Many factors influence email deliverability, including sender authentication, keeping clean email lists, sending wanted content, having a good sending reputation, and much more.
Your sending reputation is how inbox service providers (ISPs) identify you as a legitimate sender. So every time you send an email campaign, ISPs collect valuable data that says whether you follow proper sending practices.
There are 2 types of email reputation: internet protocol (IP) reputation and domain reputation. Let’s look at the difference between them and why you need to pay attention to each.
All emails come from IP addresses, which serve as unique identifiers of email streams. This means that part of your email reputation will be your IP reputation.
Some companies send from a shared IP, which means multiple companies use the same IP address to send email. However, senders with higher email sending volume usually opt to send from a dedicated IP address that belongs only to them.
But no matter what your sending volume is, email senders should send their transactional and marketing emails from separate IP addresses. This is crucial to maintain good deliverability for your transactional emails.
It’s critical for your IP reputation to warm up the IP properly before sending to your entire list.
If you send your email from a dedicated IP address, it’s critical for your IP reputation to warm up the IP properly before sending to your entire list. Check out Twilio SendGrid’s Email Guide for IP Warm Up for best practices to ensure you’ve set up and prepared your IP for your sending needs and have the best foundation for strong IP reputation and email reputation.
Your domain reputation centers on your sending domain. This means that your branded website takes precedence when it comes to ISP filtering decisions.
Some inbox providers will put more emphasis on your domain reputation vs. your IP reputation, although many will look at both your IP and domain reputation when making decisions about whether or not your mail will make the inbox.
Domain authority, closely linked to domain reputation, refers to the overall strength or influence of your website in terms of how it ranks on search engine results pages. And while the connection between this and email marketing may not be immediately obvious, inbox providers can weigh this into their decision into whether or not you are a legitimate sender.
The idea of portable reputation appeals to senders who want the flexibility to add new IPs, move IPs, or change email service providers (ESPs) without losing the good email reputation they’ve already built from their sending activity.
Since there’s no singular standard, it’s best to use several tools combined to gain full visibility into how ISPs might view and treat your messages—that’s where we come in.
Improve your email reputation with Twilio SendGrid. We’ll give you the best email sending practices to help you avoid common mistakes and preserve excellent sender reputation.
To learn more about sending reputation and tips to stay in compliance with ISPs, download our2020 Email Deliverability Guide.
