DIAGNOSIS
Do you need email warmup, an inbox placement test, or list verification?
The short answer
These are three different jobs. Warmup builds a mailbox reputation, a placement test shows where mail lands, and list verification removes bad addresses. Buying the wrong one costs money without fixing the inbox. Answer a few questions to find the one job to do next.
When the answer is to warm up nothing
Warmup is not a fix for a broken setup. If SPF, DKIM or DMARC fail, warming a mailbox will not move mail out of spam, so the money is wasted. The same is true when the list is full of invalid addresses: verify and clean it first. Warmup earns its place only once authentication passes and the list is clean, on a mailbox that is new or recovering.
What each job is for
- Email warmup gradually builds sender reputation on a mailbox. It does not test placement or clean a list.
- Inbox placement testing shows where a seed email lands across providers. It measures the current result; it does not prove a change caused it.
- List verification checks and scores addresses so sends do not bounce. It does nothing for reputation. When verification comes first.
In this guide
