If you're planning to send a large volume of emails (e.g. to a list greater than 20,000 recipients) it's important to follow a schedule of slowly increasing the volume over time to your desired volume, which will help to maintain the best deliverability rates. Increasing the volume too quickly can be detrimental to your email deliverability and sender reputation with providers such as Gmail.
- Sudden spikes in email volume can trigger spam filters as it might appear suspicious to email providers. A gradual increase in volume allows email providers to recognize your domain and IP address as legitimate.
- A good sender reputation is crucial for high deliverability. Sending too many emails too quickly can damage your reputation, leading to lower open and click rates.
- By gradually increasing the volume, you can gauge your recipients' responses and make necessary adjustments to improve and ensure high engagement rates.
Week-by-Week Ramp-Up Schedule
This example schedule is targeted at increasing sending to 50,000-100,000 emails per day.
Week 1:
Start with 500–1,000 emails per day.
Break this into smaller batches of 100–200 emails per hour to avoid sudden spikes.
Focus on highly engaged recipients (e.g. people who have recently opted in or consistently open emails).
Week 2:
Increase daily volume to 2,000–5,000 emails per day, split across 8–12 hours.
Maintain small batch sizes (e.g. 500 emails/hour).
Week 3:
Raise the daily volume to 10,000–15,000 emails per day, divided into hourly batches of 1,000–2,000 emails.
Start incorporating less active recipients while still prioritizing those likely to engage.
Week 4:
Scale up to 20,000–30,000 emails per day, with 3,000–5,000 emails/hour.
Monitor engagement rates closely.
Week 5 and Beyond:
Gradually increase to your target volume (50k–100k emails/day).
At this stage, you can send at higher rates, provided your reputation remains strong.
Best Practices During Warm-Up
Prioritize Engagement:
Begin with your most active subscribers (recent openers/clickers).
High engagement signals to providers, like Gmail, that your emails are valuable.
Authenticate Emails:
SPF and DKIM - Ensure your domain is verified as a "Sender domain".
DMARC - Ensure DMARC is correctly configured for your domain.
Monitor Reputation:
Use tools like Google’s Postmaster Tools to track IP and domain reputation.
Maintain List Hygiene:
Remove invalid, bounced, and unengaged recipients to avoid spam complaints. Keep bounce rates below 2%. Remove hard bounces from your list immediately, and consider removing soft bounces after several attempts.
Limit Spam Triggers:
Avoid excessive use of promotional language and ensure email content is clear and professional.
Adjust Based on Feedback:
If you notice high bounce or complaint rates, slow down the sending volume and address issues.
Avoid Bulk Sending in Off-Hours:
Providers such as Yahoo and Outlook are sensitive to "unnatural" sending patterns. Send during normal working hours in the recipients' time zones. Emails sent during times when recipients are more likely to check their inboxes (e.g. mornings or mid-afternoons) tend to have higher open and click rates. Higher engagement improves deliverability.
If you have questions regarding your high volume sending practices or need assistance with your SMTP2GO account please reach out to our friendly support team available in all time zones.