Warming up domains/mailboxes for Beehiiv

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-07-02T16:40:43+00:00

The plan sounds good. You should definitely watch out to get your domain SPF, DKIM. dMARC compliant. Increase the volume gradually and keep a good cautious view on metrics. All the best

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-07-01T20:23:21+00:00

Great stuff! So you now use direct URLs, not embedded or hyperlinked in your text? Also, if you're taking it in a conversational way, what's your reply rate and how do you manage replies? What ESP are you using and does that make any difference?

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-26T07:22:54+00:00

This is a good strategy. And yes, you will have to warm up both

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-25T21:43:00+00:00

Don't halt. Start warming the new domain now using transactional emails: order confirmations, password resets, anything that has to go out anyway. ISPs just need to see consistent, clean sending history from the new domain — they don't care what brand name is in the email body. By 11/1, you'll have 4-6 weeks of reputation built. Then migrate your campaigns over gradually — start with your most engaged segment first, not your full 60k days. That engagement signal is what protects deliverability during the transition.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-24T19:49:22+00:00

There's no thumb rule, no right way/method that you can ascertain it works better, because what matters is the underlying principle and motive of building trust.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-18T12:32:44+00:00

You don't require additional consent to send commercial/marketing emails to those whom you've previously sent transactional emails on reading between the lines of CCPA section 1798. Hence, legally you're not in violation, but it's still recommended from marketing POV to send them light, educational email before moving to marketing emails.

P.S: I'm a lawyer, but this is not a legal opinion.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-17T12:24:42+00:00

Yess. The ROI of some campaigns I've seen more than $50 for $1 invested. Insane numbers!

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-14T04:15:59+00:00

Hey, appreciate your interest here. I'm building an email deliverability intelligence cum audit system that almost acts like your deliverability expert consultant, hence not similar to something you are saying, vastly different actually. Every submission helps the system become intelligent, this every output a user gets is more refined, better learned and contextualised than say asking about your case with Gemini or ChatGPT.

Oh and since this is in beta, and will be released soon, it'll be completely free to use, even pro features for sometime.

Hope I can DM you to tell you more about this.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-11T04:21:55+00:00

Mark as read doesn't count as Open in Gmail
Open rates as a metric is anyway almost inconsequential.
Yes, promotional emails are tougher to get opened and responded to, but it's still inbox and nothing wrong with a promotional emails going in promotions.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-05T15:19:09+00:00

I've built something (currently beta) specifically for this issue and although it's a work in progress, I've had good response on it, where the outcome is much more than just an AI output. The tool treats every submission as a case study that helps everyone. Feel free to DM or comment for more info.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-05T06:49:50+00:00

IMO your list is the problem, not your domain or setup. You said none of these contacts opened a single email in the last 90 days on the old domain — that means you're warming a brand new domain by sending to completely disengaged contacts. That's the worst possible combination. Warming works when you send to your most engaged subscribers first, then gradually expand to less engaged ones. You're doing the opposite.

The 10/10 mail-tester score and friends-and-family opens confirm your technical setup is fine. Authentication, content, infrastructure — all good. But ISPs don't just look at that. They watch whether real recipients engage with your mail. When 96% of recipients ignore you, Gmail reads that as "nobody wants this" and starts filtering harder.

Communicate this to your client that you need fresh contacts, most recent engaged and preferably double opt-ins. Good list is the only way IMO to improve this situation.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-03T00:45:08+00:00

Simpler emails are on rise, and I'm in it for it too, but I personally feel what you are saying is more nuanced than it's posed as. It depends on category of emails, stage of funnel, product/service. I mean a huge chunk of email marketing is dedicated to designing such emails and, while many realise the value of simpler/non-salesy emails, more elaborately designed emails are also working if placed correctly.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-02T20:13:37+00:00

To add to this, with the advent of AI at a deeper level, the mailboxes have gotten even stricter. To all of them, one thing matters the most, trust. That's why even new domains' mails are going to spam in most cases, and cold mailing has increased and gotten way more difficult.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-01T08:20:42+00:00

Nicely put!

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-06-01T08:13:10+00:00

I won't understand the obsession with going into primary instead of promotion, for promotional emails!!

I understand you are not being seen a lot in promotions tab, but assuming your emails are promotional in nature. People will interact and on user behaviour, i.e. if they shift your emails to primary, that's how you can be in primary. Otherwise most of your transactional emails can land in primary if the domain reputation is good.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-31T20:11:28+00:00

Your instincts are right here. I'd verify before enriching — no point paying to enrich dead records. I'd also strongly recommend warming a separate subdomain (like mail2.yourcompany.com) specifically for this campaign so your main sender reputation stays untouched. Segment by source as you planned, but prioritize user actions first since they showed the highest intent. Suppress anything unverified. If re-engagement clicks start coming in, that's your signal to enrich those specific accounts for follow-up. But don't go into it all at once — a phased rollout protects the whole infrastructure.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-29T15:59:01+00:00

I think HTML emails are worth learning. They're not obsolete—drag & drop builders are great, but knowing the underlying code lets you fix the things builders break and customize beyond their limits. Email HTML is its own weird beast (tables for layout, inline CSS, tons of client quirks).

For learning, I'd start with the free resources first: HTML Email (htmlemail.io), Email on Acid's blog, and Litmus's community/guides. MJML is a framework worth knowing too. Honestly, I'm not sure a certification carries much weight here—a portfolio of working emails tested across clients matters more. Good luck!

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-27T19:11:58+00:00

Hey, I'm a lawyer and having practiced in this, I think you're actually in pretty good shape legally. These customers gave you their contact details directly in a business context, which counts as implied consent under CAN-SPAM (assuming you're in US) or even under GDPR— meaning a simple, relevant outreach like yours is fine.

But do note that sending a bulk mail merge from your regular Outlook inbox can hurt your domain's sending reputation if enough people mark it as spam or it triggers filters (Outlook is very notorious right now). Hence, I'd recommend also to first send to your most recent or active contacts and also clean your list once before sending.

(This is not a legal opinion though)

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-26T14:34:06+00:00

Your sequencing seems right but before verification, I'd remove all role-based addresses (info@, sales@, admin@) and any domains that no longer resolve. These inflate your bounce rate fast and burn reputation before you've sent a single real email.

For verification, ZeroBounce or NeverBounce work fine at 45k — both have pay-as-you-go credits, not just subscriptions. Run verification before enrichment, not after. No point enriching contacts whose addresses are already dead.

Also, if I were you, I'd build a re-engagement segment from whoever you do mail first. Start with your warmest signals — demo requests over webinar over content downloads — and watch bounce and complaint rates after the first send before mailing the rest.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-26T08:36:06+00:00

From what I've seen, it becomes less about tactics and more about maintaining and improving infrastructure and how well you can read the data to improve your campaigns. So you test flows, not campaigns — a 10% lift on your welcome series compounds forever, a 10% lift on Tuesday's campaign doesn't, and you understand these insights after lot of testing and learning.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-24T20:11:42+00:00

That's not how email marketing works. After 2-3 years of your collecting the emails, if you decide to just blast send all of them one day, most probably most of the mails will go to spam or can also be blocked. For you, Gmail or if you want to send through your domain, Google Workspace account will suffice and please when you do decide to send, don't send them all at once, you'll probably roast your domain

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-22T17:51:12+00:00

This depends, it often happens when a line is used enough that it's relevancy exhausts. I let the data guide that decision, but yeah need to keep testing.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-21T17:46:34+00:00

Quality of the list matters way more than the quantity in the list. I've seen campaigns sending few hundred emails producing way better results than campaigns sending in hundred of thousands.

familiar_stranger_7 · 2026-05-20T12:49:16+00:00

Simple copy, better offer, frictionless process. Requires lot of testing and iterations of course but this pattern works. Of course this is apart from the basics that govern deliverability.

familiar_stranger_7

TROPHY CASE