Domain Age: Important Things to Know Before Sending Cold Emails

How Do I Set Up My New Email Domain For Success?

Many people will harp on the necessity of an older domain. But the truth is, you can improve deliverability with a new domain as long as you monitor the activity on the new domain.

The main goal of any email marketing campaign is to get as many messages into as many inboxes as possible. The best way to do that is to have a domain with a strong reputation and establish your address as a trustworthy sender.

There are four steps you can take to help ESPs and ISPs recognize your domain’s reliability:

1. Register Your Domain – Set up your new domain within the Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC).
2. Create an Email Address Specifically for Cold Emailing – Instead of using the same email you use for individualized customer engagement, set up an address that you’ll use only for sending cold emails
3. Warm Up Your New Domain – Although you’ll want to start your campaign right away, it’s essential to warm up your domain by slowly increasing the number of emails you send each day. This will keep your messages from falling into spam folders.
4. Adhere to Sending Limits – Each provider will have a certain number of emails they’ll allow a user to send each day or at one time. It’s essential to know the maximum number of messages you send and never go over the limit.

Can I Use an Old Email Domain for Cold Emailing?

Yes, as long as the domain is warm and has a good reputation. In fact, domains that have been active longer have a better chance of reaching the recipient’s inboxes because servers trust domains that have been active for a while.

However, a potential setback for using your tried and true domain for cold emailing is diminishing the reputation of your primary domain. Especially if your employees all have email addresses on your primary domain, if you begin sending out mass emails from that domain and you receive a lot of spam complaints, it can impact your employees’ ability to connect with customers.

Although setting up a new address on your aged domain may be tempting, setting up a separate domain specifically for sending cold emails may be more beneficial. If you do choose to register a new domain, ensure that it corresponds with your current domain to avoid any confusion. For instance, if we were to set up a secondary domain for sending cold emails, we might register “warmupinbox.co” or “warmupinbox.io” or “warmupyourinbox.com.”

Where Can I Check my Email Domain Settings?

Each email provider will have different ways to access and change the settings for your domain. For instance, Google has a specific page dedicated to viewing your domains and your account, called Google Domains. If you have questions about altering your domain settings, it’s best to contact your provider directly.

How Do I Find Out My Email Domain Age?

If you already know when your domain was registered, then all you have to do is subtract the year it was registered from the current year. For example, if your domain was registered in 2011 and it’s now 2021, your domain age is 11.

But if you don’t have a record of when your domain was activated, you can use a reputable domain age checker such as who.is or Cisco Talos. You’ll begin by copying and pasting the domain you’d like to view, usually be your website name.

Let’s say you run a search on who.is for “warmupinbox.com.” You’ll get a results page that details all the public information about our domain. And under “Important Dates,” it shows that our domain was registered on June 25, 2020. So, our domain age is a little over a year old as of August 2021.

And that’s it!

If you choose to use Talos, you’ll use the “WHOIS” tab to find the creation date. But this application provides more details about the domain’s reputation, email volume, and more.

How Do I Find Out My Email Domain Reputation?

Just like discovering the age of your domain, you can use an online application to discover your domain reputation. Many applications will give your domain a reputation score like a high school test grade for your email, grading it on a scale of 0-`100, with 100 being a perfect score. Others will assign a generalized term to it, such as “good,” “neutral,” or “poor.”

Some trustworthy options to check your reputation include:

• Cisco Talos
• Sender Score
• Barracuda
• Trusted Source by McAfee
• Google Postmaster Tools
• Microsoft SNDS

How Can I Improve My Email Domain Reputation?

Improving your email domain reputation takes a great deal of time and effort, but it’s worth it in the long run. The better your reputation is, the more people you’ll be able to reach, and the more leads you’ll be able to covert. Whether you’re trying to improve the reputation of an old domain that got on the wrong track or a brand new domain, there are steps you can take to establish yourself as a trustworthy sender.

• Warm Up Your Inbox – Above anything else, before you begin sending out mass cold emails, you have to build up the number of emails you send each day, so you don’t raise red flags among your recipients’ servers. Because of the volume of spam consumers get each day, servers are extremely sensitive to a sudden increase of emails from a single sender.
• Don’t Buy Email Lists – While generating leads can be a grueling process, it’s crucial not to buy an email list under any circumstances. Aside from being a waste of money, the list will likely be littered with outdated emails that will impact your open rate and may even contain spam trap emails that could get your domain placed on a blocklist.
• Provide an Unsubscribe Link – Although you don’t want customers to stop receiving your emails, providing an unsubscribe link gives them the option to ask you to stop sending them content without marking your messages as spam. Too many spam reports can get you on a blocklist, so it’s better to give people the ability to opt-out and quickly honor their request to unsubscribe.

Maintaining a fantastic domain reputation is essential no matter how much extra work it requires because fixing a damaged reputation is much harder than setting up a domain for success. And fixing a domain reputation is infinitely more challenging than fixing an IP reputation.

How Long Does Warming Up an Email Domain Take?

Warming up an email domain can take anywhere from four to six weeks to be completely effective. The process involves steadily increasing the number of emails you send from your domain each day until you hit the target number of emails you’re looking to send in a day. The warming process also gives you the chance to interact with multiple servers and enable them to see you as a trustworthy sender.

You don’t have to go through the warming process on your own—we’re here to help. Get started with Warmup Inbox for free.