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Best practices for managing a dedicated IP

In this article, we'll share best practices and tips to help you effectively manage your dedicated IP and maintain a strong reputation.

Before you start

Setting up a dedicated IP involves a few steps, such as associating it with a subdomain and gradually warming it up to ensure optimal deliverability. Ensure you’ve correctly configured your dedicated IP by following our dedicated article Set up your dedicated IP in Brevo.

Follow email deliverability best practices

Email deliverability is the ability of an email to reach a recipient's inbox without being marked as spam or rejected. It depends on your reputation with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail, which reflects the level of trust they have in you.

Your reputation is based on your dedicated IP and sender domain. At Brevo, we offer dedicated IPs with a neutral reputation. To build a positive reputation, you need to follow best practices like keeping complaint rates low and avoiding spam traps.

➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated articles What is email deliverability? and Best practices for email deliverability.

Send a high and consistent volume of emails

The reputation of your dedicated IP address is built over time and is influenced by both the volume and frequency of emails you send. To build a positive reputation, you should:

  • Send at least three email campaigns per week to 3,000 or more contacts, or over 100,000 emails per month.
  • Avoid gaps of more than a week between your email sends.
❗️ Important

If you're unable to maintain a high and consistent email volume, consider using a shared IP instead.

Know when to use multiple dedicated IPs

Switching between IP addresses or using multiple IPs won't solve or prevent deliverability issues. However, using a pool of separate IPs can help manage your IP reputation in specific scenarios:

  • When sending different types of emails, like marketing and transactional.
  • When isolating emails with varying levels of risk.
  • When managing emails for multiple brands.
  • When using different acquisition methods, etc.

➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Use a pool of dedicated IPs.

Monitor the reputation of your dedicated IP

❗️ Important
Brevo will not replace or swap out "burnt out" dedicated IPs. If your IP reputation deteriorates, follow the best practices shared in this article to help improve its reputation.

Monitoring the reputation of your dedicated IP can help identify and address issues early. Even if your emails are currently being delivered, minor problems with your reputation can build up over time and lead to major deliverability issues.

To monitor your IP reputation, consider using external tools that provide insights into how Internet Service Providers (ISPs) view your emails:

  • Smart Network Data Services (SNDS): Monitors your IP reputation with Microsoft services, including Hotmail and Outlook.
  • Google Postmaster: Monitors your IP reputation with Gmail.
  • SenderScore: Calculates your IP’s Sender Score based on factors like complaints, spam traps, and deliverability data from mailbox providers and security agencies.
💡 Good to know
On an Enterprise plan, you can also monitor your IP reputation directly from the Analytics tab in your Admin account by checking the "Deliverability Emails" dashboard.

Rewarm your dedicated IP after 30 days of inactivity

If you haven’t sent emails from your dedicated IP for 30 days, you’ll need to restart the warm-up process. This means slowly increasing your email volume, starting with about 3,000 emails per day and then increasing the volume by 15% on the next day's send until your IP is fully warmed again.

➡️ To learn more, check our dedicated article Warm up your dedicated IP.

❗️ Important
If you're on an Enterprise plan, contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or our Enterprise Customer Experience team for guidance on warming up your dedicated IP. They will collaborate with our Deliverability experts to create a customized sending plan.

Always address the root cause of any deliverability issues

Blocklisting happens for a reason, and ignoring the cause may lead to your dedicated IP being blocked again. Before requesting removal from an ISP or third-party blocklist, identify and fix the issue that caused your dedicated IP to be blocklisted. Once the metrics show the issue is resolved, you can submit a mitigation request.

Without doing so, it will become harder to gain the trust of blocklist administrators, who may eventually refuse to lift their sanctions.

💡 Good to know

On an Enterprise plan, if you face deliverability issues, you can contact your CSM or our Enterprise Customer Experience team. They can escalate any concerns to our Deliverability experts.

⏭️ What's next?

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo Agency partner.

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