Recovering a burned domain: what worked, what didn't

Recovering a burned domain: what worked, what didn't

An agency torched a sending domain — opens cratered to 11%, most mail in spam. They tried two recovery paths on two parked sub-setups.

Path A (rehab): 6 weeks Mailreach warm-up, zero cold sends. Result: opens recovered to 34%. Slow, partial.
Path B (retire): bought a fresh domain, warmed 3 weeks, abandoned the old one. Result: 42% opens on first campaign.

Retiring beat rehabbing on both speed and ceiling. A blacklisted domain rarely returns to full reputation.

Pros (rehab): keeps the domain's age signal.
Cons (rehab): weeks of cost, capped recovery.
Pros (retire): clean slate, higher ceiling.

Verdict: 3/5 rehab, 4.5/5 retire.

Who it's for: if you're blacklisted (check MXToolbox), retire. Skip rehab unless the domain has years of legitimate history worth saving.