Email deliverability is not as easy as hitting "send". It is not guaranteed that all your emails will be delivered.
Here are three things that affect deliverability.
- Infrastructure
- Authentication
- Sender reputation
What is sender reputation?
Sender reputation is a score that an ISP (Internet Service Provider) assigns to an organization that sends emails. It's a crucial component of your email deliverability. The higher the score, the more likely an ISP will deliver emails to your recipients' inboxes.
The sender's reputation depends on bounces, blocks, spam, invalid emails, and successfully delivered emails.
Also - it's not something you can do once and forget about, as the sender's reputation is dynamic and continuously assessed by the Internet Service Provider.
Tip: It is easier to obtain a bad reputation than to build a positive one. On the other hand, when you’re working with a new IP and acting according to best practices - it's easier to obtain a good reputation than to work with an existing one.
Best practices
IP warming is the way you establish your sender's reputation by gradually increasing the volume of emails sent with a dedicated IP address.
How to make sure you’re doing it right?
You need to monitor your email analytics and constantly look for dips in deliverability.
When you add a new dedicated IP address to your account, you need to warm it up. This involves sending small amounts of messages and then increasing them over a period of time. Gradually sending more emails over your new IP allows you to establish a good sender reputation.
Pro-tip: In addition to warming up your IP when you start working with it, you need to repeat it if you haven't sent emails in more than 30 days.