Lesson 3.1 — Why Warmup Is Non-Negotiable
A brand new email account has zero reputation. Mailbox providers do not know if you are a legitimate sender or a spammer. If you send 50 cold emails on day one from a fresh account, the answer they assume is: spammer.
Warmup builds a track record of positive engagement — opens, replies, and "moved from spam" actions — so that by the time you send cold emails, mailbox providers already trust you.
Minimum warmup period: 2 weeks. Recommended: 4 weeks.
The Warmup Timeline
| Phase | Duration | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| Initial | Days 1–3 | FoxReach starts exchanging warmup emails at low volume |
| Ramp-up | Days 4–14 | Volume increases daily based on your ramp-up setting |
| Maturation | Days 15–28 | Account builds consistent positive engagement history |
| Maintenance | Ongoing | Warmup continues alongside cold campaigns to sustain reputation |
What Happens During Warmup
FoxReach's warmup system works by exchanging real emails between accounts in the warmup pool:
- Your account sends warmup emails to other accounts in the pool
- Those accounts open the emails, reply to them, and mark them as important
- If any warmup email lands in spam, the receiving account moves it to the inbox
- These positive signals teach mailbox providers that your account sends wanted email
Every open, reply, and "moved from spam" action pushes your reputation higher.
Lesson 3.2 — Configuring Warmup in FoxReach
Enabling Warmup
- Go to Email Accounts and click on the account you want to warm up
- Toggle Warmup to enabled
- Configure warmup settings:
| Setting | Recommended Value | What It Controls |
|---|---|---|
| Warmup daily limit | 5 | Starting number of warmup emails per day |
| Ramp-up days | 14 | How many days to linearly increase warmup volume |
FoxReach calculates the daily warmup volume automatically. On day 1 you send 5 warmup emails. By day 14, the volume has ramped up to your target. The ramp-up is linear — no sudden spikes that could look suspicious.
Screenshot: FoxReach email account detail page showing the Warmup toggle, daily limit, and ramp-up days fields.
Warmup Pool
Every FoxReach account with warmup enabled joins the global warmup pool. FoxReach tracks:
- Sent count — warmup emails your account has sent
- Received count — warmup emails your account has received
- Reply count — warmup replies exchanged
- Last activity — when your account last participated
Screenshot: FoxReach warmup section showing pool statistics — sent, received, replied counts per account.
Warmup Logs
You can review individual warmup exchanges in the warmup logs. Each log entry shows:
- Sender and receiver accounts
- Email subject
- Status (sent, received, replied)
- Timestamp
This transparency lets you verify that warmup is working and diagnose any issues.
Screenshot: FoxReach warmup logs table showing recent exchanges with status, subject, and timestamps.
Lesson 3.3 — Monitoring Account Health
FoxReach gives each email account a health score from 0 to 100. This score reflects the account's deliverability standing based on bounce rate, reply rate, and overall engagement.
The Health Dashboard
From the Email Accounts list, you can see at a glance:
| Indicator | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Health score 90–100 | Excellent. Account is performing well |
| Health score 70–89 | Good. Minor attention needed |
| Health score 50–69 | Warning. Reduce volume, investigate issues |
| Health score below 50 | Critical. Pause sending, fix problems |
| Status: Connected | SMTP and IMAP are working |
| Status: Error | Connection issue — needs reconnection |
Screenshot: FoxReach email accounts list view showing health scores, connection status, bounce rates, and sent-today counters across multiple accounts.
What Degrades Account Health
- High bounce rate — you are sending to invalid addresses. Clean your lists.
- Spam complaints — recipients are marking you as spam. Improve targeting and copy.
- Low engagement — nobody is opening or replying. Improve subject lines and relevance.
- Sudden volume spikes — going from 10 to 100 emails overnight looks suspicious. Ramp gradually.
Recovery Steps for Unhealthy Accounts
- Pause all campaigns using that account
- Keep warmup running (or re-enable it)
- Reduce daily limit to 10–20
- Wait 1–2 weeks for reputation to recover
- Gradually increase volume once health score improves
Lesson 3.4 — Warmup Best Practices
Keep warmup running even during active campaigns. At least 30–50% of your daily sending capacity should be warmup emails. If an account sends 50 emails/day, keep 15–25 as warmup.
Do not skip the initial warmup period. Four weeks is the minimum. Six weeks is better. The cost of waiting is far less than the cost of burning an account.
Supplement automated warmup with real activity in the first two weeks:
- Send 5–10 personal emails daily to colleagues or friends
- Ask them to reply and mark emails as important
- Subscribe to a few newsletters from the new account
- Reply to promotional emails
Monitor daily during the first month. Check warmup stats, account health, and sent counts every day. Catch issues early before they compound.
Retire accounts that cannot recover. If an account's health score stays below 50 after two weeks of warmup-only activity, retire it and replace it with a new one. Do not try to force a burned account back to life.
Module 3 Quiz
- What is the recommended minimum warmup period before sending cold email?
- What percentage of daily capacity should remain as warmup emails?
- What does FoxReach's warmup pool do?
- At what health score should you pause campaigns for an account?
- What three factors most impact account health?