Every email marketer wants to land their emails in the inboxes of their recipients, and they go to great lengths and follow the best practices to make that happen. If your emails don't land in the inboxes, all your email marketing efforts gradually go in vain.
But your emails may still land in the spam folder. So, why does this happen? Amongst other reasons, having a bad IP reputation can be one of them. What’s worse is that it may not even be your fault.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the effects of IP reputation on the deliverability of your emails and how to improve it to make your email campaigns successful.
What is IP reputation?
IP Reputation is a score assigned to an internet protocol (IP) address based on its past activities, and it reflects the trust level associated with that IP address among internet service providers (ISPs) and email service providers.
Just like individuals or businesses build reputations based on their actions, an IP address accumulates a reputation score based on factors such as the quality and quantity of emails sent, compliance with best practices, and how recipients interact with those emails.
Why is IP reputation important?
Email providers and ISPs rely heavily on IP reputation to decide whether incoming emails should land in the inbox or be diverted to the spam folder. A high IP reputation increases the likelihood of your emails landing in the recipients' inboxes rather than being filtered as spam, whereas a low IP reputation reduces the chances of emails landing in the inboxes.
IP reputation contributes significantly to the overall sender reputation, indicating responsible email practices and boosting the chances of successful email delivery. If you have a great IP reputation, it means that you’re providing real value to your subscribers, and you’ll be rewarded for that.
Consequences of poor IP reputation
A poor IP reputation brings with it a lot of consequences. Some of them are listed below.
Higher bounce rates
Reduced deliverability
Damage to sender reputation
Potential blacklisting
Many people tend to assume that IP reputation is the same as domain reputation. But that’s not the case. Let’s see how they differ.
IP reputation vs. domain reputation
IP reputation pertains to the trustworthiness associated with a specific IP address used for sending emails. This reputation is determined by the history of email activity associated with that IP address. If an IP address is linked to a significant volume of spam or other malicious activities, it can suffer a negative reputation, resulting in potential delays or blocks for future emails sent from that IP address.
Domain reputation, on the other hand, evaluates the overall credibility of the email-sending domain. This broader measure reflects the collective trustworthiness of the domain itself, influenced by its historical practices. A domain with a history of disseminating spam or harmful content will experience a diminished reputation, impacting all emails sent from that domain, irrespective of the individual IP addresses used.
The key differences are summed up below:
| Aspect | IP Reputation | Domain Reputation |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Focuses on a single IP address. | Covers all IP addresses associated with the domain. |
| Impact | Affects emails sent from that particular IP address. | Affects all emails sent from the domain, regardless of IP address. |
| Influence factors | History of the IP address’s email activity, such as spam complaints or blacklisting. | Overall email practices of the domain, including IP address history and the domain’s involvement in spam or malicious activities. |
| Recovery | Improving IP reputation may involve changing the IP address or rectifying issues related to that specific IP. | Improving domain reputation requires addressing issues across all IPs and potentially changing practices or policies at the domain level. |
Factors affecting IP reputation
A number of factors affect your IP reputation in the long run. Let us understand them one by one.
1. Recipients reporting you as spam
When users report your emails as spam, it directly impacts the reputation of your IP address. This reporting typically indicates that the content being sent is perceived as irrelevant or unwanted by the recipients. As a result, a high volume of spam reports can lead to a deterioration in your IP reputation, which may cause future emails from that IP address to be more likely to be flagged or blocked by email providers.
The spam stats below make it clear that your users will flag you as spam if you email too often or send irrelevant emails. Here were the responses of users when the question “For what reasons have you marked a business' emails as spam?” was asked.
2. Using a shared IP address
The reputation of a shared IP address depends on the overall actions of its users. You may be following all the good email principles and sending valuable content. But if other people who use that IP don’t do that, it will get a bad reputation. And your email deliverability will be affected by that. So, it’s best to use a dedicated IP address to have more control over your reputation and deliverability.
3. Not warming up your IP address
You may have just set up a new dedicated IP address and are excited to use it to send emails to your email list. But you can't start sending thousands of emails a day all of a sudden. If you do that, your IP’s reputation will fall. This is because your IP address is still new, and mailbox providers don’t know about it yet. So, the sudden volume of your emails will send a spam signal to the mailbox providers. If you do that, it might indicate to the ESPs that there's some spam activity going on because it doesn't reflect your regular activity.
4. Sending non-targeted email blasts
Email blast is the practice of sending emails to your entire list all at once. Marketers may do this in the hope of getting more conversions but end up hurting their deliverability. Nowadays, every user wants specifically catered and personalized content that matches their liking. So if you send the same email to all your audience, obviously, not all your users will like it and open it. Hence, your open rates will be hurt, giving your sender IP a bad reputation.
5. Not maintaining a hygienic email list
Failing to effectively manage your email list can lead to a range of issues, including the presence of inactive subscribers who no longer wish to receive your emails. These disengaged recipients are less likely to open your messages and may subsequently report them as spam. This increase in spam reports negatively affects your IP reputation, resulting in a decreased trustworthiness of your email-sending IP address.
6. Missing SPF, DMARC, and DKIM authentication
SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are essential authentication protocols that help validate the legitimacy of your email. If these protocols are missing or misconfigured, mailbox providers may suspect your emails are fraudulent or spam, which can damage your IP reputation. Properly setting up and maintaining these authentication methods ensures that your emails are verified and trusted, contributing positively to your IP reputation.
7. Being involved in malicious activity and phishing attacks
If your email domain or IP address becomes associated with malicious activities such as phishing attacks, malware distribution, or other security breaches, your reputation will suffer significantly. Malicious actors can hijack your email systems to carry out these attacks, often without your immediate knowledge. Such activity not only harms your sender reputation but also undermines user trust. Implementing strong security measures and monitoring your email practices can help mitigate these risks and protect your IP reputation.
7 proven ways to improve your IP reputation
There can be many reasons for a bad IP reputation, and you may not be able to improve all of them. But here are seven tested tips you can use to improve your IP reputation:
1. Warm up your new IP address
Don't behave like a spammer if you don’t want to end up in the spam folder. If you send a huge amount of emails with a new IP, the inbox providers will consider you a spammer. To avoid that, you’ve to warm up your new IP by sending your emails to a small group of people and gradually increasing the number of emails you send.
2. Implement a sunset policy
A brick wall will not respond to you no matter how much you talk to it. The same is the case with unengaged and inactive users. For whatever reason, these users have not engaged with your emails for a long time. So it’s time to form a sunset policy, which is nothing but the act of identifying these unengaged users and preparing a strategy to deal with them
3. Avoid spam trigger words
Spam filters may seem like your enemies, but they are your friends. Spam filters are nothing but software algorithms that set up rules to identify spam and emails containing certain trigger words tend to fall prey to them. You must know these rules and take precautionary measures if increasing deliverability is your priority. Not ending up in the spam folder frequently is a sign of good email etiquette, and ISPs will notice and reward you for it by increasing your deliverability.
4. Check and remove your IP address from blacklists
Third-party blacklist databases such as Spamhaus can put your IP address on their blacklist. Since inbox providers use these third-party databases, they may not allow you to send emails or put you in spam folders. This will dent your IP reputation and hurt your deliverability. So check if your IP is blacklisted by these platforms and get it removed as soon as possible.
5. Use a dedicated IP addresses
As discussed earlier in the guide, a shared IP address can harm your deliverability due to the bad actions of other email senders. So, to have an excellent IP reputation set up a dedicated IP address and follow the best email practices and principles.
A dedicated IP address allows you to have full control over your sending reputation, as it is not shared with other senders. This can improve deliverability and ensure that your email practices directly impact your IP reputation service.
6. Implement IP rotation and proxy services
Using IP rotation, where you cycle through a set of IP addresses, can help manage the load and reduce the risk of any single IP getting a bad IP address reputation. Proxy services can also add an additional layer of control and flexibility in managing your IP addresses effectively.
7. Implement strong security measures
Ensure your email systems are secure and protected against misuse or malicious activities such as phishing and malware distribution. Regularly update your security protocols, use strong anti-virus software, and monitor for any suspicious activity to prevent your IP from being associated with harmful behaviour.
3 tools to check IP reputation
There are many ways to check your IP reputation, and we are going to discuss three of those in this guide:
1. Google Postmaster
Google Postmaster is one of the most popular tools for checking your IP reputation. If you send emails at scale to a lot of Gmail users, this tool by Google can give you a pretty accurate picture of your IP reputation. To check your IP reputation with this tool, you must add your domain and verify it.
It provides metrics such as spam complaints, delivery errors, and engagement rates. This tool helps you understand how your IP’s reputation affects email deliverability to Gmail users.
2. Cisco Talos Intelligence IP Checker
The Cisco Talos Intelligence IP Checker helps you check your IP and domain reputation. Enter your sender's IP address and hit search to check your IP reputation.
Then, you’ll see the overview of your IP’s credentials, including its reputation and the summary of IP address data. This tool also tells you if your IP is listed on other blocklists. You can also check that and submit a request to remove it.
3. Sender score from Validity
The Sender score from Validity rates you from zero to 100. If your sender score is between 0-70, it means that your sender's reputation is bad, and you’ve to improve it. A score between 70-80 means that your IP is good, and you’ve to work on maintaining it.
A score above 80+ is an excellent score, and you may even qualify for their certification program, which will provide you with special treatment from the mailbox providers.
Wrap up
A low IP reputation can drastically damage your email deliverability despite the compelling subject lines, engaging email copy, and CTA. But as long as you follow our easy tips, you have nothing to worry about.
IP reputation is only the tip of the iceberg, though. It is equally important to have a strong domain reputation to monitor higher email deliverability. Are you looking to build your domain reputation? Read our guide for some quick-fix hacks!
