shared IP or dedicated for email marketing best practices

Where Should You Swim? When a Shared IP Pool Makes Sense

Come on in, the water’s fine…maybe. It depends on whether that “water” is your own pool or one you share. And by pool, we mean IP addresses.

As an email marketer, there are two routes you can go: You can pay for your own dedicated IP address that only your organization will use. Or you can spend less money and be part of a shared pool of IP addresses.

Typically, if you are a high volume sender, we as an email marketing vendor and deliverability consultant recommend that you purchase a dedicated IP.

If your sending volume is low or you’re new to email marketing, then you don’t really need a dedicated IP address yet. If your existing reputation is shot, you might consider a shared IP pool because the good established reputations of the other marketers as a whole will help yours. As our Director of Sales and Business Development Michael Kelly likes to say, “If you are not the cleanest kid in the pool, you might not want to be the only kid in the pool.”

There are drawbacks to being in the shared IP pool, however. For example, if you’re working hard to adhere to email marketing best practices and keep your online sending reputation clean, but another marketer in the shared pool has a bad day, the complaints generated could cause the IP address to be blocked, which, in turn affects your email deliverability rate.

If you need help deciding whether a dedicated or shared IP address will work better for you and your implementation of email marketing best practices and email deliverability best practices, reach out to ClickMail. We’re happy to take a look at your particular situation and make a recommendation.

Published On: March 21st, 2011Categories: Email marketing best practices

About the Author: Sharon

Sharon Ernst from BetterFasterWriter.com is on a mission to improve the business and marketing writing skills of today’s workforce with her blog, newsletter and online classes. Her newest class on intermediate email copywriting covers 19 tips and techniques non-copywriters can put to use right away for better results. The class has real-life examples and before/after comparisons to make the lessons stick. Find her class at www.betterfasterwriter.com/intermediate-email-copywriting-class. When she’s not busy helping employees, managers and marketers master their writing skills, she and her husband are busy raising pigs, cows, chickens and vegetables on their 20-acre farm.

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