How do I prepare to use a dedicated marketing IP for my instance?
Sometimes, clients purchase access to their own marketing IP for their instance of Mindmatrix software.
These IPs require special attention and care, because only users within your instance email using this IP. This means that you must pay extra careful attention to abuse, how it is used, and how it is managed by all users.
As an administrator, you may need to --
- Notify and ban certain users from sending emails based on the quality of their lists
- Modify email subject lines to avoid being marked as a spammer
- Update your own lists to ensure that your contacts are current and up-to-date
Warming your IP
New IPs need to be "warmed up". When you receive a new IP from Mindmatrix, you should begin by sending small amounts of emails that are qualified. Any spam complaint or feedback loop can lead to your IP falling in reputation which is difficult to recover. Spend at least the first 2-4 weeks with your IP allowing it to warm to a higher rate.
During this time- if you are unsure about how clean your list is you should:
- Send ~100 emails per day to only validated contacts
- Clean your lists of any contacts older than 6 months
- Encourage users to only send emails to validated contacts, such as end-customers or known prospects converted from forms
Monitoring your IP
Every week, we will send you a report on your IP address' reputation. This report will tell you the current good or bad score of your IP.
Review your score--if it is unusually low, check contact and email reports to review the bounce rates of any users.
A good score is over 90. If your score dips below this threshold, it means a user has sent a blast with a high bounce or feedback loop rate within the last 7 days. You may need to restrict this user from sending or verify that they have cleaned and opted-in their lists.
Sending emails
Once your IP is warmed up, it's important that you send emails consistently. This means that you should try to send emails to qualified contacts every week. Make sure you send to lists that are opted-in to avoid spam complaints and that you segment your lists so that you are sending targeted campaigns
Segmenting lists
Use the recipient/subscription list feature to sort contacts by campaign. You can segment lists so that contacts may unsubscribe based on the messages they would like to receive.
Honoring unsubscribe requests
If a contact asks to be removed from your list, comply with their requests. Continuously sending emails to contacts who do not wish to receive your emails will do more harm to your IP address' reputation in the long run and ultimately hurt your success.
Share reporting with other users
Use tools, such as the hard bounced widget to share reporting with other users. By placing this widget on a user's dashboard or to your own, you can quickly see how much of your contact data base is bounced or in trouble.
Encourage users to review their own campaign performance
Every campaign sent from Mindmatrix tracks feedback loops, spam complaints and hard or soft bounces. Encourage users to review their campaign performance and make adjustments to their lists if they see a high rate of poor feedback.
Restricting users from sending emails
In some cases, you should be prepared to turn off email sending entirely for a given period of time. As a best practice, warn users they are on a shared marketing IP. Make sure that they understand the responsibilities involved with sending emails on an IP like this and the potential consequences should they fail to comply with email sending best practices:
- Always send to opted-in lists
- Do not send to invalid email addresses
- Clean lists of any contacts older than 6 months
- Honor unsubscribe requests or subscription requests
Remember that as an administrator, you may need to disable email sending for violators for a temporary period of time in order to bring them into compliance. This will help other users in your organization and ensure that they are also able to safely send emails to the recipient's inbox.
Email marketing services can only guarantee:
- Emails will be delivered to the recipient server
- Emails will be sent in compliance with CAN-SPAM laws
- Methods of unsubscribe and list management will be provided
The following cannot be guaranteed:
- Sender's emails will not be marked as spam
- Emails will reach a recipient's inbox
However, by following best practices, you can ensure that overall users have the best results possible.
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