Building Trust with ISPs

Internet Service Providers are the gatekeepers of email deliverability. They use sophisticated algorithms to evaluate the reputation of an IP address of if it is a legitimate email sender. A new or “cold” IP address lacks a sending history, making ISPs cautious about the traffic originating from it. Without a warm-up process, your emails are likely to be flagged as spam or even blocked altogether, regardless of the legitimacy of your content. Warming up an IP address allows you to gradually build a positive sending reputation with ISPs, ensuring that your emails are delivered to recipients’ inboxes.

Email Throttling & Warming Up An IP Address

Email throttling involves controlling the rate at which emails are sent from an email server to a recipient’s inbox. It is done to avoid overwhelming the recipient’s server or triggering spam filters. By gradually increasing the sending volume, email throttling helps maintain a positive reputation and deliverability.

Warming up IP addresses, on the other hand, is a process of gradually establishing a good reputation for a new or dormant IP address. It involves sending a small volume of emails initially and gradually increasing the volume over time. This allows ISPs to monitor and assess the sending patterns, ensuring that the IP address is not associated with spam or abusive behavior.

Throttling ensures a steady and manageable email flow, while IP warming establishes a positive reputation for the IP address. 

Avoiding Spam Traps and Filters

As you send out emails, it’s important to avoid being classified as spam. High volumes of emails from a new IP address can trigger spam filters. 

The warm-up period involves starting with smaller volumes and meticulously monitoring the engagement rates, such as opens and clicks, and negative indicators like spam complaints and bounces. This gradual approach helps you adjust your strategy and avoid being ensnared by spam traps.

Ensuring Consistent Email Deliverability

Email deliverability is defined as an email’s ability to reach the intended recipient’s inbox without being filtered out or marked as spam. Inconsistent or erratic sending patterns can be detrimental to your IP reputation. Regularly sending emails during the warm-up process helps to establish a consistent pattern, which ISPs favor. This consistency is paramount in ensuring high deliverability rates in the short term and sustaining it over time. 

Evaluating and Optimizing Email Content

Warming up isn’t just about the IP address; it’s also an opportunity to gauge and enhance your email content. By starting with a smaller audience, you have the flexibility to experiment with different content, subject lines, and sending times. The feedback from these initial emails can offer invaluable insights for optimizing your email campaigns.

Benefiting from Sender Reputation

Remember that an IP address is just one of the factors influencing email deliverability. Domain reputation also plays a vital role. As you warm up the IP address, ensuring that your domain has a positive reputation will maximize the benefits of the IP warm up process. Implementing email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, are instrumental in establishing your domain’s authenticity and trustworthiness.

How Do I Manually Warm Up An Email Address?

Manually warming up an IP address is a strategic and methodical process. It involves gradually increasing the volume of emails you send over a specific period, allowing your IP address to build a reputable sending history.

During this period, ISPs analyze the sender’s behavior, quality of the email list, and relevance of the content. Positive recipient engagement, such as opening emails or moving them to specific folders, strengthens the sender’s IP address reputation. The process also allows senders to monitor and optimize their email campaigns, establishing a strong foundation for future sending.

When warming up an IP, it’s essential to select segments of your email list strategically. It is advisable to begin with internal addresses and targeting your most engaged subscribers before expanding to less engaged ones. The content of the emails should have clear permission practices and provide value to the recipients. The volume and frequency of emails sent during the warmup phase should be carefully managed, with adjustments based on the delivery results.

In this section, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on manually doing it and show you the IP warming best practices.

Step 1: Prepare Your Email Lists

Before you begin the IP warming process, you must start by cleansing your lists to remove any unresponsive or invalid email addresses, including those that have previously bounced or been marked as spam. Next, segment your email list into smaller, targeted groups based on criteria such as subscription date, geographical location, or past engagement. When you begin sending emails, prioritize recipients who have shown high engagement in the past, as positive engagement metrics such as opens and clicks can enhance your sender reputation with ISPs.

For new subscribers, implement a double opt-in process, where they receive an email to confirm their subscription, ensuring both the validity of the email address and the recipient’s genuine interest in receiving your emails.

Step 2: Start With Your Segmented Internal Addresses

It’s recommended to start with internal addresses, such as personal Gmail accounts, especially if you’re building a new reputation or trying to improve a poorly performing one. Some emails may end up in the spam folder initially, but you can move them to contacts or safe sender lists.

Move any messages that land in the SPAM folder to your contacts or safe sender lists, and engaging with recipients who reply to the emails during the warmup process is beneficial.

Gradually send emails to your contact list, focusing initially on hyper-engaged recipients and moving to recently engaged ones. Using welcome messages can be effective as they serve as permission reminders, reiterate your value proposition, and often generate opens and clicks.

It’s crucial to select an email stream with clear permission practices to establish your legitimacy. Maintaining a consistent sending volume across all ISPs is vital to building a reliable reputation. Begin by sending a small volume of emails and increase gradually, paying attention to your delivery results.

If your IP is underperforming, consider slowing down the volume increase to allow your reputation to improve. While IP warming can take up to 60 days, monitoring your email deliverability and engagement rates will help you to adjust the frequency appropriately. If the rates are high, you might speed up the process, but it’s best to slow down if you encounter issues. 

Step 3: Gradually Increase Email Volume

You can start by sending to your contact list, focusing on recipients and mail streams who are highly engaged. Using your welcome message as a trial segment for the new IP is also effective, as it serves as a permission reminder and reiterates your value proposition. Choose a mail stream with clear permission practices to establish your legitimacy as a sender. Begin with a small email volume and gradually increase it as your reputation settles and engagement improves. If the new IP underperforms, it’s important to be patient and consider slowing down the volume acceleration, allowing your reputation to catch up. Most folks can warm up their IPs within 30 days, while others complete the process in as little as 1-2 weeks. Adjust the frequency of your email sending based on delivery results, aiming for good email deliverability and high engagement rates.

The warmup process for an IP address varies for each sender as well as the appropriate warmup volume and frequency for your specific email program. The number of emails you send during the warmup period depends on your total email volume, but it’s crucial to send enough emails at a sufficient frequency for ISPs to track your reputation.

When starting the IP warmup, a good rule of thumb is always best to start small and slowly ramp up to properly warm your IP address. For example, let’s say you begin with 50 emails. The following day, you would send 100 marketing emails. The day after, you would send 200 emails.

How Long Does It Take To Warm Up An Email IP?

There is no definitive delivery rate that applies to all IP addresses; planning an IP warming schedule is done on a case-by-case basis, typically by an email service provider.

Measure your deliverability ratio and engagement rates, if they are healthy, then it’s time to consider increasing the number of emails sent over the given period. A good ESP will have a comprehensive dashboard of all important rates and metrics that will allow you to see, first-hand trends in your email deliverability. From these metrics, an ESP can help determine the best warming up period for your unique IP to achieve maximum deliverability.

If an IP is underperforming, be patient and adjust the sending volumes. The warm-up process may take longer or up to 60 days, though it’s often completed much sooner.

Time To Warm Up Your Email Addresses!

Warming up an IP address does not have a one-size-fits-all approach, as different users have varied needs, goals, and circumstances. The type of emails, whether transactional or marketing, the volume of emails sent, and previous experiences with email service providers (ESPs) all influence the IP warming strategy. For instance, a sender transitioning from one ESP to another has different requirements compared to someone using an ESP for the first time. The volume of emails, whether it’s 15,000 or 740,000 per month, also plays a significant role. Considering all these factors is essential in devising an effective IP warming strategy, and a competent ESP can be instrumental in creating and executing a tailored plan.