How can I improve email deliverability on a shared IP for marketing automation emails like abandoned carts?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign suggests segmenting your list and sending abandoned cart emails only to those who have shown recent engagement to ensure relevance and improve deliverability rates.
Email marketer from Shopify Community Forums advises making sure your abandoned cart email is not too aggressive or pushy; offer assistance and solutions rather than just demanding a purchase, and test different sending times.
Email marketer from DigitalMarketer recommends using dynamic content in abandoned cart emails to personalize the messaging based on the items left in the cart and the customer's browsing history.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares if Klaviyo had poor deliverability, more people would be complaining. Suggests troubleshooting traffic and ensuring explicit permission to send emails. Also suggests ensuring people actually want the emails when they arrive, and investigating which mailbox providers are causing issues and the nature of those issues.
Email marketer from HubSpot advocates using double opt-in to confirm subscribers' email addresses and ensure they genuinely want to receive your emails, helping to reduce bounce rates and improve deliverability.
Email marketer from Litmus advocates designing abandoned cart emails to be mobile-friendly, ensuring they render correctly on all devices and screen sizes, to maximize engagement and conversions.
Email marketer from Reddit advises that on a shared Klaviyo IP, ensure your DKIM/SPF records are properly configured, and monitor your sending reputation within Klaviyo's dashboard for any deliverability issues. Also, maintain list hygiene to avoid hitting spam traps.
Email marketer from Gmass answers that it is essential to exclude inactive or unengaged users from your abandoned cart email campaigns to improve your sender reputation and reduce the risk of spam complaints.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that gradually warming up your IP address, even a shared one, by slowly increasing sending volume and monitoring engagement rates helps establish a positive sending reputation with ISPs.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid shares optimizing the content of abandoned cart emails with compelling visuals, clear calls-to-action, and personalized offers can increase engagement and encourage recipients to complete their purchase.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares if you're using Klaviyo and have setup the custom sending domain AND custom link tracking domain, you're pretty much in the driver's seat other than the shared IP. Unless you have reason to believe the shared IP pool has issues, there's probably more going on related to what you're doing.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce suggests using IP monitoring tools to track the reputation of the shared IP address you are using and proactively address any issues that may arise.
What the experts say7Expert opinions
Expert from Spamresource explains that it is essential to authenticate your email with SPF and DKIM as this tells ISPs (internet service providers) that you are who you say you are, and your messages are more likely to make it to the inbox.
Expert from Email Geeks responds being on an ESP shared pool gets you over the bar of not looking like an intentional source of legitimate email if you are too small to maintain traffic on a dedicated IP; your mail is probably being delivered successfully, but being a source of legitimate mail isn’t the same as being a source of wanted email.
Expert from Spamresource responds that it is important when you are using a shared IP to throttle your email sends and segment your audience to make sure that you only send emails to people who want them.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that list quality is very important and you should ensure you are only sending emails to people who want them. Remove anyone that has not engaged or bounces as this hurts your sending reputation.
Expert from Email Geeks shares if authentication is valid, mailbox providers can track mail stream reputation without relying on IP address. Being a new source of email with low volume puts you in a deeper hole, as there's been neither the time nor the volume to build a reputation.
Expert from Email Geeks states IPv6 is not mandatory for email deliverability, and many do not support it.
Expert from Email Geeks explains most people dislike abandoned cart emails, and even though recipients have opted in, they're not receiving anything they actually want. He suggests pausing abandoned cart emails and sending newsletters with product announcements or discounts to build a reputation for sending wanted email.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Mailchimp responds by reinforcing the importance of permission-based email marketing. Always obtain explicit consent from subscribers and honor unsubscribe requests promptly to maintain a healthy sending reputation.
Documentation from SendGrid answers states that senders on shared IP addresses are impacted by the behavior of other senders. Closely monitoring your own sending reputation metrics (e.g., bounce rates, spam complaints) and taking corrective actions is crucial for deliverability.
Documentation from SparkPost says subscribing to feedback loops (FBLs) with mailbox providers allows you to receive reports of spam complaints, enabling you to identify and remove problematic subscribers from your list.
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that although using a shared IP address can affect your sending reputation, adhering to best practices like authenticating your email (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and maintaining a clean sending list can mitigate these risks.