Warm-up exchange — build sending reputation before you need it

The warm-up exchange sends and receives mail on your behalf to build a positive sending history before you run a real campaign.

Why a fresh domain is a liability, not a clean slate

Reputation is per-domain and accrues over time. A brand-new sending domain has none — and that is not a neutral starting position, it is a suspicious one, because burning through fresh domains is exactly what spammers do.

A domain that goes from zero to five thousand sends in a day is behaving precisely like a domain bought for a spam run, and it will be treated as one.

The order that works

1. Authenticate. SPF, DKIM, DMARC. Without them nothing you send is judged on its merits.
2. Warm up. Weeks, not days. There is no way to compress this that does not reproduce the problem.
3. Verify the list before the first real send.
4. Ramp. Small volumes to your most-likely-to-engage recipients first.

Warm-up is not a trick that makes bad sending work. It is the thing that lets good sending be believed.