The struggle to create exceptional email campaigns while ensuring that they land in recipients' primary inboxes rather than spam folders is a challenge that plagues many marketers. The harsh reality is that over 20% of all emails either end up in spam or not delivered at all. This even happens to “good” senders that follow best practices. We're all in this journey to master email deliverability, and one way to achieve that is by warming up a new email domain and IP address. But have you ever considered using an automated email warmup service? Before you take that step, it's essential to know what these services are and their potential drawbacks.

An automated email warmup service connects your email account with hundreds or even thousands of other customers to send and receive emails among them. The goal is to warm up your domain by gradually increasing the email volume you send, mimicking natural growth.

It sounds like a great idea, right? Unfortunately, some of these services come with some significant disadvantages that you need to be aware of before signing up.
 

1. Ineffectiveness for many

Although these services pool your email with others, Google and Outlook can detect that your account is being manipulated by automation. While it may work well enough for small amounts of email, larger volumes tend to be less effective due to inbox providers recognizing common patterns among users. Plus, you have limited control over the warmup process itself.

2. Reduced functionality with ESPs

Do you use an Email Service Provider (ESP) like MailChimp, Klaviyo, or SendinBlue? Most warmup services aren't compatible with these platforms. And, even the ones that do work with ESPs don't send emails the same way you usually would, instead using SMTP or an API, which means the warmup results might not translate to "real" sends.

3. Public visibility of your email content

When connecting with a warmup service, you’re potentially letting your competitors or other customers see your emails and the content you're sending. You can check this by looking at your sent emails folder to see who your emails have been sent to, or by looking at your inbox or archived emails, and seeing that content and from whom it was sent.

4. Security issues

Warmup services require full access to your email account which means you're not only sharing access to all the emails you have ever sent but also all the emails you have received. This can include your customer list, sensitive information, and even personal data. While you may trust the company, can you be confident that none of their employees or contractors will conduct unauthorized activities or misuse your data?  Also, are they based in a country with whom you are comfortable with, which follows international business law?

5. Lowered deliverability due to spammers

Spammers on the same warmup service can lessen the effectiveness of these services or even hurt your deliverability. Inbox providers can detect when multiple emails emanating from the same platform are warming up (regardless if you paste in your own template), flagging it as potential spam. As a result, using a shared warmup service can inadvertently harm your email campaign and deliverability.

6. Easily detectable non-human activity

While humans engaging with emails they receive is ideal, robotic engagement through APIs or automation can be easily detected, rendering the service significantly or totally ineffective. Moreover, your email account may be temporarily disabled if it is frequently accessed from various geographies or machines. Additionally, these services do not allow you to simulate a realistic sending process, where an email broadcast is sent and interacted with gradually over an extended period. This can lead inbox providers to recognize the automated nature of the engagement..

7. Cluttered inbox

Due to the services sending emails back and forth among multiple email accounts, your inbox may become cluttered with random messages and replies that are difficult to distinguish from genuine correspondence. Although some services allow you to include a code for filtering purposes, using a code can also be used as a trackable fingerprint for inbox providers to detect.

8. IP/Domain Repair Capabilities

If you do not necessarily need to warm up a new email account, but instead want to repair a damaged one with deliverability issues, most warmup services can't do that. (Most don’t even pretend nor claim they do).  This is because they don’t have the efficacy due to reasons mentioned above or simply not enough emails for large senders to send to make a difference.

Conclusion

So, while it may seem tempting to speed up the warming process with an automated email warmup service, the majority of these services have potential issues that may likely outweigh the benefits.

The bottom line is: Weigh the pros and cons carefully before jumping on board with an automated email warmup service. Explore other alternatives like InboxAlly to determine what works best for you and your email marketing campaigns. And remember, the key to a successful email campaign is ensuring it reaches your recipients' primary inboxes without jeopardizing your domain, IP address, and email security.

Darren Blumenfeld is the founder of InboxAlly, an email spam fix/warmup solution that avoids the pitfalls of other solutions.