Warming Up an IP Address: The Cold Start of Email Marketing

Introduction: The Suspicious Stranger

If a brand new IP address suddenly sends 50,000 emails in one minute, Gmail and Outlook will instantly panic and throw every single email into the Spam folder. They don't know who you are, so they assume you are a spammer. To fix this, marketers must patiently Warm Up their new IP addresses.

The 30-Day Drip

Warming up an IP is a mathematical schedule. On Day 1, you might only send 50 emails to highly engaged users who you know will open them. If Gmail sees people opening the mail, the IP earns a little bit of 'Trust'. On Day 2, you send 100 emails. By Day 30, you've built enough trust to safely send 1,000,000 emails a day without triggering any alarms.

Conclusion

In the email world, your IP address is a credit score. You have to build good credit slowly before the major inbox providers will give you a massive loan of bandwidth. Test your current sender score here.