Feb
18

Warming Up IP Addresses: 5 Steps for Faster Inbox Placement


tom sather
By Tom Sather
Director, Professional Services

If you had talked to any email marketer 10 years ago and asked them how they dealt with blocks on their IP addresses, the answer would probably be the same: “We just switched IPs.” Not only was this an unfortunate, albeit effective, way to deal with blocks, it also became a common method used by spammers. They would simply send from one IP address for a very short time and then move on to another, either with IPs they owned or through hijacked computers controlled by botnets. Because of spammers’ behaviors, ISPs and email providers respond by temporarily blocking and limiting the amount of email a new IP address could send. ISPs now treat any new sending IP address like a dog on a short leash, and only extend the leash when the senders’ reputation is proven.

As a result of this filtering and blocking behavior, senders are better off improving their sending reputation instead of hopping on to a new IP address. Properly warming up an IP address takes time, and most senders will find it can take a month or longer before they are sending to the volumes they were accustomed to. Fixing a reputation is usually much easier and senders can see better results in matter of weeks, if not days. There are a couple of reasons you still might have to send from a new IP address, such as moving to a new ESP, moving to a new data provider, or moving off of Goodmail. Goodmail had a unique way of tokenizing their customers’ mail by relaying mail through their own IP addresses, and consequently their reputation. Therefore, once you stopped using Goodmail, your traffic now goes through your IPs, which hasn’t had any traffic in awhile, which means you’ll need to work on building up your sending reputation again.

To minimize the impact of having to move to a new IP address, consider the following:

1. Sign up for all feedback loops. When a subscriber clicks on the spam button, that’s recorded as a complaint and is negatively counted against you. You can receive a copy of those that complain by signing up for feedback loops, and then suppress them from future mailings. Treat these complaints seriously by treating them like an unsubscribe request. This can go a long way to reducing your complaint rates and increasing your sending reputation.

2. Authenticate. Make sure that your new sending IP address is in all of your SPF and Sender ID records. Make sure that you’re also signing with DKIM. ISPs like Gmail are tying your reputation scores to your authentication records, which mean that your new IP may be able to get a longer leash if it’s part of your authentication records that have a good reputation.

3. Segment and mail your active subscribers. You can build a good sending reputation much faster if you start by mailing to your most active subscribers first. You’re probably also thinking that this is your most profitable segment so you’re not comfortable mailing to those first since they’ll probably experience delivery issues. While this is true, the pain will be only short lived. By mailing your most active subscribers first, you may decrease your time to warm up your IP addresses by weeks.

4. Monitor. The volume of mail that you can expect to send on an hourly or daily basis is strongly tied to your email reputation, especially during the warm-up period. Monitor your reputation and deliverability by using a seed-list based monitoring system like Mailbox Monitor. This will give you essential information on your inbox placement rates and help guide you on which ISPs you need to focus. I also recommend monitoring your bounce logs on a daily basis and looking for issues that show you’ve exceeded volume limitations. Additionally, monitor your IP addresses at email reputation sources like Sender Score. Once your reputation scores improve, you can start increasing sending volumes, and apply for publicly available whitelists.

5. Get Certified. Being accredited as a good mailer through Return Path’s Certification can minimize some of the scrutiny your new IP addresses will have to go through. Since we’ve already looked at your mailing practices inside and out, you don’t have to get vetted out again by email providers. You can skip the warm-up period and enjoy the benefits of inbox placement and the other benefits that Certification has to offer.

If this looks like a lot of work, then you’re right. To be successful, you need to plan appropriately, be patient, send smarter, and constantly monitor. Whether you’re switching IP addresses or moving to a new ESP, we can help. Contact us at http://www.returnpath.net/contact/ to see how.

  • Great tips. For many senders, unfortunately very tough to implement (especially point 3). Cheers!

  • TamiMForman

    Approved

    Tami Monahan Forman
    +1 646 367 3905 - direct
    +1 917 952 8820 - mobile

  • How is "Getting Certified" a relevant suggestion for warming up an IP address, when part of your requirements for certification is a minimum of 90 day mailing history?

  • Tom Sather

    Hi Bryan,

    There are a few scenarios where the 90-day rule of volume doesn't apply. If you're switching from Goodmail and have to re-establish your reputation, we will provisionally enable your IP addresses in a good faith effort to get your IPs certified again. Additionally, if you've just switched IPs, we can sometimes look at your old IP addresses instead of making you wait to establish volume on your new IPs. We will also want to know when and why you made the switch before we provisionally enable your IPs in this case. If you are currently in the program and need to switch IPs, we don't require any volume on the new IPs. You will get the benefits on your new IPs that you are getting on your existing ones.

    The only case where you would have to wait before getting certified is if you're mailing program is brand new, and that we have no way of determining what type of mailer you are, and the quality of your lists. I hope that helps clarify. Thanks for the great question!

  • Dzeni

    What if we switch from ESP provider like MailChimp, ConstantContact and similiar.
    Would we then be able to skip the 90-day rule ?

  • Tom Sather

    If you're using a dedicated IP address at those ESPs, then if we can see enough data on those IP addresses, we shouldn't have any problem skipping the 90-day rule. If you're on a shared IP address, then the 90-day rule applies for now. We are working on domain-based reputation and certification solution so hopefully by end of year, moving from a shared IP address won't be a problem in cases like these.

  • Number three is the hardest one to get people to implement, glad to have the specialists print it!

  • Tom Sather

    Hi Andy,

    It is difficult to get senders to implement #3, but once they realize that they can resume sending normally and with minimal loss of revenue by targeting the best and most active subscribers, senders are willing to give it a try. Hope this helps in your arsenal of persuasion.

    Thanks!
    Tom

  • Great post! Adding weight to what I preach on disbelievers all day. This can only help, Awesome!

  • Pankaj

    Its a very good article.
    but my question is that when we apply for FBL ISP can easily track for an IP.
    So how can we increase repution?
    email id: pankaj@fecdirect.net

  • I believe you currently need three months of consistent, high-quality delivery from an IP before you can become certified. You mention certification as part of a ‘how to warm up an IP’ article.

    Warming-up an IP can take 2-3 months to fully configure and achieve a stable sending at operational volumes (a month of gently sending, gradually and steadily increasing volumes. After that first month, if it has gone to plan, you can spend the next 4-6 weeks applying for any appropriate whitelists and getting your volumes up to operational level).

    Can you please expand on how can certification help during the warm up process? Because I would not normally consider applying for SSC after this process is complete and I know that delivery is consistent and stable
    Many thanks.

  • Tom Sather

    Hi Steve,

    Like I mentioned in my post to Bryan, there are a few scenarios where you don't need to wait 30s days. If you're moving from Goodmail to Return Path Certification, we're provisionally enabling these IPs to help avoid any serious distruption to your mail program. You are still help accountable for our certification standards during this process (ie minimal complaints, etc.).

    If you've recently just switched IP addresses, but had volume history on other IPs, we can sometimes get you enrolled by looking at the metrics for your old IPs, and we will also need to determine when and why you switched IPs. For example, a good reason would be that you had to switch ESPs. A bad reason would be that you wanted to avoid a block at an ISP or blacklist.

    If you're currently in the Certification program, you can add or switch IPs without any interruption to your benefits of Certification.

    If you're just starting to mail for a new mail program or business, we will need to wait the 90s days to look at your volume since we can't make any assumptions about your mailing practices and data. However, once the 90 days have passed, I would recommend becoming certified to help when you add and/or move IPs in the future.

  • Liz

    Is there a recommended number of emails to send per day, per IP, when starting out with a brand new IP address? Obviously a lot depends on list hygiene and user engagement, but customers always want to know exactly HOW MUCH they can send when we tell them to start off slowly and build gradually (along with following all the other best practices you mention in this post). Thanks!

  • Tom Sather

    Liz,

    As you know and stated, it really depends on your sending reputation as you are warming up your IP address, but here are some general guidelines. The first 24 - 48 hours will see the most throttling from ISPs, so I recommend sending only a few thousand per ISP. Then double that, hold steady for a few days and then double, etc. While doing this, pay close attention to your reputation (you can check senderscore.org), SNDS, and your mail logs for any indication that you went over the allowable limit. If you do go over, hold steady on your volume change for a few days longer and make sure your soft bounce rules don't bounce anything that's reached a volume limit based on lack of volume history. Your bounce logs should tell you if that's the case.

  • Tom Sather

    Hi Liz,

    There a variety of methods that I've seen people employ to warm up IPs. They all should work depending on the situation and how quickly you need to warm up IPs. I recommend sending around 1,000 to 3,000 (per ISP/email provider) for the first 24 hours then doubling that every other day until you've reached total volumes. You'll need to also pause before you ramp up volume and look at your reputation at Sender Score, or directly at the ISP site, like what AOL has. You'll want to make sure that your reputation stays neutral or good during this process. Another approach I've seen that works is taking your monthly volume, dividing it by 30, and having that be your daily sending volumes for the first 30 days. After that, you should be able to quickly ramp up to your daily volumes.

    Like you mentioned, it ultimately depends on your reputation, list hygiene and user engagement, so pay close attention to those metrics as they will dictate how conservative or liberal you need to be with your warm-up process.

    Thanks!
    Tom

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