Sending pace

Why a send doesn't always go out at once

Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook decide what lands in the inbox from what they've seen of a sender: how many of its emails bounce, how many people mark them as spam, and how fast its volume grows. Wabimail sends in a way that keeps your newsletter on their good side, so your emails reach the inbox.

Most issues go out at once. Two kinds go a little slower, and the send step tells you before you send: new contacts, and a new domain's Gmail readers.

New contacts in steps

The first time you email contacts who never got an email from you, like a list you just imported, they get the issue in steps, 30 minutes apart: 2% of them first, then 5% more, then the rest. Each step goes only if the ones before have few bounces and spam complaints. Most bounces come back within minutes, so a list with bad addresses stops after a few hundred emails, before it hurts your sending reputation.

With no more than 200 new contacts, they all get it at once. First sends in steps

A new domain and Gmail

Gmail is careful with the first emails from a domain it doesn't know, and holds back the ones that come too fast. So on a new domain's first day, Wabimail sends an issue to its first 2,000 Gmail readers, and the others get it the next day. Readers on other inboxes get it right away.

A domain is new when it's:

• a domain of your own, on its first day, unless its registration shows it's more than 30 days old.

A domain of your own that's older, like one you already send newsletters with, isn't held back: everyone gets the issue right away. Add your domain

When Gmail asks to slow down

Sometimes Gmail still finds a domain's emails unusual. It then holds them back and asks the sender to slow down. Sending on would make it worse, so Wabimail pauses the sends from that domain for 6 hours and emails you. Then they go on by themselves: Gmail gets half the emails the domain sent it the day before, spread over the day, and twice as many each day after, for 3 days. Resuming earlier, or moving to another domain, still waits for those hours.

If it keeps happening, the contacts probably didn't expect your emails: check where they came from before you send again. Bounces, complaints and pauses

Where you see it

Only when a send won't go out at once, the dashboard shows a box with a part for each reason: the steps with their numbers, how many Gmail readers get it today and how many the next day, and why.

• The send step shows it before you send or schedule an issue.
• A campaign's page shows it while the issue goes out: the step it's on and when the next one goes, and when Gmail's readers get it. A campaign Gmail paused says when it starts again.