Is a dedicated IP address really necessary?

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on March 12, 2007

One of the truisms about choosing an email marketing service to manage your outgoing emails is that your mails should get sent from their own IP address.

The theory goes like this: if you share an IP address with that service's other customers, then their behavior could affect your success.

If one of those other customers indulges in a little spamming, then the sender address may get on a blocklist, And since you have the same sender IP, your emails get blocked too.

But if you have an IP address all to yourself, then only your email practices determine whether that sender address gets on a blocklist or not.

So far so good. But here's another theory...

If an email marketing service uses shared IP addresses, it's in their own best interests to ensure those IP addresses stay off blocklists. Low deliverability means angry customers means less customers.

So wouldn't they dump bad customers pretty quickly and shift the good ones to block-free sender IP addresses if something does go wrong?

I'm just wondering...if your ESP is a decent one, is a dedicated IP address as important as it used to be?

That's not a rhetorical question: I'd enjoy some enlightenment from ESPs out there as I'm no expert when it comes to the technical side of deliverability...

More on deliverability | Tags: email marketing, email deliverability, email marketing services

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
Permalink | Add to del.icio.us | 4 comment(s) - add yours!
Get posts like this: as an RSS feed | as a biweekly newsletter

Sign-up for the Email Marketing Reports NEWSLETTER
Twice a month, free, packed with email marketing advice and all the posts from this blog.

4 Comments:

Working for a company that offers dedicated IPs I feel it is a worthwhile investment. While your statement is true that good ESPs will be on top of blocks and spammers. With the constant shifting that is occurring in the email industry even a clean sender can get an IP blacklisted and while my company uses advanced techniques to move clients to clean IPs the instant something goes wrong not all ESPs move as fast.
By Anonymous, on 05 June, 2007

Thanks for the advice - seems a good argument in favor of dedicated IP addresses.
By Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on 05 June, 2007

As a deliverability expert I think a dedicated IP is not always a good thing. Nowadays reputation largely drives deliverability. A high and constant mail volume gives a good reputation. Senders with a small volume or infrequent mailings may benefit from sharing an IP address. Large snders and senders who want to join feedback loops or accreditation programs should use a dedicated IP.
By Maarten, on 15 August, 2007

Thanks Maarten. Interesting concept that it might not be a black and white issue, but depend on your needs and email programme...
By Mark Brownlow - Email Marketing Reports, on 16 August, 2007