How to Safely Increase Email Sending Volume

Use this guide when sending to a larger audience or restarting email sends after a period of low activity.

In this article

• Why sending volume matters
• Start with your best audience
• Build a phased sending plan
• Review results before expanding
• Avoid high-risk volume increases
• Use automations carefully

Why sending volume matters

Sudden increases in email volume can create deliverability risk, especially if the list is old, unvalidated, or unengaged. Inbox providers look at how recipients respond to your emails. If too many people ignore, bounce, unsubscribe, or complain, future emails may be filtered more aggressively.

Start with your best audience

Begin with people most likely to recognize your business and engage.

• Recent purchasers
• Recent bookings
• Recent check-ins or visitors
• Active members
• Recent form submissions
• Recent email clickers

Do not start with the oldest or largest list.

Build a phased sending plan

Use a phased approach for large or newly active audiences. Use Patch Segments and AI Segments to help you build segments that fit your customer base.

1. Phase 1: Send to the most engaged segment. 
2. Phase 2: Add recent but less active contacts.
3. Phase 3: Add older contacts only if prior results are healthy.
4. Phase 4: Re-engage inactive contacts separately instead of adding them to the main campaign.

Each phase should be reviewed before moving to the next one.

Review results before expanding

After each send, check:

• Bounces
• Unsubscribes
• Spam complaints, if available
• Clicks
• Replies or customer feedback
• Revenue, bookings, or conversions if tracked

If bounces or unsubscribes are high, pause and clean the list before expanding. Email success@patchretention.com about our built in Email Validation features.

Avoid high-risk volume increases

Do not rapidly increase email volume when:

• The list was just imported.
• The list is more than 12 months old.
• The contact source is unclear.
• The account has recent bounce issues.
• The account has low engagement.
• The message is a broad promotion with weak targeting.

Use validation, segmentation, and re-engagement first.

Use Blasts and Automations carefully

Blasts and Automations can both increase email volume quickly, but they do it in different ways.

A Blast sends one message to a selected audience at one time. Before sending a Blast, review the segment size, make sure the audience is active and relevant, and avoid sending to your full contact list unless you are confident the list is clean and engaged.

An Automation can keep sending in the background after it is turned on. This means email volume can grow without you noticing, especially if the Automation is triggered by imports, bulk updates, synced data, form submissions, or customer activity.

Before sending a Blast or enabling an email Automation:

1. Review the audience or trigger.
2. Confirm how many contacts may receive the email.
3. Use filters to target the right contacts.
4. Exclude contacts who are unsubscribed, invalid, sunset, or inactive where needed. 
5. Send to your most engaged contacts first when warming up email volume.
6. Review performance after launch, including sends, opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, and spam complaints if available.
7. For Automations, check the task log after launch to confirm the Automation is sending to the contacts you expected.

For large or high-risk sends, start with a smaller audience first. This helps you confirm the message, audience, and deliverability look healthy before increasing volume.

Customer Support

If you need help or are not sure which step to take next, contact Patch Customer Support at success@patchretention.com or 888.605.4429.