Do I need an IP warm-up when moving to a new ESP with shared IPs?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that the biggest mistake is sending a huge newsletter on day one. States that bringing suppression list and engagement data is critical and to treat the first couple of weeks as a soft warming period.
Email marketer from MailerLite says warming up a shared IP helps build trust with mailbox providers. Even though the IP is shared, your sending behavior can still affect your deliverability. Gradually increasing your volume and engagement helps establish a positive reputation.
Email marketer from Mailjet explains that an IP warm-up is still important even with shared IPs because it establishes your sending reputation with mailbox providers, which affects deliverability. Without it, your emails might be flagged as spam.
Email marketer from SendGrid explains that even on shared IPs, a gradual warm-up is crucial. Sending too many emails too quickly can negatively impact your sender reputation and lead to deliverability issues. They recommend starting with small volumes and gradually increasing them over time.
Email marketer from Gmass says IP warming is important as ESPs use algorithms to analyse sending habits. A new IP with a sudden increase in emails is immediately suspicious and is therefore important to have a 'warming' period
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests leaning toward some kind of warm up process, even if not as iterative as a typical warm up, to be able to check deliverability and reputations.
Marketer from Email Geeks advises to test before sending on the new shared IPs with a tool like Glock to ensure inbox placement and check for blacklist issues. Also recommends checking for a postmaster of an anonymous client to see the new shared IPs' reputation and splitting sends between the current and new ESPs during the transition.
Email marketer from Snov.io uses an example schedule for IP warming by increasing daily sends. Using example figures, day one is 50 emails, increasing to 1000 by day 20
Email marketer from Reddit user u/EmailNewbie shares experience that even when moving to a new ESP with shared IPs, they still experienced better deliverability by slowly ramping up their sending volume. This helped them avoid being flagged as spam.
Email marketer from ExpertSender details that even on a shared IP address, you need a gradual ramp-up. Start with your most engaged segments and slowly increase your volume each day. This helps establish a positive sender reputation with mailbox providers.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign emphasizes that even if you're using shared IPs, gradually increasing your sending volume is vital. This helps mailbox providers learn your sending patterns and avoids triggering spam filters.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that while you won’t be penalized, you may see fluctuations in metrics and placement as you migrate because Gmail and others will need to adjust to you sending from different IPs.
Email marketer from StackExchange community member User456 explains that even with shared IPs, the ESP is only partially responsible. The sender still needs to demonstrate good sending behavior by warming up the IP to avoid spam filters, even if the IP already has a good reputation.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that even if you're moving to a shared IP, warming it up is still a good idea, as mailbox providers look at a wide variety of signals, including the reputation of the IP address and the sending habits of users on that IP.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that warm-up is needed to move slowly and give the machine learning filters time to learn that the domain is legitimately coming off the new IPs.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that the ESP manages the reputation of shared IPs and you still contribute to it with your sending habits, frequency, and engagement rates. Not warming the IP may cause deliverability problems as your sudden increase in emails impacts the IPs reputation.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools advises that while using shared IPs can mitigate some deliverability risks, it's still essential to monitor your sender reputation and ensure your sending practices align with their guidelines. A sudden change in sending patterns can still trigger spam filters.
Documentation from SparkPost shares that while shared IPs have an existing reputation, new senders still need to gradually increase their sending volume. This helps mailbox providers learn your sending patterns and prevents triggering spam filters.
Documentation from Microsoft outlines that it is important to be aware of your sender reputation. While the reputation of shared IPs are partially managed by ESP, your individual sending behavior (e.g., sudden volume increases) impacts filtering and deliverability.
Documentation from AWS states that whilst it is true shared IP addresses often have established reputations, new users should still warm up their sending IP addresses to reduce the risk of being flagged as spam. The documentation details a gradual process of sending emails to engaged users and slowly increasing the volume