What is IP warming?

IP warming is the process of introducing your sending IP address to inbox providers, who aim to block spam while allowing legitimate senders to deliver their mail. To build trust, start by engaging with your most active subscribers.

New mail is often viewed with suspicion, so as you establish your reputation, inbox providers will gradually begin to trust you. Following best practices will help you ensure your emails are recognised as legitimate and avoid being marked as spam.

How to successfully warm up an IP address

Before describing how to warm up an IP, it’s important to differentiate between:

  1. Shared IP addresses: These are used by multiple senders. If you’re using a shared IP address, your main focus will be to ramp up your send volume over time.
  2. Dedicated IP addresses: These are used by a single sender. If you’re using a dedicated IP, you’ll also focus on ramping up your send volume, but with an emphasis on engaging your most active subscribers first before gradually expanding your reach. In this case, ramping is only a part of the longer IP warming process, which continues until inbox providers decide you’re a reputable sender. 

Here’s how to warm up a dedicated IP:

1. Prepare for the warming process

 Before getting started with warming, prepare by:

  • Suspending third-party affiliate marketing
  • Updating or removing poor performing email templates
  • Cleaning your email list to eliminate invalid and unengaged email addresses

2. Create a warming plan

Your warming period will depend on your audience’s engagement and sending frequency, as inbox providers will need enough data to decide whether your sender reputation is sound.

For the first two weeks of your warming period, send only one-time email campaigns, not automated messages triggered by events. This is to avoid high-risk flows that may harm your reputation when the volume on your dedicated IPs is small.

You can turn on your welcome flow and other high-engagement flows after two weeks. After 30 days, you can start to introduce high-risk flows like re-engagement and sunset. 

Your first email campaigns are what will help determine your sender reputation among inbox providers, so make a good first impression and send them only to highly engaged audience segments. 

3. Follow your plan and monitor success

As your sending plan is unfolding, it will be important to focus on clicks as your primary success metric. This is because open rate could be skewed by machine-driven opens, since the release of iOS15 and Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP). 

Not sure what success looks like? Learn more about engagement benchmarks.

Klaviyo is there to make IP warming easier

Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform that can make IP warming easier and less stressful, which is especially useful for those new to email marketing.

With Klaviyo you’ll get tailored assistance throughout every phase of the IP warming process. You’ll work closely with a dedicated expert to create a plan that meets your needs.

Ready to warm up your IP address and achieve your marketing goals? Sign up for Klaviyo today.

Additional resources