The perfect e-mail campaign doesn’t happen by accident. You meticulously revise the copy, fine-tune the graphics and segment your list, but sadly, your message isn’t worth its weight in kilobytes if it never lands in the inbox.
Deliverability isn’t merely important, it’s crucial. A dedicated IP address can strengthen your deliverability by isolating your outgoing mail and reputation on a single, private IP address.
All e-mail originates from an IP address, a unique identifier for the computer sending the message. Many e-mail marketing software companies offer two means of message delivery – either via a pool of shared IPs or a dedicated IP address.
In a shared IP scenario, your outgoing mail originates from the same group of IP addresses as other customers, subject to the fluctuating reputation of the senders in the pool. Alternatively, a dedicated IP isolates your mail – and only your mail – to a single, private IP address.
Reputation is everything. The history of good and bad e-mail messages originating from the sender’s IP address continues to be an important deliverability factor. In fact, 77 percent of delivery issues occur because of the sender’s reputation, according to leading deliverability and reputation firm Return Path.
By choosing to send your e-mail through a dedicated IP address, you gain control of your reputation and ensure it will be influenced only by your sending activity and history. In doing so, you realize the benefits of your strong reputation and eliminate the possibility that another sender’s activity will influence your deliverability.
However, it also means that you must consistently employ best practices in your e-mail marketing to ensure maintaining your good reputation.
A dedicated IP address requires no special set-up on your part. If you use a hosted e-mail marketing solution, your provider will generally take care of the initial implementation and will establish feedback loops and whitelist relationships with major ISPs, including AOL, MSN, Hotmail, Juno, NetZero, and RoadRunner.
