When swapping ESPs, what audiences should you move over?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Litmus shares that you should gradually ramp up your sending volume with the new ESP, starting with your most engaged subscribers. This helps warm up your IP addresses and avoid being flagged as spam.
Email marketer from SendGrid recommends segmenting your email list and initially sending to your most active and engaged users. This helps maintain a good sender reputation with the new ESP and prevents deliverability issues.
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor states that you should consider sunsetting or removing inactive subscribers (e.g., those who haven't engaged in over 6-12 months) before migrating to a new ESP. This can improve your overall list quality and deliverability.
Email marketer from Email on Acid recommends importing your suppression lists (unsubscribes, bounces, complaints) to the new ESP before sending any emails. This prevents you from accidentally sending to people who have opted out.
Email marketer from G2 user suggests to prioritize migrating your most active subscribers first to establish a positive sender reputation with the new ESP.
Email marketer from Email Geeks stresses the importance of importing unsubscribes first to avoid issues and suggests sending to the most engaged audience first, then gradually adding less engaged addresses. They also advise discarding anyone not emailed in over 18 months and cleaning/re-engaging those in the 1-18 month range in small doses.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow user says to begin by sending emails to your most engaged users first. This helps establish a positive sending reputation with the new ESP and improves deliverability.
Email marketer from Email Geeks advises starting with the engaged audience when moving to a new ESP and suggests trying re-engagement campaigns before discarding inactive audiences.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that you should start with your most engaged subscribers to warm up your IP addresses when migrating to a new ESP. This helps establish a positive sender reputation.
Email marketer from Reddit user r/emailmarketing suggests cleaning your email list before migrating to a new ESP by removing hard bounces, unsubscribes, and invalid email addresses. This improves deliverability and reduces costs.
What the experts say6Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise answers that when switching ESPs you should warm the IPs as you're moving them over. To do so, it's best to move engaged and active users over in the beginning, this will create a great IP reputation
Expert from Email Geeks shares two questions to consider: how the billing is structured (if you will pay for dead weight) and how long ago the audience became unengaged, as a new ESP might be able to reach them.
Expert from Email Geeks recommends ensuring that signup paths are directed to the new ESP early in the process.
Expert from Word to the Wise recommends meticulously managing suppression lists (unsubscribes, bounces, complaints) when moving to a new ESP. Ensuring that these lists are accurately transferred and implemented is crucial to compliance and maintaining a good sender reputation.
Expert from Spam Resource advises considering re-permissioning your list before migrating to a new ESP, especially if you have a large segment of inactive subscribers. This ensures that you're only sending to those who actively want to receive your emails, improving deliverability.
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes the importance of list hygiene before, during, and after an ESP migration. Cleaning your list before moving to a new ESP helps ensure you are only sending to engaged and valid email addresses, which protects your sender reputation.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Amazon Web Services explains that when migrating to Amazon SES, you need to re-establish your email sending authorization (e.g., DKIM, SPF, DMARC) for your sending domains. It's crucial to configure these correctly to ensure deliverability.
Documentation from RFC Editor highlights the importance of adhering to SMTP standards when migrating email infrastructure. Ensure your new ESP complies with these standards to avoid deliverability issues.
Documentation from SparkPost highlights the importance of creating a detailed migration plan that includes segmenting your list, warming up your IP addresses, and monitoring your sending reputation. Properly planning is important for success
Documentation from Mailchimp recommends exporting your subscriber data (including engagement metrics) from your old ESP and importing it into Mailchimp. Segment your list based on engagement to optimize sending.