Ramp Schedule

This page governs how quickly you scale sending volume from the club's new subdomain (e.g. mail.highgategc.co.uk) after cutover. The single governing principle is that you advance on metrics, not the calendar. Authentication and list hygiene must be complete before Day 1 — this page covers only the sending ramp.

The shared Mailgun IP is already warm. GHL LC Email delivers via a shared IP pool that handles millions of sends per month. You are not warming an IP — you are building domain and subdomain reputation from zero. That distinction matters: an overly cautious months-long ramp is unnecessary, but a single large blast on Day 1 would still poison your fresh subdomain reputation at every inbox provider.

Definitions

Mailable base

All contacts that are:

Permissioned under UK GDPR / PECR (consent or valid soft opt-in recorded)
Suppression-clean — historical unsubscribes, objections, and hard bounces imported into GHL before any send
Validated — passed GHL LC Email validation / risk-assessment on import
Not an unverified role-based generic address (info@, office@, admin@)

Role-based address note: Suppress generic inboxes from the warm-up. Do not blindly suppress named-role addresses (captain@, secretary@, manager@) — verify whether they are real, active, opted-in individuals first.

Tier segmentation

Segment the mailable base in GHL Smart Lists before Day 1. Use clicks, replies, bookings, and purchases from Intelligent Golf — not raw opens (Apple MPP pre-fetches pixels, inflating opens by ~40–50%; opens are not a reliable engagement signal).

Tier	Definition	Default ramp use
A	Clicked, replied, booked, or purchased in the last 30 days	Day 1. First to receive the Trust Bridge.
B	Engaged in the last 31–60 days	Add once Week 1 metrics are green.
C (strong)	Engaged in the last 61–90 days	Add once Tier B metrics hold.
D	No measured engagement but active membership or no engagement data	60-day fallback only, Days 50–60, with independent monitoring.
E	No engagement 90+ days, prior bounce, prior complaint, or unclear permission	Suppress permanently. Never include in warm-up.

Active base = Tier A + Tier B + strong Tier C.

Throughout this page, the worked example assumes a 700-member club with a mailable base of 700 and an active base of ~500 (70% engagement — typical for a well-run club with clean consent records).

Default Track — Engagement-Gated 7–14 Day Ramp

Use this track when:

Data is clean, consent is clearly documented, and usable engagement history is available from Intelligent Golf
Pre-launch inbox-placement check passes — James's personal inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo) receive the test message in the primary inbox, not spam or promotions
Predicted hard bounce rate is under 0.5%

The ramp below completes in 7–14 days for a typical clean list. It takes 14 days only if a provider shows stress that requires holding a stage; it can reach Day 7 if every gate is green early.

Ramp Calculator

Plan your warm-up schedule before your first email campaign

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Gate check before every step

Advancement is metric-gated, not calendar-driven. Only advance to the next tier when spam complaints are below 0.10% and hard bounces are below 0.50%. If spam exceeds 0.20% or hard bounces exceed 2% (0.30% spam is a hard stop), pause, clean the affected segment, and restart that tier.

Mailable base

Total contacts you intend to email once fully ramped

Data quality

Clean = low-risk list; Messy = older/unverified data

Clean list — 7–14 day ramp schedule for 700 contacts

GHL batch note: GHL has no native send throttle. To stay under 300 emails/hour, split your contact segment manually and schedule sends across hours in the GHL campaign builder. Do not send the full tier in a single blast.

Clean list — 7–14 day ramp plan

When	Tier	Send count	Batch guidance	Gate & notes
Day 1	Tier A	105	1 batch (under 1 hr)	Seed send — establishes domain reputation. Check results at 24 hrs before advancing.
Day 3–4	Tier B	210	1 batch (under 1 hr)	GATEGate: spam <0.10% and hard bounce <0.50% from Tier A. If not, pause and clean list.
Day 5–6	Tier C	350	~2 batches of up to 300 each	GATEGate: spam <0.10% and hard bounce <0.50% from Tier B. Warming momentum building.
Day 8–10	Tier D	525	~2 batches of up to 300 each	GATEGate: spam <0.10% and hard bounce <0.50% from Tier C. Nearly at full volume.
Day 12–14	Full active base	700	~3 batches of up to 300 each	GATEFull mailable base. Maintain gates on every future campaign. Never skip ahead.

🔔

Never-opens reminder

After your first full send, suppress contacts who have never opened any email in 90 days. These drag down your engagement rate and damage domain reputation if left on your active list. Move them to a sunset segment and re-engage with a single win-back campaign before removing permanently.

Gates at a glance

<0.10%

Spam complaint rate (advance)

Read from Mailgun complaint/bounce events — Postmaster is often blank at club volume

<0.50%

Hard bounce rate (advance)

Suppress hard bounces immediately

PAUSE

Spam exceeds 0.20% or hard bounces exceed 2% (0.30% spam is a hard stop)

Clean, suppress, and re-send that tier

Capture • Email Ramp Guide • These numbers are guidance — always verify against live deliverability data

Volume table — 500 active base worked example

Stage	Days	Audience	Daily cap (% active base)	Absolute daily cap	GHL drip rate
1 — Trust Bridge	1–2	Tier A only	~15–20%	~105/day	30–50/hour
2 — Add best Tier B	3–4	Tier A + best Tier B	~30%	~160/day	50–75/hour
3 — Full Tier B	5–7	Tier A + Tier B	~45%	~240/day	75–100/hour
4 — Full active base	8–14	Tier A + B + controlled C	up to 100%	~350–500/day	100–150/hour

Day 1 goes to Tier A — roughly 15% of the active base (the 10–20% range is fine), which for this 700-member worked example is ~105 emails (anywhere from ~50–150 is reasonable). That is large enough to register meaningful positive engagement with inbox providers immediately, yet small and engaged enough that the first signals they receive are overwhelmingly positive. Volume then steps up ~1.5x per stage, widening through Tiers B and C, and covers the full active base inside 7–14 days — gated on metrics, not the calendar.

Day-by-day example

Day	Audience	Volume	Cumulative	Notes
1	Tier A	105	105	Trust Bridge send. Plain or lightly-branded HTML. Reply is the hero CTA.
2	Tier A	105	210	Gate check: 2 consecutive clean days — all green? Advance to Stage 2.
3	Tier A + best Tier B	160	370	Simple HTML now acceptable.
4	Tier A + best Tier B	160	530	Gate check: all green? Add remaining Tier B.
5	Tier A + Tier B	240	770
6	Tier A + Tier B	240	1,010	Gate check: all green? Add controlled Tier C.
7	Tier A + B + controlled C	350–500	~1,360–1,510	Fastest clean path: full active base covered by Day 7.
8–14	Tier A + B + controlled C	350–500	—	If any stage needed a 3rd clean day or an amber hold, full coverage lands here instead. Transition to steady state once the active base is covered.

Gating Algorithm

Advance on metrics, not the calendar.

Apply this rule at every stage transition:

Do not advance until the prior stage shows acceptable metrics across all gating thresholds (see Deliverability Monitoring). The minimum stable period before advancing is 2–3 consecutive clean send days per stage (clean = spam <0.10%, hard bounce <0.50%, auth ~100%). At club volumes Google Postmaster is often blank — read these gates from Mailgun complaint and bounce events, not the Postmaster dashboard; see Monitoring.
Increase volume ~1.5x stage to stage. Use the lower end for mixed data or any amber signal. Use the upper end only for very clean, highly engaged lists with consistently green metrics.
Hold a single provider's share first if it shows stress (rising deferrals, blocks, or complaint signals), before reducing the whole campaign. Resume that provider's share at the prior level once it stabilises.
Maintain near-daily cadence. Consistency trains inbox providers to expect and trust the new sender. Sporadic large bursts are a red flag.
Never advance after a pause. If the ramp was paused due to a threshold breach, return to the last clean stage and hold there until you have 2–3 consecutive clean send days before attempting to advance again.

Metric gates

Metric	Green — advance permitted	Amber — hold; do not advance	Red — pause or stop
Gmail spam complaint rate	<0.10%	0.10–0.20%	>0.20% review/hold · ≥0.30% hard stop
Hard bounce rate	<0.50%	0.50–2.00%	>2.00% pause · >3.00% stop + revalidate
Unsubscribe rate	<0.30%	0.30–1.00%	>1.00% review content and frequency
Auth pass rate (SPF/DKIM/DMARC)	~100%	Any unexplained drop	Any meaningful failure trend — pause scaling
Provider soft bounce / deferral	<2%	2–5%	>5% on a major provider — hold that provider's ramp
Postmaster domain reputation	High or Medium	Medium (watch closely)	Low or Bad — reduce to Tier A only
Click rate / replies / conversions	Stable or rising	Flat	Falling while volume rises — widening audience too fast

Open rate is not in this table. Apple MPP makes opens unreliable as a gating metric. Google Postmaster's domain/IP reputation dashboard was retired on 30 September 2025 — rely on the Postmaster spam-rate Pass/Fail signal and Mailgun analytics for delivery diagnostics. See Deliverability Monitoring.

Advancement decision rule:

All green → advance to next stage (~1.5x volume)
Any amber → hold current stage; re-evaluate after each send day
Any red → pause; investigate root cause; return to prior stage volume; do not advance until green for 2–3 consecutive clean send days
Provider-specific stress → hold that provider's share only; do not advance the whole campaign

Manual Throttling in GHL

GHL has no native per-hour send throttling. Left uncapped, it bursts the entire queue against the shared Mailgun pool (~300 emails/hour on the Flex plan default). A burst of 500 emails in the first few minutes of Day 1 defeats the purpose of the ramp entirely.

Required approach — Manual Drip Mode:

Set GHL to drip at the rate shown in the volume table above (30–150/hour depending on stage)
Schedule sends slightly off the hour (e.g. 09:13, 10:17) to avoid automated-congestion patterns
GHL's in-platform analytics on custom SMTP shows opens and clicks only — diagnose delivery, bounces, and deferrals via Google Postmaster and Mailgun analytics directly
Never send one bulk blast; always batch manually at cutover

Provider-Cap Guidance

Run a domain-family analysis on the imported contact list before Day 1 — pivot the email domain column in the cleaned CSV and document the club's actual split. Replace the illustrative defaults below with real numbers.

Provider family	Ramp approach	Notes
Gmail	Start here; typically the largest share for UK golf clubs	Requires SPF/DKIM/DMARC alignment, RFC 8058 one-click unsubscribe, spam rate <0.10%. Monitor Postmaster spam-rate daily.
Outlook / Hotmail / Live / MSN	More conservative than Gmail in the first fortnight	Microsoft has tightened authentication enforcement. Enrol in SNDS and JMRP for feedback-loop data. Watch for soft bounce / deferral patterns — these often signal pre-rejection throttling before a hard block.
Yahoo / AOL	Similar cadence to Gmail	Requires strong authentication, low complaint rates, and easy unsubscribes. Expects unsubscribes honoured within two days.
iCloud / Apple-hosted	Standard ramp	Open data is meaningless (MPP). Judge performance by clicks, replies, and complaints only.
Corporate domains	Most conservative; ramp slowly	Corporate gateways (Microsoft 365, Proofpoint, Mimecast) vary widely and do not publish quotas. A soft bounce / deferral spike on a cluster of corporate domains means hold that provider's share and investigate.

Illustrative provider split — 700-member club

Replace these with the club's actual numbers after import.

Provider	Est. share of 700 members	Active base share (~500)	Day 1 (~105 sends)
Gmail	~245 (35%)	~175	~37
Outlook / Hotmail / Live	~140 (20%)	~100	~21
Yahoo / AOL	~105 (15%)	~75	~16
iCloud / Apple	~70 (10%)	~50	~10
Corporate / other	~140 (20%)	~100	~21

Distribute the Day 1 volume proportionally — seed reputation across all provider families from the outset.

Seed Panel — Diagnostic Use Only

James holds real, years-old personal inboxes across Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, and Yahoo. These serve two legitimate purposes:

Pre-launch placement diagnostic: Before Day 1, send one test message to each inbox. Confirm it lands in the primary inbox, renders correctly, and passes authentication headers (check via mail-tester.com or MX Toolbox header analysis).
Light one-time positive nudge on the first 1–3 sends only: Include the seed inboxes in the Tier A sends. Actions must be natural and staggered — open, reply, occasionally click. Mark "Not Spam" only if the email actually arrives in the spam folder.

Hard limits:

This is a placement diagnostic and a marginal one-time signal — it is not a reputation engine
Manual on genuinely-used real inboxes only. Never automated, never an orchestrated self-marking routine, never on an ongoing cadence (dormant seed inboxes can trigger a dead-list penalty; AI warming-pattern detection exists)
Never create additional accounts to expand the panel — artificial engagement risks Spamhaus CSS blocklisting
The seed panel is also the only practical per-domain Outlook placement read (SNDS operates at the shared IP level, not the club's domain)

Fallback — 30/60-Day Schedule (Messy or Stale Data Only)

Use the extended fallback only when:

Engagement history from Intelligent Golf is limited, unavailable, or unreliable
Consent evidence is patchy for a meaningful portion of the list
The list is stale (last broadcast more than six months ago)
Hard bounce rate on the first test send exceeds 0.5%
Any amber metric appears in the first seven days of the default track

The gating algorithm is identical — advance ~1.5x only when metrics are green.

30-day fallback table (500 active base)

Week	Audience	Daily cap (% active base)	Absolute daily cap	GHL drip rate
Week 1	Tier A only	~2%/day	~10/day	10–20/hour
Week 2	Tier A + best Tier B	~4%/day	~20/day	20–30/hour
Week 3	Tier A + Tier B	~7%/day	~35/day	30–50/hour
Week 4	Tier A + B + controlled Tier C	~10–12%/day	~50–60/day	50–100/hour

60-day fallback table (500 active base)

Period	Audience	Daily cap (% active base)	Absolute daily cap
Days 1–7	Tier A only	~1%/day	~5/day
Days 8–14	Tier A + strongest Tier B	~2%/day	~10/day
Days 15–21	Tier A + Tier B	~3%/day	~15/day
Days 22–28	Tier A + Tier B + light Tier C	~5%/day	~25/day
Days 29–35	Tier A + B + controlled Tier C	~7%/day	~35/day
Days 36–42	Tier A + Tier B + Tier C	~10%/day	~50/day
Days 43–49	Active base broadly	~13%/day	~65/day
Days 50–60	Active base broadly; Tier D only if metrics strong and compliance confirmed	~16–20%/day	~80–100/day

Tier D (Days 50–60, 60-day fallback only): Include Tier D contacts only if (a) all prior metrics have been consistently green for at least two weeks, (b) there is a clear legal basis for emailing them, and (c) they are sent to in a separate send — never batched with Tier A/B/C — so their metrics can be tracked independently.

Pre-Ramp Checklist

Complete every item before Day 1.

See also: Deliverability Monitoring for full metric definitions, Postmaster setup, and recovery procedures; the Setup Runbook for click-by-click authentication, subdomain, and throttling steps; and Data Prep & Segmentation for exporting, cleaning, and tiering the Intelligent Golf list before Day 1.

Ramp Schedule

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