Improving Email Deliverability for New or Cold IP Addresses
Email marketing is a science that includes research, trial and error and analyzing your past performance. Following “best practices” for email deliverability is essential to your success.
Strategies for New IP Addresses
Your new IP address or one that has been inactive for some time (also called “cold”), needs time to build up its reputation with the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). So as you begin to use your IP address for email marketing, it is best to “warm up” by sending emails using methods that allow the ISPs to begin to recognize your IP address as a reputable source.
IP Warming is critical to email deliverability! You need to establish that your IP address is authentic with the ISPs. Here are some useful suggestions to get you warming:
1. Plan – Create a campaign that will engage your targeted audience.
You want to be memorable. When building your campaign, learn what it takes to construct an email that will engage the user and make them want to click to open.*
2. Proper list hygiene makes a difference.
Make sure you have a clean list from a reputable source. Alternatively, if you use a list, your company has built up over time; use the most recent one and weed out email addresses that appear incomplete or not correct.
3. Use the first 30-day formula.
Although you can never guarantee what an ISP will consider SPAM, most of the larger companies recommend that you send out the following number of emails over the first 30 days:
- Day 1 through 7 20,000 per day
- Day 8 through 14 40,000 per day
- Day 15 through 21 80,000 per day
- Day 22 through 30 160,000 per day
4. Check the ISPs on your list and consult their rules pertaining to email deliverability.
5. Practice send-time optimization.
Most email delivery providers calculate the best time to send an email by engagement and volume. If you are just starting out you want to optimize your open rate, as it will assist in warming your IP address.
These techniques will increase your odds for optimal delivery and decrease the chances of deferrals, bulk folder placement and IP blocking. But remember, it all goes back to the science. Plan, execute and measure. This is where an email marketing automation company can make the difference. To learn more about IP warming and other email delivery best practices, contact us today!