Manual vs Automated Email Warm-Up: Which One is Better for Your Company?

Don't let your emails get lost in spam folders - learn the best methods for email warm-up and see which approach, manual or automated, is the right fit for you.
Email is an essential tool for sales and marketing teams, but it’s not as simple as it seems. If you’re sending out cold emails without warming up your email account, you’re likely to land in the spam folder before ever reaching your prospects or subscribers.

To avoid this, email warm-up is critical before starting any email campaign. But what is the best way to warm up your emails?

In this blog post, we’ll compare manual and automated email warm-up methods and explore which one fits your company better.

What is Manual Email Warm-Up?

Manual email warm-up is the hands-on approach where a marketer or a designated team member gradually sends emails from a new or underused domain to a small, targeted list over a specific timeframe.

This method helps to build trust with internet service providers (ISPs) and establish a positive reputation for your domain name.

But this process requires patience and consistency, as you can only increase the volume of sent emails by a small percentage each day.

This is how you can start a manual email warm-up:

  • Ask friends and family for their email addresses and build a list.
  • Send emails one by one. Make sure to send content that fits your brand's old newsletters or cold emails.
  • Ask your friends and family to send positive replies.
  • Repeat every day, and increase the amount of new emails you send to.

Pros of the Manual Email Warm-Up

  • Personalization and control: With manual warm-up, you have complete control over the emails sent, allowing for customization and personalization of messages in a way that automated systems might find challenging to replicate.

  • Algorithms notice you as human: Warming up your inbox the right way, will help algorithms see you as human, obviously, because you’re sending and receiving emails in a natural way.

Cons of the Manual Email Warm-Up

  • Lack of scalability: Is really hard to scale manually and find new emails to send to. Sooner or later, you will run out of emails to reach out, and in consequence, your email deliverability won’t be improving anymore.

  • Time-consuming: It requires someone on your team to spend hours monitoring and adjusting every aspect of each campaign, sending emails, and asking for replies. Additionally, mistakes can happen when relying solely on humans to handle these tasks.

What is Automated Email Warm-Up?

Automated email warm-up is the practice of gradually increasing the number of emails sent from a new email account with email warm-up tools.

With an email warm-up tool, you can easily keep track of your progress using their integrated dashboard, where you can track the number of emails that were sent and replied to and how many landed in the inbox, and you can also check your domain's health.
Improve your email deliverability with Unfiltered.ai

Pros of the Automated Email Warm-Up

  • You can monitor deliverability: All email warm-up tools are built with a dashboard to monitor all aspects of the warm-up campaign, such as emails sent, emails received, email health score, spam rate, etc.

  • Time-saving: With an email warm-up tool, you won’t have to send emails manually and ask for results daily. Every aspect of the campaign is automated.

  • Faster results: Automated warm-up is faster compared to manual methods. Some service providers, like Unfiltered, offer AI-generated messages to improve the warm-up process with your own value proposition.

  • Multiple accounts: If you've got multiple emails from different domains that need warming up, simply set them up on the warm-up tool. Then, kick back and watch your deliverability improve.

Cons of the Automated Email Warm-Up

  • Lack of personal touch: On the downside, automated email warm-up can lack the personal touch that manual warm-up provides. It’s also important to note that different domains may require different approaches, and an automated process may not be fine enough to handle this.

  • Can be expensive: If you’re a solopreneur, email warm-up tools might not fit in your budget. There are many options out there with different prices, so do your research before you consider one.

How to Warm-Up Your Emails Automatically With Unfiltered

Unfiltered is an automated email warm-up tool that can help you build a positive reputation for your email domain.

Our tool gradually increases outgoing email volume based on ISP feedback and provides detailed analytics so you can monitor progress accurately.

To use Unfiltered, simply sign up and follow the setup instructions.

You’ll need to provide us with access to your inbox, which may feel invasive at first but is necessary for the tool to work effectively.

Once set up, Unfiltered will begin warming up your emails automatically while you focus on other essential tasks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both manual and automated email warm-up methods have their pros and cons.

Manual warm-up allows for more control and connection with potential customers but requires extensive time investment. Automated warm-up saves time and resources but lacks a personal touch and may not be nuanced enough for some domains.

Ultimately, the best choice depends on your company's needs and available resources. If you have limited resources or want to save time, an automated approach like Unfiltered may be ideal.
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