In edrone you can now send newsletters gradually, over several days. This is part of warming up your sending subdomain (domain warm-up). Below we explain what warm-up is, why we are introducing it and how it works in practice.
Why are we introducing this now?
We want your newsletters to reach recipients' inboxes rather than spam. That is why we send them from dedicated subdomains of your account (e.g. newsletter.yourstore.com) and build a reputation on them that belongs to you.
Mailbox providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) trust senders they know, so we introduce a new subdomain gradually. We split the newsletter into daily portions and increase the number of messages sent from day to day. This way your subdomain earns trust and over time can handle even your biggest campaigns, e.g. on Black Friday.
You don't need to configure anything. We do it for you, at no extra cost. And whatever doesn't fit in the daily limit goes out from the backup address, so the whole campaign reaches your entire list and no message gets lost.
What is domain warm-up?
Domain warm-up is building the sender's reputation. We start with a small number of messages and increase it day by day, until the address is ready to send full campaigns. If a new address suddenly sent a lot of emails, some of them could end up in spam.
How does it work in edrone?
We send the newsletter gradually, over several days
Instead of sending the whole campaign at once, edrone splits it into daily portions. Fewer messages go out on the first day, and a bit more on each following day. In suitable cases the number of emails sent grows by about 40% per day.
For large sends the whole process can take even about 14 days — this is only an example. The actual time depends on the number of contacts and on how often you send newsletters.
We send from your own subdomain
A new account gets, by default, a main domain (root) and two subdomains:
newsletter — for newsletters,
messages — for automations.
Sending goes out from these subdomains, e.g. newsletter.yourstore.com. This is where we build the trust of mailbox providers. You verify the subdomains via NS or with regular DNS records (e.g. TXT, CNAME).
We describe how to verify your domain in the article Verification of sending domain.
A new account with verified subdomains. The subdomains are completely new, so we warm them up from zero starting with the first send. The newsletter will be split into batches over several days — this can't be skipped, because mailbox providers first need to get used to a new sender.
An account with already verified subdomains and a main domain. You send from them as usual. If they are not yet fully warmed up, the send is split into days until they are, and the remaining emails that didn't fit in the limit are sent from the main domain.
An account without subdomains. Sending goes out from your main domain. The emails are delivered, but warm-up doesn't work in this case, because there is no subdomain on which to build a reputation.
Where does the sending go out from — step by step
You have verified subdomains: sending from the subdomain, warmed up in batches, with emails that don't fit in the limit going out from the main domain.
You have no subdomains: sending from your main domain.
You also have no main domain: sending from the backup address (edrone.io).
Simply put: we send newsletters from your subdomain and gradually build its reputation. If we can't send from the subdomain, we use the backup address so that nothing gets lost.
How long will it take?
List size. The more contacts, the more days it takes to send to them from the subdomain.
Sending frequency. If you send often (e.g. every other day), you warm up the subdomain along the way, and quickly. With infrequent sends, warming up may require additional steps.
How "cold" the subdomain is. At the beginning the daily limit is very low and grows from day to day.
Why are we doing this?
More emails in the inbox. A warmed-up subdomain means your campaigns reach customers more often and end up in spam less often.
Calm growth. When your list grows and you send more and more, your reach grows with it instead of suddenly dropping.
Your own reputation, working for you. We send all newsletters from your subdomain, so every following campaign strengthens its trust. That reputation stays with your brand.
What do you gain?
Your emails reach where they should. An email in spam doesn't exist for the recipient. Warm-up means more messages land in the inbox, and only there can they be opened and clicked.
A better result from the same campaign. Every email that lands in spam is a lost sales opportunity. A good reputation means more opens, clicks and orders.
A good first impression. A reputation that has been damaged at Gmail or Outlook takes weeks to rebuild. Warm-up lets you avoid that from the start.
Ready for the season. Black Friday and other peaks are when you send the most. A warmed-up subdomain can handle large volumes.
The reputation is yours. We build trust on your own subdomain, so it is your asset that grows with every send, not a shared reputation of many users.
No emails get lost. Whatever doesn't fit in the daily limit goes out from the backup address. The whole campaign reaches the whole list.
We do it for you. You don't need to configure anything or count limits. The system takes care of gradual growth and you only see the progress.
No extra costs.
This is how the best do it. Gradually increasing sending is an industry standard.
You'll find answers to the most common questions in the article Dedicated Sending Subdomains – FAQ and in the FAQ about subdomain warm-up.
Need more help?
If you have any questions, contact us at hello@edrone.me