IP Warm-Up Plan: What It Is & Why You Need To Do It

Wondering if this post is for you?

Of course, it is, especially if your mailing list has more than 200.000 subscribers!

But first things first.

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What Is IP Warm-up?

IP warm-up is the process of establishing a reputation for a new Internet Protocol (IP) address or one that hasn’t been used for a long time.

This involves actions such as sending small-volume bulk emails and gradually increasing the volume according to a plan.

A good warm-up plan helps ensure that both your domain name and IP address build healthy relationships with mail providers, build trust among your subscribers, and increase your chances of landing in their inboxes.

And, instead of sharing the same IP with several other Moosend users, your dedicated IP gives you command of your sender reputation.

A Few Words about Dedicated IPs

Our shared IPs have already gone through a warm-up process and are kept warm. Lower-volume senders and small businesses use shared IPs to transmit bulk emails to their opted-in contacts.

However, you are not fully protected, since if a user decides to upload an unhealthy list or accidentally records a high bounce rate or a high complaint rate, this will affect the IPs shared between users.

Tools like Google Postmaster can give you some great insight concerning your sending. The reports include other senders on your IP, giving you muddy information on your performance.

So, for high-volume senders who wish to build their reputation, having complete control over their sending reputation with a dedicated IP is key to success.

How to Use a New Domain Name Successfully

Email deliverability and pizza have something in common. You can’t rush either.

If you throw all the ingredients onto the dough at once, you should not expect great results. The same applies to sending from a brand-new domain.

Launching a large campaign without preparation can damage your reputation before it has time to build. A new domain needs to build trust gradually.

Here is how to introduce it correctly and warm it up step by step.

Step 1

Using a brand-new domain name for email marketing campaigns is not unusual.

In fact, it’s a very common practice, especially for brands that don’t wish to use their primary domain. So they use a subdomain or a new domain name connected to their brand instead.

In both cases, make sure that:

• Your recipients recognize you
• All the members of your lists have provided their consent to receive newsletters/transactional messages from your domain names

Step 2

Next, you need to set up your email authentication. To do this, you first need to make sure you’re familiar with words like DKIM, SPF, TTL, etc.

Let me give you a hand here.

SPF (Sender Policy Framework): It defines which IP addresses can be used to send emails from your domain.

The correct record will make sure that all the apps you use to send emails on behalf of your domain name are included in your SPF record.

Make sure you set up the values correctly, or merge them with existing values, without exceeding 10 records. Otherwise, the SPF will fail or create errors, and you don’t want that.

If you’re going to use Moosend for your email marketing campaigns, you should put Moosend’s SPF value in your SPF.

It’s a simple TXT record value :

v=spf1 include:spfa.mailendo.com ~all

DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail): This is your second digital signature.

The difference here is that the value for the DKIM record is UNIQUE for every domain name!
And it’s also cryptographic.
And public…

But what also makes this little friend so unique is that it ensures the sender of the message is actually the sender.

This is also a TXT record, and you can learn how to set it up step by step here.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance): An email authentication, policy, and reporting protocol.

It builds on the widely deployed SPF and DKIM protocols, adding linkage to the author (“From”) domain name, published policies for recipient handling of authentication failures, and reporting from receivers to senders, to improve and monitor the protection of the domain from fraudulent email.

Step 3

While you put the dough in the refrigerator and slice your mozzarella, it’s time to analyze your list and “slice” it into pieces so you can easily follow a warm-up plan.

The first step is to identify how many recipients use the most widely used email clients, such as Gmail, Verizon, and Outlook.

Let’s say that my list contains 100.000 email addresses, and from analyzing my list I see that:

• 50% of the recipients own a Gmail email address
• 20% are having yahoo/AOL,
• 20% are under Outlook
• The rest 10 % belongs to small ISPs and business email addresses

Now that you have those details, it’s time to decide how to split the traffic for each mail client.

While it seems very easy to simply start sending emails on the first day to up to 1000 email addresses, on the next day to up to 5000 recipients, and increase the number of emails following a geometric model, there is one factor you are missing in this model: soft bounces.

And that’s because most ISPs won’t accept receiving many emails from a brand new domain name or IP from day one.

So, in order to decide whether to increase your sending volume or not, you need to keep an eye on:

• Rejected messages
• Delays
• Bounced reasons

Through the years, I’ve tested many methods to warm up a domain name. (I also ruined one a few years ago, not so proud of what I did, but I was still young.)

What I learned is that those messages contain valuable information on how you can move forward. Another thing that also matters when you follow a ramp-up plan is the recipients who opened your campaign so far. Because those members are going to be a part of a new band, which will rock your world, named “Most Engaged Recipients!”

Below you will find a warm-up plan that I personally use when I have to handle those cases.

It’s not too aggressive, but it is a plan that never lets me down!

However, if you have a list with more than 700K recipients, we can prepare a Moosend warm-up plan for you to follow!

Tips For Sending Your First Campaign

Now that you’re all warmed up, I think it’s time to put your plan into action.

Here are a few best practices for a successful email marketing campaign.

• Choose your words carefully when creating your subject line, and use a subject line tester to help you out.
• Always a/b test your campaigns to see what makes your subscribers take an action.
• Send your first campaign to your friends or team to learn how you analyze the results of your email marketing efforts.
• Don’t send bulk emails during a warm-up domain from another ESP or another account. Stick with your domain name and the IPs you are using.
• Check your campaign’s links. It’s important to avoid inserting a URL that contains a blocklisted domain name.
• Check your domain name’s reputation using online tools such as Google’s Postmaster tool.
• You are allowed to send to previously-engaged warmed-up contacts every day, as long as you’re sending them something new.
• If you experience a drop-down on any day after the warm-up plan, step back. It is not a retreat. Just create a new strategy.

Following a warm-up plan is a daily marathon. Be prepared!

You’re all good to go

Well, what do you know. Your IP is all warmed up and, oh, by the way, something smells delicious. Must be your perfectly baked pizza.