Smart Warming and how it applies to you

Smart Warming (SW) is a beehiiv process that runs quietly in the background, and it only applies to those who move from using the beehiiv shared domain to send their publications, to using a custom domain.

The automated SW process involves gradually increasing email volume on your custom domain to build its positive reputation. It is enabled by default in your account, so anytime you switch to a custom domain for sending emails, Smart Warming kicks in. It's like prepping your domain's reputation to avoid delivery hiccups.

How Smart Warming works

Smart Warming functions by building a unified sending reputation for three crucial email elements tied to a custom domain: the domain name, the sender, and the IP address of the server that sends the email. This trifecta ensures a comprehensive warm-up, even if your custom domain has already been used for email sending, it will still need to be warmed up.

Smart Warming is essentially the process of identifying the positive association between the sender, IP address, and the custom domain.

• After setting up a custom domain in your account and verifying it to be used as your email domain, Smart Warming gradually increases the email sending volume from that domain.
• The SW process typically spans about 4-8 weeks for accounts with a sending frequency of more than once a week. For publications that send less frequently, the Smart Warming duration may extend longer.
• For accounts that are using sending lists with fewer than 200 subscribers, SW is unnecessary; your new custom domain will be activated immediately.

Reasons the process might take longer

• Limited Volume: If you are not sending to your full subscriber list, or if the publication lacks sufficient post sends, the SW process may take longer. It's recommended to increase the sending frequency for efficient warming.
• ESP Signals: In some cases, ESPs like Gmail or Outlook may signal us to slow down due to factors such as high deferrals or low opens. When this happens, we adjust the sending strategy based on the signals to ensure a smooth SW process.

Why Smart Warming matters

• Smart Warming prevents deliverability issues by gradually warming up your custom domain.
• It ensures a successful transition to a custom domain without affecting your subscribers' experience.

What to expect

• During the SW process, nothing will change in terms of your subscribers’ experience, they will still receive the newsletters that you send; the only difference is which domain the emails will be sent from.  
• The automated process begins by gradually introducing your custom domain to your subscribers. Initially, only a small subset receives emails from your custom domain, while the rest continue to receive emails from the beehiiv domain. As time progresses, we incrementally increase the volume until every subscriber exclusively receives emails from your custom domain, marking the completion of the SW process.
• Smart Warming generally lasts for about 4 weeks as we ramp up email sends on the new domain, then once the process is finished, all of your emails will be sent from your custom domain as intended.