A brand-new domain is a stranger to Gmail and Outlook. If its first day is 10,000 emails, it looks exactly like a spammer who just bought a domain. Real senders grow — so the safest plan is to grow, too.
This is about pacing real emails to real subscribers. It has nothing to do with “warm-up networks” that trade fake opens between inboxes — mailbox providers treat those as manipulation.
Before day one
- Set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for the new domain and check they pass.
- Send a few normal one-to-one emails from the mailbox for a week — replies to customers, quotes, invoices.
- Clean your list: remove addresses that bounced before and anyone who has not opened in a long time.
The plan
Start with the people most likely to open — recent customers and recent sign-ups — and widen the circle as long as the numbers stay healthy.
| Days | Per day | Who |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | 50–100 | Most engaged: opened or bought in the last 30 days |
| 4–6 | 200–300 | Engaged in the last 60 days |
| 7–10 | 500–1,000 | Engaged in the last 90 days |
| 11–14 | 1,000–2,500 | The rest of your permission-based list |
These are starting points, not rules. Your mailbox provider’s own daily limit comes first — a personal Gmail account allows far fewer emails a day than an email-sending service.
Pace it in Devlo
Under Settings›Email Sending you set the batch size, the delay between batches and a maximum per hour for each sending domain. Small batches with a few minutes between them look like a person sending, not a blast.
For the early days, send to a small group: pick your most engaged contacts in Campaigns›Re-engagement or import a short list of recent customers.
When to slow down
- Bounces above 2% — stop and clean the list.
- Any spam complaints in the first days — check who you are sending to.
- Opens far lower than usual — you may be landing in spam; hold the volume steady for a few days.
Two calm weeks give a new domain a good start that lasts for years. Rushing it can take months to repair.
Put it into practice
Devlo has these checks built in. Start free — no card needed.
