Ramping up a new IP address is a commonly misunderstood practice. Email marketers often make the mistake of sending their mailings out to their entire list right out of the gate. What’s important to consider as a high volume email marketer is that you must first establish a good reputation with the internet service providers (ISPs) to prevent your mailings from being blocked. To do so, you must gradually ramp up your sending volume to gain ISP clearance before reaching maximum delivery.

New IP addresses are like a new car. You probably don’t want to drive the car hard for the first 1000 miles. The break-in process for a new car, or simply, the first 1000 miles should be driven smoothly and with ease, not exceeding a certain speed. The same goes for sending emails from new IPs. Start by sending your email campaigns in small batches to your top domains (i.e. Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL). New IPs, like a new car, can be burnt out if treated rough. In fact, most ISPs only allow sending to these domains in batches of 5,000 to 10,000 members at a time.

At Lyris we provide all new clients with ramp up guidelines for the major ISPs. The document details step-by-step instructions for how to ramp up your new IP address. This usually depends on the size of the list. The process involves starting with the email addresses that most recently opened and/or clicked your previous messages (i.e. from your old IP address) in batches of approximately 5,000 members. Although it’s a bit time consuming, it’s very important if you value your sending practices and your relationship with your email service provider.

So if you’re wondering why your messages were blocked by Yahoo immediately after sending out your first mailing, ask yourself this simple question: “Did I follow the ramp up guidelines?” If you are a good sender, and we hope you are, then you’re already reaping the long term benefits of following a ramp up schedule and establishing a good reputation with the ISPs.

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