgebase article.

During the warm-up, your email account will exchange emails only with mailboxes hosted by your chosen providers. If you leave this setting empty or select all providers, the warm-up will run in general mode, equal across all providers.

Premium sender pool:

By default, your email account will be warmed up together with accounts on free domains (e.g., john123@gmail.com). Enabling this option adds you to the premium warm-up pool, where you'll exchange emails only with business accounts (john@company.com).

This mode means a more effective warm-up than the default pool because it recreates B2B communication. Your sender reputation will grow faster, as positive engagement with business domains has a much greater impact.

Targeted warm-up and premium sender pool settings are available with Pro plans. Upgrade your plan in your account settings to unlock access.

Reply rate:

For the reply rate, set the percentage of your emails that will receive replies. This parameter means the final reply rate your account will have by the end of the warm-up.

Replies have the strongest impact on your sender reputation. A high reply rate tells providers that your emails are wanted, not spam.

The default setting is 30% (recommended). The maximum reply rate you can set is 45%. Higher rates may appear as bot activity and have a negative impact, so we’ve set a limit.

Campaign deadline:

This setting determines the duration of the warm-up. Set the date when you want your warm-up to end.

The longer the warm-up, the better. We recommend at least a 30-day warm-up period to build your account reputation from scratch.

In some situations, a 14-day warm-up may be enough to restore a damaged sender reputation, depending on the account's condition at the start of the warm-up.

Schedule:

In the schedule, set the time of day and days of the week when the warm-up will be active. To make email activity look natural, sending will be evenly spread throughout the selected days and hours. The time between messages will be random but never shorter than the delay set in your email account settings.

For best results, the warm-up schedule should align with the schedule you plan to use in real campaigns, including the time and timezone. This helps establish a consistent activity pattern for your email account.

Step 2: Select a warm-up strategy

Select a specific strategy that is suitable for your warm-up goal.

Progressive strategy:

A progressive warm-up is best for:

1. newly created accounts to prepare them for campaigns;
2. older accounts with no recent activity to put them back in shape.

Set your warm-up goal close to the daily email limit you plan for real campaigns. For example, if you plan to send 50 emails per day, set your warm-up goal to 50. If your target is 100 emails per day, set the warm-up goal to 100.

We recommend a daily goal of 40 warm-up emails as a very safe limit. However, you can customize it based on your planned campaign size. Be cautious with limits higher than 100, as they increase the risk of being blocked by your email provider.

Note: The warm-up limit does not count toward your daily limit in Snov.io but does count toward your email provider's daily limit.

Lower the daily email for accounts that are in the warm-up process. You can do that in email account settings.

Steady strategy:

This strategy works best for restoring an account’s reputation and improving deliverability if it has dropped during active campaigns.

In a steady warm-up, the daily email limit remains the same throughout the entire warm-up.

Messages per day: Set the number of emails sent daily for warm-up. This limit should match or be close to the number of emails your account recently sent per day in real campaigns. Consistency in the volumes the account sends is positive for its reputation.

Example:

• If your account was sending 50 emails per day in campaigns and you paused the campaign, set the warm-up limit to 50 emails.
• If you want to keep the campaign active, split the total limit — for example, 25 emails for warm-up and 25 for the campaign.

Remember, the warm-up limit does not count toward your daily limit in Snov.io but does count toward your email provider's daily limit. If you add a warm-up on top of an active campaign with the same limits, you’ll likely exceed your provider’s daily limit. To avoid this, adjust your limits in the account settings accordingly.

Step 3: Add email content

In this step, add the email content that will be used in your emails during the warm-up.

You can choose between AI-generated emails or your add your own email template.

AI-generated:

A GPT language model generates emails and replies that look like real communication to some extent. In addition to the generated text, it includes our custom humanized parts (subject line, intro). This guarantees better warm-up results.

The warm-up emails will be labeled with "snv" in your inbox.

Template:

Add your own email template that you plan to send to recipients. The warm-up will enhance your email's ability to reach the inbox in a real campaign.

For warming up a specific template, lower your daily warm-up limit to 5–10 per day. Higher limits are appropriate for AI-generated emails because they are all unique.

Step 4: Start warm-up and monitor progress

Once the warm-up starts, you'll notice emails labeled with "snv" appearing in your inbox. Don't reply to or delete these emails — the warm-up process will run automatically.

You can monitor its progress on the warm-up dashboard and on your warm-up list.

The main metric to track warm-up success is Deliverability. It shows the total percentage of emails that reached the inbox during the warm-up.

To understand how the progress goes, review the report in a Two-week or a Month timeframe (selected at the top).

The warm-up has done its job once your deliverability reaches 90% or higher and your daily warm-up limit (sending goal) is reached.

Under Most popular providers, there is a breakdown by the provider. If you've selected specific providers for the warm-up, you'll see results specifically for them.

you'll get an idea of your reputation with providers and the deliverability you can expect when sending to recipients who use them.

Even if you get high results quickly, continue the warm-up for a few more days or until completion to strengthen the results. After that, your account will be ready for campaigns.

Final step: Deliverability check

Warm-up helps build your email reputation, but many other factors also affect your deliverability.

Run deliverability tests here.