How to use IP Reputation for great Email Deliverability
Think of IP reputation like your email’s credit score. It’s a rating given to the IP address you use to send emails. The score your IP address holds directly affects whether emails get delivered to customers.
Even if your emails contain the best deals or most essential updates, they are useless if they aren’t seen.
Email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook rely on IP reputation scores to decide whether to deliver your email to the Inbox or spam folder or Block it entirely.
A poor IP reputation can result in lower open rates, reduced customer engagement, and even lower business conversion to sales.
Alternatively, a good IP reputation ensures your emails are trusted and will increase the likelihood of your emails landing in the recipient's inbox instead of the Spam folder. Better overall deliverability rates mean more of your emails reach your target audience. It also helps avoid being blacklisted, which can severely impact your ability to send emails successfully.
What are the things that impact IP Reputation?
- Spam complaints: Early on, I noticed that if recipients marked my emails as spam, my IP reputation took a hit. This is like getting negative reviews; it tells email providers that people don’t want to receive my messages.
- Bounce rates: High bounce rates, where emails are sent to invalid addresses, signal to providers that I’m not maintaining a clean email list. This is terrible news for my reputation.
- Engagement: Low engagement rates (few opens, clicks, and replies) suggest my emails might need to be more relevant or exciting to my audience.
- Volume consistency: Sudden spikes in the number of emails I send can look suspicious. Gradual increases are safer and less likely to alarm email providers.
- Blacklist status: If my IP ends up on a blacklist because of spammy behavior, it’s like being flagged for lousy credit – tough to recover from.
How I improved my IP reputation
Here are some simple, actionable steps I take to boost my IP reputation and ensure my emails land in inboxes:
- Clean my email list: Regularly updating and validating my email list to remove invalid addresses has reduced bounce rates and shown email providers that I’m sending to real people.
- Create engaging content: I’ve focused on making my emails relevant and valuable to my audience. High engagement rates (opens, clicks) have improved my reputation.
- Gradual scaling: Avoiding sudden spikes in email volume and gradually increasing the number of emails I send over time has helped build trust with email providers.
- Monitor your metrics: It has been crucial to monitor bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement rates. I use these insights to refine my strategies and maintain a high sender reputation.
Practical tools for email verification
I started using an email verification tool to maintain a clean email list. These tools help ensure I’m sending emails to valid addresses, reducing bounce rates and improving deliverability.
Abstract API’s Email Validation tool offers real-time email verification, making keeping my list clean and my reputation intact easier.
Implementing these strategies and using the right tools has significantly improved my email deliverability. Let's ensure our emails land where they should—in the inbox, ready to be opened and engaged with.
