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Dedicated IP: The Key to Maximizing Email Deliverability

Ensure the deliverability of your emails with a dedicated IP address. Learn more about what dedicated IPs for email marketing are and how to use one.

Investing in email marketing can give you a significant return on investment (ROI) by driving sales and inspiring repeat purchases. However, email marketing isn't as simple as sending emails to subscribers sporadically. Instead, you need a strategy and ways to maximize deliverability to ensure every subscriber receives your messages.

You likely already know the basics of email marketing. For example, you need a catchy headline, a compelling offer, and subscribers. However, there are still plenty of things about email marketing that small business owners don't know or haven't thought about before, such as deliverability.

Email deliverability is the rate at which your emails reach subscriber inboxes. After all, for your customers to take advantage of your great deals and read communications, they must receive your emails. Unfortunately, some roadblocks can prevent your messages from reaching your loyal customers, hurting your deliverability and driving bounce rates.

Having a dedicated IP address can prevent email bounces and ensure every subscriber receives your emails, but what is a dedicated IP, and how can you start using them to enhance deliverability? Keep reading to learn more about dedicated IPs and how to start sending emails from them to improve deliverability and boost your email marketing ROI.

What is a dedicated IP address?

A dedicated IP address is an Internet Protocol (IP) assigned to websites, users, and servers. Every computer, smartphone, television, and internet-capable device has a unique IP address. A dedicated IP is a static IP address that doesn't change. It's similar to your home IP address since it's unique to your business and email campaigns. However, unlike your computer's IP address, a dedicated IP is used to send bulk email campaigns to subscribers.

Dedicated IP address vs. shared IP address

When you use an email marketing platform, you send emails from a shared IP utilized by many senders. On the other hand, a dedicated IP is only available to your company.

When you send email marketing campaigns from a dedicated IP, you have full control over your campaigns and deliverability. In contrast, multiple users will send emails from a single IP address when utilizing a shared IP, so the platform puts senders under the same address to make it easy for users. Your grouping depends on the email service provider (ESP).

Who needs a dedicated IP address?

Not every business that sends marketing emails needs dedicated IPs. However, they might be worth it if you want total control of your sender reputation and send big campaigns. Companies that send thousands of emails can benefit from using dedicated IP addresses to improve deliverability and have complete control over their reputation.

Sending emails from the same IP address another sender is using can harm your email marketing strategy. For example, if a sender invests in spammy practices, such as sending campaigns to purchased email lists, it can affect your sender reputation because you're using the same IP address. However, a dedicated IP can mitigate these risks.

Ultimately, another sender can cause your shared IP to be blacklisted due to spam filter triggers and deliverability issues that affect your ability to reach customers.

Despite being valuable, dedicated IP addresses aren't a good option for all businesses. For example, if you don't send high-volume emails and have a small subscriber list, you won't be able to build the reputation you need for a dedicated IP. Instead, a shared IP address will help grow your reputation slowly to maximize email deliverability because you can benefit from the trustworthy reputations of other senders using the same IP.

Why should you use a dedicated IP address for email marketing?

Again, not every business needs or should have a dedicated IP for email marketing. An IP address can help establish and build your sender reputation, but a dedicated IP isn't necessary if you're not sending hundreds of thousands of emails monthly. However, if you send thousands of emails a day or every month, it’s a good idea to use a dedicated IP to protect your reputation.

It's important to note that a dedicated IP won't solve all of your email marketing problems. For example, if you have a low ROI, you'll need to improve your email unsubscribe rates and entice subscribers to open and click on your emails. A dedicated IP also won't protect your email list from bots. However, it can enhance your email marketing efforts by ensuring deliverability.

Here are a few benefits of a dedicated IP for email marketing:

Improved email deliverability

Whether you send drip campaigns or transactional emails, you must ensure they reach your customers' inboxes. The primary benefit of a dedicated IP for sending emails is improved deliverability because it gives you control over your sender reputation. This allows you to avoid blacklisting since you aren't grouped under the same IP as spam senders utilizing a shared IP address.

Enhanced email performance

A dedicated IP leads to more consistent delivery rates, allowing you to reach more subscribers, avoid spam filters, and lower high bounce rates due to another sender's poor reputation under a shared IP address. When more emails reach your prospects and customers, you can expect better results that lead to sales and conversions.

Reduced risk of IP blacklisting

Email blacklists are a collection of IP addresses known to send spam emails. They're used by free email providers and internet service providers (ISPs) to prevent spam in inboxes and systems, so emails from a blacklisted IP address are usually filtered out or blocked by the email provider.

If a user utilizes a shared IP address and engages in spammy practices, the entire IP address can become blacklisted, affecting your sender reputation even though you've done nothing wrong.

Investing in a dedicated IP for email marketing can reduce your risk of getting blacklisted and ensure your emails make it to your customers' inboxes.

Customizability

Dedicated IP addresses are flexible and give you more control over your email, allowing you to set up various deliverability options. For example, you can use a dedicated IP to utilize a private domain, create sending schedules based on subscriber preferences, and set your own sending limits to avoid being considered spam.

How do you set up a dedicated IP address?

Luckily, most email service providers make it easy to purchase a dedicated IP for email marketing as an add-on to your regular service.

Here's how you can set up a dedicated IP:

1. Sign up with an email service provider

If you already invest in email marketing, your service provider may offer dedicated IP addresses as an add-on. However, not all ESPs offer dedicated IPs, so you might have to switch providers.

2. Purchase a dedicated IP address

Most ESPs require you to purchase a dedicated IP as an add-on. For example, if you use Mailchimp, your emails are sent from a shared IP address. However, you can buy a dedicated IP for a single user or account at an affordable price.

3. Authenticate your domain

Domain authentication is the process of proving that you own your website domain. Email authentication uses SPF, DMARC, and DKIM protocols to ensure email messages are genuine and that the sender is who they say they are. Authenticating your domain is crucial for email marketing because it allows ESPs to recognize your email as legitimate rather than spam.

4. Connect your dedicated IP address with your ESP

To officially start using your dedicated IP address, connect it to your ESP's settings and assign it to your account. The process varies by domain and email service provider.

If you purchase your dedicated IP as an add-on from Mailchimp, connecting your new IP address is easy. If you need assistance connecting the IP address with your ESP, we're happy to help.

5. Warm up your dedicated IP address

Dedicated IP addresses must be warmed up by sending a few emails and gradually building up the amount and frequency of your emails. This process is crucial because it helps service providers trust you. For example, if you don't warm up your dedicated IP address and instead send thousands of emails at once, it may signal to ESPs that you're spamming their users and result in your emails being marked as spam or blocked.

You don't have a sender reputation when you first purchase your dedicated IP address, so you must build one over time. Warming up your dedicated IP by gradually increasing the volume and frequency of your emails can help you grow your reputation and prevent your IP address from getting blacklisted.

6. Monitor your email metrics

Even after getting a dedicated IP, you'll need to ensure your email campaigns are effective and delivered to your customers. Email automation allows you to track and monitor the performance of your campaigns to ensure deliverability and performance. It's crucial to monitor your metrics after each campaign to find issues and build new strategies to improve performance and reach your sales goals.

Start using a dedicated IP address

If you send high-volume email marketing campaigns, you'll benefit from a dedicated IP that protects your sender reputation. While we do everything in our power to protect your sender reputation through our shared IP addresses, we can't guarantee that every sender uses email marketing best practices.

A dedicated IP can further protect your sender reputation and improve deliverability rates to help you make the most of your email marketing strategy. Get a Mailchimp dedicated IP today.

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