Build reputation and check placement with seed lists

A seed list is a set of inboxes run by a deliverability vendor, such as Warmy. When a broadcast goes out, a sample of those inboxes gets a copy along with your contacts. Vendors use those copies in two ways:

• To build your sender reputation. The vendor’s inboxes open and read your email, click its links, and move it out of spam or Promotions. Mailbox providers see that as good engagement with your sender. It helps a new domain or IP earn trust, and a damaged one recover. See Seed lists and warming.
• To check placement. The vendor reports where each copy landed: the inbox, spam, or a tab such as Promotions.

What a vendor’s inboxes do, and what it reports, is up to the vendor. Warmy’s do both.

Unlike a deliverability test, which sends one copy before the real send, a seed list rides along with the real send. The copies leave from the same senders, through the same sending service, at the same point in the send as your contacts’ emails.

Seeds aren’t contacts. They never appear in Contacts, segments or lists, and what they open or click never counts in your broadcast reports, engagement, scores or website traffic.

You can add a seed list two ways:

• From Warmy. Connect Warmy and pick its lists. RadarSend copies the addresses and keeps them current as Warmy rotates them.
• By hand. Paste or upload the addresses any vendor gives you.

Before you begin#

• You need to be an admin in RadarSend to connect Warmy and to manage seed lists. Anyone who can send a broadcast can include seed lists in it.
• Your vendor only trusts mail from senders you’ve registered with it. Register the sending addresses you’ll use in your vendor’s account first. Mail from an address it doesn’t know can be marked as spam.

Connect Warmy#

1. In Warmy, create an API key under Workspace › Settings › API Keys. Note your Holder-Uid too. It’s your Warmy account ID.
2. In RadarSend, go to Settings→Integrations→Warmy and click Connect Warmy.
3. Paste the API key and the Holder-Uid, and click Connect. Warmy checks the key before anything is saved, and RadarSend stores it encrypted.

Next, tell Warmy where to send updates. Until you do, the page shows Finish connecting Warmy.

1. On the same page, copy the Webhook address.
2. In Warmy, open Notification Hub, add that address as a webhook, and turn on the seed list events.

When the first update arrives from Warmy, Last update from Warmy shows when, and the reminder goes away. The first update may not come until a list changes or rotates.

Using one Warmy account for several RadarSend workspaces? Connect it in each one. They all show the same webhook address, because Warmy keeps one per account, so you only add it in Warmy once.

Add lists from Warmy#

1. On Settings→Integrations→Warmy, click Add lists from Warmy. You can also click Add from Warmy on Settings→Deliverability→Seed lists.
2. Tick the lists you want. Each shows its mailbox provider, how many seeds it has, when it next rotates, and the senders registered on it.
3. Click Add list.

Only lists with one of this workspace’s senders registered on them are offered, so a Warmy account shared by several workspaces never mixes them up. If your Warmy account has more lists than the picker checks, enter a list’s ID from Warmy under Add a list by its Warmy ID.

Each list arrives with its addresses and with the senders Warmy has registered on it already attached. It’s named after its Warmy ID and provider, such as “Warmy 22546 · Gmail”, and set to rotate every 30 days with 5 days’ grace, as Warmy’s lists do.

How Warmy lists stay current#

When a list changes or rotates in Warmy, Warmy tells RadarSend through the webhook, and RadarSend reads the whole list again from Warmy with your key. RadarSend never checks Warmy on a timer, so updates depend on the webhook being set up.

On the list’s page, the Warmy card shows whether it’s In sync and when it last synced. Click Re-sync from Warmy to read the list again now.

If an update would cut a list to less than half its size, RadarSend holds it and asks first: Warmy’s list is much smaller than this one. Click Apply to take Warmy’s list as it is now, or Dismiss to keep yours. A dismissed change leaves the list marked Out of sync until the next update from Warmy.

Add a seed list by hand#

For a vendor other than Warmy, or a list you keep yourself:

1. Go to Settings→Deliverability→Seed lists and click New seed list.
2. Enter a Name. Add the Vendor and a Vendor dashboard link if you like, so the list links to where you read the results.
3. If the vendor replaces its mailboxes on a schedule, leave This list rotates on and set the Rotation period (days) and Grace period (days). See Rotation.
4. Turn on Include in broadcasts by default if every new broadcast should carry this list.
5. Click Create list.

Then add the addresses:

1. On the list’s page, click Update addresses.
2. Paste the addresses or click Upload CSV. Anything that isn’t an email address is ignored. One update can carry up to 10,000 addresses.
3. Choose Replace the whole list for the vendor’s full current list, or Add or remove addresses for just what changed.
4. Click Preview changes to see what will be added, brought back and retired, then Apply changes.

An address that’s also a contact in your workspace is held as Also a contact and never sent a seed copy.

Finally, choose which senders carry the list. Click Edit senders, add the senders you registered with the vendor, tick the box confirming each one is registered, and click Save. Seeds only go out with broadcasts sent from these senders.

Include seed lists in a broadcast#

On a broadcast’s Review & Schedule step, the Seed lists card shows each list this send can carry, about how many seeds will get a copy, and which sender they’ll come from. Turn on Include to send to them.

A list is on by default if Include in broadcasts by default (or In new broadcasts, on the list’s page) is on. Lists added from Warmy start with it off.

A list that can’t go with this send is listed with the reason, such as Not in this send: its senders aren’t sending this broadcast or it’s out of date.

How many seeds go out:

• At most 5% of the audience, and at least 10 while the list has them. A 1,000-contact broadcast carries up to 50 seeds.
• Spread across providers in the list’s own proportions, using the seeds that were sent to least recently first.
• One copy per seed every 20 hours at most, as vendors ask. A seed that got a copy recently waits for a later broadcast.
• Outside your warmup limits. Seed copies don’t use up a sender’s daily warmup cap.

Seed ramp#

To start a large list gently, turn on Seed ramp on the list’s page. The first broadcast carries 100 of its seeds, and each broadcast whose copies go through doubles that, up to the whole list. Going through means no copy was refused and fewer than 2% bounced. Otherwise the ramp waits at its step, and the list shows Ramp waiting.

A list that goes without a seeded broadcast for a while starts again at 100. That gap is 14 days unless you change it, and you can turn it off. After a reset, the card offers to Continue at the level it had reached.

The 5% limit still applies, whatever the ramp’s step.

Seed lists and warming#

Seed lists work alongside RadarSend’s warming, not in place of it. Warming paces how much a new domain sends each day. Seeds add engagement from the vendor’s inboxes to each of those sends.

• Seeds don’t use up warming. A seed copy takes no part of a sender’s daily warming cap, and it goes out with its broadcast even on a day that cap is reached.
• Seeds don’t count toward warming either. Seed copies don’t help a domain send enough to move up a tier. What seeds open or click never counts as your audience’s engagement.
• Every send counts while you warm. Lists added from Warmy start with Include in broadcasts by default off, so turn it on for a list you want on each broadcast. For a large list, turn on Seed ramp so the number of seeds grows with your sends.

See the results#

• Where each copy landed (inbox, spam or a tab) is in your vendor’s own placement report. RadarSend doesn’t show placement.
• On the broadcast’s report, the Seed lists card shows how many copies were sent and delivered, what the seed inboxes clicked or visited, and a line per mailbox provider. Show all copies lists each one. See Broadcast reports.
• On Settings→Deliverability→Seed lists, each list shows its seeds, its copies over the last 30 days and its status, with a By mailbox provider table across all lists.

Many vendors’ seed inboxes don’t load images, so their copies often show clicks but no opens.

Rotation#

Vendors replace their seed inboxes from time to time. Warmy rotates its lists every 30 days and keeps the old addresses working for 5 more days. A list’s status follows its rotation date:

A Warmy list updates itself when Warmy rotates it. A list you add by hand needs Update addresses with the vendor’s new list.

Disconnect Warmy#

1. Go to Settings→Integrations→Warmy.
2. Click Disconnect.

Lists you added from Warmy keep their addresses and history, but stop updating from Warmy, so you’d update them by hand. Any change waiting for you is dismissed. If you connect again and add the same Warmy list, RadarSend picks up the list you already have, with its history. Other workspaces connected to the same Warmy account aren’t affected.

Common issues#

• Add lists from Warmy shows no lists. None of your Warmy lists has one of this workspace’s sending addresses registered on it. In Warmy, add one of your senders to the list, then try again.
• “Warmy stopped accepting the key”. The key was deleted or changed in Warmy. Click Update key and paste a new one. Lists from Warmy stop updating until you do.
• “Finish connecting Warmy” doesn’t go away. No update has arrived from Warmy yet. Check the webhook address in Warmy’s Notification Hub and that the seed list events are on. It clears with the next list update or rotation.
• A list isn’t on the Review & Schedule step. Its senders aren’t sending this broadcast, it has no active seeds, or it’s out of date. The Seed lists card says which.
• Some senders send no seeds. A sender’s address changed after it was registered with the vendor. Register the new address with the vendor, then confirm it again under Edit senders.
• Copies refused. The mailbox provider rejected the copies, which usually means it’s blocking that sender. Your real contacts at that provider likely got the same. See Bounces and suppression.

Good to know#

• Seed copies are kept for 90 days. After that, the broadcast’s report still shows its totals and providers, but not the list of copies.
• Pausing or retiring a seed by hand sticks. On the list’s page, select addresses and click Pause or Retire. A retired address isn’t brought back by the next update. Restore it from the Retired tab.
• A seed whose mailbox no longer exists is retired. Its copy bounces as Address gone, and the vendor’s next rotation usually replaces it.
• Keep lists current from a script. The Seed lists API can replace or update a list’s addresses.