Many spam messages come from IPs that have never sent email before. Machines become infected with viruses and start sending emails. It should come as no surprise that when senders change their IP addresses, ISPs and inbox providers look at these new IP addresses with suspicion. Some major ISPs throttle the amount of mail that they accept from fresh IP addresses and others filter them more harshly until they can establish a good reputation. When changing an ESP or simply adding more IP addresses to your mail server there are a few things one should keep in mind.
1) Let your readers know
In the world of B2B email, many of your recipients are in corporate domains. By adding some simple text to your email, you can ask your recipients to have any corporate white listings updated to reflect your new sending IP. If they haven’t asked their networking team to white list your domain in the past, this is a good opportunity to give them a reminder that they might want to white list you so that they won’t miss any of your content. It is also possible that these new IP addresses will suddenly be sending to domains that were blocking you before. This reminder allows your readers to help make certain that they continue receiving your emails and serves as a reminder that they may have signed up in the past and hadn’t been receiving your emails from some time. This message should be added to emails both before and after the move to maximize their impact. Because the recipient may not have been receiving your emails it is important to put in each email the date that they signed up for your list as well as which list it was.
2) Start small
Sending large volumes from a fresh IP space is a surefire way to hit blocks. You should slowly ramp up your email program so that throttles won’t keep your mail out. It should probably take you a few weeks to a couple of months to send the same volumes that you did before, especially if you are moving from an IP space that was severely blocked. Especially in these early stages you should aggressively scrub any hard bounces and spam complainers so that the rates quickly reduce. Also pay close attention to spam trap hits. If the lists haven’t been scrubbed vigorously you may need to reconfirm at least portions of your list. By starting small, you can target which lists have the problems and minimize the negative impact that these new sends may create.
3) Put your best foot forward
Before sending email you should always be cognizant of the fact that what you are sending can have a positive or negative impact on both your IP reputation and your brand reputation. This is especially important in the first few months of sending. Relevant content sent at the frequency your subscribers want will help keep spam complaints down. Your readers are your first line of defense when it comes to deliverability. If they want your content and aren’t complaining about it, then the servers that host them will be more likely to work with you to make sure that your subscribers get the message. If you do happen to set off sirens by sending from a new IP it is also important that the emails being seen by the network administrators and anti-spam teams see emails arriving that don’t look anything like spam.
All of these things combined will have positive effects on your reputation in the long term. By keeping complaint rates and unknown user rates low you increase the chance of white listing your domains at the major ISPs. You stand a chance of keeping corporate white lists that are already in place, and potentially gaining some new white listings at corporations that may have blocked you before. Most importantly though, they will help keep your mails from getting blocked right out of the gate.
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