If you haven’t completed initial onboarding yet, follow the Quick Start Guide and/or the Setup Wizard Documentation first. This article is a reference guide for how Sender Profiles and Engagement Rules work in InboxAlly once your account is set up.
Seed emails: what they are and when to download them
On the Seed Emails page, you’ll find a list of seed emails to download.
Seed emails are InboxAlly-owned email addresses that you send to so InboxAlly can:
- assess your sending platform’s deliverability, and
- perform engagement actions (opens, clicks, moves, etc.) to help improve inbox placement.
In most cases, you only need to download your seed emails once (unless you change plans, including upgrading from a trial). You can always return later and download them again.
You’ll see two download options:
- Download the full list (all seed emails)
- Download a range (useful if your sending platform makes segmentation difficult)
When you download a range, the file name includes the range for easier uploading/management.
⚠ Important: If you cancel InboxAlly or your trial ends, stop sending to the seed emails. Your emails will no longer be engaged with, and continuing to send to them could negatively affect your overall deliverability.
Sender Profiles: what they are and how they’re used
A Sender Profile defines the rules for mail sent from a specific From address (or IP address, depending on your setup). Sender Profiles also group your results so you can view reporting as separate broadcasts.
Key points:
- Each Sender Profile is tied to a verified sender email that is not attached to another Sender Profile (even if that other profile is inactive).
- When you create a Sender Profile, InboxAlly generates a default name with a timestamp.
- You can rename it to something more recognizable (e.g., a client name or list name).
- This name is only visible to you.
Sender Profile limit (and how to manage it)
Your plan’s Sender Profile limit applies to active profiles only (not profiles you’ve marked inactive).
If you need to send from a new From address but you’ve reached your limit:
- Deactivate an existing Sender Profile.
- Create the new Sender Profile.
- (Optional) Reactivate the old profile later.
⚠ 12-hour warning: Do not mark a profile inactive if a broadcast was sent from a From address in that profile within the last ~12 hours. Seed emails are only tracked and engaged with when the From address matches a From address in an active Sender Profile.
You also have the option to purchase additional Sender Profiles.
Engagement Rules: what they control
Engagement Rules determine what actions InboxAlly’s seed emails take when they receive your broadcasts (for example: open, click, reply, move to inbox, etc.).
You’ll find Engagement Rule presets on the Sender Profile page. You can:
- choose a preset that matches your situation, then tweak settings, or
- start by changing settings directly (which will create a “Custom” configuration).
Engagement rule presets
| Rule Preset | Description |
|---|---|
| Default | For general sending |
| Traditional warmup | Use this when you have a cold domain or IP. Also be sure to ramp up slowly and spread your sending throughout the day if possible. Contact us if you need help with a ramp up schedule. |
| Domain & IP reputation repair | Use this when you are having trouble getting out of the spam folder. Also, if possible, it's best first to stop sending to your own list and instead send to just our seeds for a week or two. Before using our service, you should first check and get your domain/IP delisted from any blacklist. |
| Reputation boost | Use this when you have been sending to one or more lists on a regular basis and feel you have experienced a drop in opens. Send to our (highly engaged) emails about 4 hours before sending to the rest of your list with the same exact subject, content and from-address. Mailbox providers will learn from our highly engaged seeds as part of your "real" broadcast. |
| Reputation protect | Use this when things are going well but you want to make sure you keep up your good reputation, especially if there is something special coming up such as holiday sale, new product launch, or other important announcement. Send to our (highly engaged) emails about 4 hours before sending to the rest of your list with the same exact subject, content and from-address. This will make it seem as our highly engaged seeds are part of your "real" broadcast. |
| Custom | When you tweak any of the settings, you will see a radio box titled "custom" appear in a selected state. |
When you’re finished adjusting your rules:
- Click Apply instructions, or
- Click Apply instructions & view emails to see your seed emails with instructions applied.
How InboxAlly randomly applies engagements (and why)
Every night at 12:00 AM in your profile’s local time, InboxAlly randomly reapplies your rules to your seed emails.
This is intentional: it makes interaction behavior look more natural. If every seed email performed the exact same actions every day, it could look unnatural to mailbox providers.
If you’re sending to the same seeds from the same From address more than once per day, you should reapply instructions manually:
- Open the relevant Sender Profile(s)
- Scroll to the bottom and click Reapply instructions
Reporting and analytics (where results appear)
Once you start sending campaigns that include seed emails, you’ll begin seeing placement data in reporting. As you send day over day, you’ll be able to track changes in placement over time and review results by broadcast.
For deeper interpretation of results, see the KB article on Analyzing Engagement.