Ramp-up

What is IP Warm-up?

IP warmup is the practice of gradually increasing the email volume sent with a dedicated IP address. This gradual process helps to establish a reputation with ISPs (Internet Service Providers) as a legitimate email sender. The IP address – which Spotler controls – works hand-in-hand with the sending domain to generate your sending reputation.

When an ISP observes email suddenly coming from a new, or “cold”, IP address, they’ll start evaluating the traffic coming from that IP. ISPs treat email volume as a key determining factor when detecting spam (and therefore affecting the sender reputation), so it’s best to begin sending a low to moderate volume, eventually working your way up to larger volumes. This gives the receiving email providers a chance to observe your sending habits and record how your recipients engage with your email.

Spotler have a very useful article on this subject, including hints and tips, which you can find here.

What is Ramp-up?

Ramp-up refers to the process of ‘ramping up’ your send volumes to your typical send volumes. For example, if your weekly send volume is around 50k emails, a ramp-up plan would be utilised that would gradually increase your weekly sends until you reach full send volume.

IP warm-up and ramp-up typically go hand in hand with each other.

IP Warm-up and Ramp-up strategy

As a general rule, if you are sending fewer than 3,000 emails a week, you will not require a warm-up plan; however, it is still a good idea for you to use the batch settings option within a GatorMail campaign to ensure your first few campaigns are sent in batches instead of a sudden launch of multiple emails from a new IP address.

IP warm-up and ramp-up initial send volumes need to be spread out over multiple days; for example, if you plan on sending up to 50,000 emails a week, you should split your Audience Group into several sub-groups with a starting limit of no more than 4,000 recipients in each group. Email only one sub-group per day over the first few days. As time passes you can increase the daily volume and monitor spam reports, group hygiene, user engagement, domain and IP reputation, content, and more. If you see any issues stop immediately and resolve before sending more. Otherwise continue until your desired volumes are reached.

You may not need a warm-up and ramp-up. If you are working alongside our Professional Services team, feel free to discuss this with your Workbooks Consultant.