What to do when SFMC shared IP reputation tanks due to other senders?
Summary
What email marketers say13Marketer opinions
Email marketer from InboxAce Tips highlights the importance of sending a consistent volume of emails to establish a predictable sending pattern. Inconsistent email volume can raise red flags with mailbox providers and negatively impact your IP reputation. Maintaining a steady email volume demonstrates that your sending practices are legitimate.
Email marketer from MailMonitor Blog emphasizes proactive reputation management. By actively monitoring your IP and domain reputation, you can identify and address deliverability issues before they impact your sending performance. They recommends using tools like blacklist monitoring and feedback loops to stay informed about your sender reputation.
Email marketer from EmailBestPractices Website recommends contacting your ESP's support team to report the issue and seek assistance. They emphasize that ESPs often have procedures in place to address shared IP reputation problems and can offer solutions such as moving you to a different IP pool or implementing safeguards to prevent further damage.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum suggests escalating the issue with your ESP's support team if initial efforts are unsuccessful. They recommends contacting your account manager or sales representative to put pressure on the support team and ensure the problem is addressed effectively.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Tips Blog stresses the importance of proactively monitoring your sending IP's reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools, SenderScore, and Talos Intelligence. Regular monitoring allows you to identify issues early and take corrective actions before they significantly impact your deliverability.
Email marketer from DeliverabilityGuru Blog advises segmenting your email lists to send targeted content to specific groups of subscribers. This practice can improve engagement metrics and reduce the likelihood of spam complaints, positively impacting your sender reputation. Sending relevant emails to engaged subscribers is essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation.
Email marketer from Email Deliverability Blog discusses how switching to a dedicated IP address can provide more control over your sender reputation. However, they mentions that it requires careful warming up and consistent sending practices. They recommend considering a dedicated IP address only if you have a sufficient email volume and the resources to manage your sender reputation effectively.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests pushing to migrate to a dedicated IP now, even with lower volume and also mentions the old number is probably still 250k/mo and you might be fine if sending more than 5k/day to Yahoo or Google
Email marketer from DigitalMarketingPro Tips advises maintaining a clean email list by regularly removing inactive subscribers and invalid email addresses. A clean email list reduces the risk of sending to spam traps and improving your engagement metrics. This improves your sender reputation.
Marketer from Email Geeks confirms that domain reputation can compensate for poor IP reputation, though the degree of compensation may depend on the severity of the IP reputation issues.
Marketer from Email Geeks advises pushing SFMC support to investigate and mitigate the shared IP issue, ensuring Deliverability and Abuse & Compliance teams are involved. They explain these teams should be empowered to address misbehaving senders, potentially escalating to Legal for breach of contract. They also suggest asking to change IPs.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that shared IPs can be problematic due to the actions of other senders. They suggests monitoring sender reputation using tools like SenderScore.org and working with your ESP (Email Service Provider) to mitigate issues, possibly by requesting a move to a different IP pool or dedicated IP.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares a similar negative experience with SFMC shared IPs, where they refused to resolve abuse issues and recommends moving to a dedicated IP. They also state it is better to be on a dedicated IP with not enough volume than a shared IP.
What the experts say6Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks says potentially domain reputation can compensate for poor IP reputation, but some mailbox providers are better at this than others.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that your 'neighbors' in a shared hosting setup can affect your mail reputation. He recommends that if you're sending substantial mail, it's a good idea to get your own IP address. Having a dedicated IP helps insulate you from the actions of others.
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes monitoring your sending IPs and domains. She says you need to know what’s going on so that you can address the issue and figure out what the root cause is.
Expert from Email Geeks states that SFMC has stopped doing any compliance and so their shared pools are riddled with spammers.
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasises the importance of sender authentication (SPF, DKIM) and proper configuration, emphasizing the need for correctness to avoid deliverability issues, which can cause reputation issues.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that SFMC's shared IP pools might have declining reputations due to compliance issues. Recommends considering migrating to another provider, as simply moving to a different IP pool within SFMC might not solve the underlying problem. They believe even with low volume, a dedicated IP is better than a poor shared pool.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Salesforce Documentation explains the process of IP address warming. If migrating to a dedicated IP, properly warming the IP address is crucial to ensure email deliverability, particularly with high-volume sends. The volume should be gradually increased, while being sure to adhere to the sending guidelines for each ISP.
Documentation from SparkPost Documentation details how to deal with sending from shared IP pools. If you find issues with your deliverability on a shared IP, the main piece of advice is to contact your ESP for ways to mitigate or remedy your deliverability issues.
Documentation from Mailjet Documentation explains the importance of sender reputation and how it affects email deliverability. It describes techniques that will build your reputation, such as list cleaning, monitoring feedback loops, and avoiding spam traps. Keeping your email marketing up to the best practice guidelines protects your reputation.
Documentation from Gmail Help explains the best practices for bulk email senders. Following these guidelines ensures that your emails are delivered to recipients' inboxes and not marked as spam. This includes setting up authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), maintaining a good sender reputation, and honoring unsubscribe requests.
Documentation from Microsoft Docs outlines the steps for improving email deliverability to Outlook.com. Setting up the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record can prevent spammers from spoofing your domain. Similarly, DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) adds an encryption key to email headers. Senders who don't use email authentication are more likely to experience problems.