Dedicated IP Address in Email Marketing

Is your company using a dedicated IP address for your email marketing? If not, you should be. A dedicated IP protects your email sender reputation, increasing your email deliverability and getting your emails to your email users’ with greater reliability. Here’s everything you need to know about using a dedicated IP in email marketing.

Shared IP vs. Dedicated IP: What’s the Difference?

Your IP address is where your emails are sent from. When you first start sending emails, you’ll choose between either a shared IP or a dedicated IP address. While shared IP addresses tend to be cheaper, there are many reasons why they’re considered inferior to a dedicated IP address.

If you use a shared IP, other companies are sending emails from your IP address. An IP address is one of the factors that is commonly used to determine email sender reputation and to identify spam. If another company is sending spam through your shared IP address, your company’s emails may also be blocked or blacklisted. It can take a lot of time to bring your email sender reputation back if you’re blocked in this way.

On the other hand, when you’re using a dedicated IP address, you’re building up your email reputation. You’re solely responsible for how email filters and spam blocks see your company. As long as you’re able to warm up your email address appropriately, you’ll be able to reach the inboxes of your customers consistently. Moreover, that increases the value of your entire email marketing campaign.

The Many Advantages of a Dedicated IP

There are many advantages to having a dedicated IP address. With a dedicated IP, you’re the master of your own fate. You’re able to control your IP’s reputation on a granular level, from the very start. You’ll manage your DNS records, and you’ll be able to get your IP whitelisted more easily — white listing ensures deliverability of a specific IP address. Over time, your email IP’s reputation will get even better.

It would seem as though dedicated IP addresses are the best option in every way, but there are also some challenges when using one. Since you are solely responsible for your email deliverability, any misstep could significantly damage your company’s reputation. If you’re using a shared IP address, and the other companies are performing well, then you have more opportunities for mistakes.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have a dedicated IP address, but it does mean that you need to be careful when using one. It’s a powerful tool and has to be treated as such. Software solutions such as MassMailer can make the process of protecting your email sender reputation simpler, by providing you with the tools you need to anticipate any issues.

Taking Care of Your Dedicated IP Address

The first thing you need to do with a dedicated IP address is warm it up. You can’t just start sending a ton of emails at once. It would be best if you ramped up slowly, or you’re going to end up being marked as spam. Usually, to warm up an email address, you’ll send progressively more emails based on daily intervals, until you’re at the quantity you desired.

Once your IP address has been warmed up, you need to avoid sending emails that could be perceived as “spammy.” That includes emails with keywords that often relate to spam (such as “pharmaceuticals”), as well as emails that are riddled with errors. Further, you need to send your emails to people who are interested in them: otherwise, the users themselves will mark your emails as spam.

Finally, you need to make sure your emails are sent through an authenticated system, such as DMARC, SPF, or DKIM. This is another area in which the MassMailer platform can help by automating your email authentication process.

Key Takeaway: a Dedicated IP Address is Better, But Needs to be Managed Properly

A dedicated IP address is always going to be advantageous because it lets you have complete control over where your emails are delivered. That being said, you do need to take care of your IP address. If your IP address is ever blacklisted or marked as spam, it’s going to be very difficult to recover it.

Products such as MassMailer can improve your email sender reputation as well as your deliverability, by inspecting your emails before they’re sent, and tracking bounced emails and canceled subscriptions. Through MassMailer, you’ll be able to reap the benefits of a dedicated IP address without having to worry that you could end up blacklisted.

To find out more about the core advantages of MassMailer, check out our live demo.