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8 Proven Ways to Build & Maintain a Healthy IP Address Reputation

What if you sent your most valuable customer an email, but it never reached their inbox? Instead, it was silently rerouted to a spam folder, or worse, a blacklist. Your customer never saw the email, and you missed an opportunity to engage with them. This scenario plays out daily for businesses of all shapes and sizes and can be devastating. One of the primary reasons emails fail to reach their intended targets is the sender's IP address reputation. In this article, we'll explore the ins and outs of IP address reputation and offer actionable tips to help you maintain a pristine score so your emails reliably land in inboxes, avoid spam filters and blacklists, and drive better engagement and business success.

Inframail's email infrastructure solution is valuable for improving your IP address reputation and achieving your objectives (Fix Email Reputation). Our service will help you steadily increase your IP address reputation so your emails reliably land in inboxes.

Table of Content

What is IP Address Reputation and Why It Matters

person typing on laptop - IP Address Reputation

IP address reputation refers to an IP address’s trustworthiness based on its history of activities, which various systems track over time. This reputation is often categorized as good or bad, depending on whether the IP address has engaged in legitimate or malicious activities.

Factors influencing an IP’s reputation include whether the address has been associated with:

Spam
Phishing
Malware distribution
Denial-of-service attacks
Other types of cybercrime

A good reputation means the IP address has a clean history and is generally trusted by security services and email providers. On the other hand, a bad reputation implies the IP has been linked to malicious activities and is likely to be flagged or blocked by security measures.

How IP Reputation Management Affects Email Deliverability and Network Security

IP reputation is determined using real-time data and historical information collected by security systems, firewalls, and spam filters. These systems analyze traffic originating from an IP address and note behavior patterns. For instance, if an IP address frequently sends out unsolicited bulk emails, it may be flagged as a potential source of spam.

The Role of IP Reputation Databases in Enhancing Cybersecurity and Email Integrity

Similarly, if an IP distributes malware or engages in distributed denial-of-service attacks, it will be assigned a poor reputation score. This information is shared across networks and organizations, creating a collective knowledge base.

Reputation databases or IP reputation services aggregate data from various sources and provide a rating or score for each IP address. Many email service providers, hosting companies, and security firms rely on these services to block or allow connections from specific IPs.

The Downside of a Bad IP Reputation

One of the most significant impacts of a bad IP reputation is email deliverability. If an IP address has been flagged for sending spam or phishing emails, it will likely be blacklisted by major email providers.

Any emails sent from this IP will end up in recipients’ spam folders or be blocked entirely. For businesses, this can severely hamper communication with customers and partners.

How IP Reputation Affects Network Security

IP reputation plays a critical role in protecting networks from cyberattacks. Security systems use IP reputation data to identify and block malicious traffic. If an IP with a lousy reputation tries to access a network, firewalls and intrusion detection systems often prevent the connection to mitigate risk.

Brand Trust and Operational Impact of IP Reputation

For businesses, maintaining a good IP reputation is crucial not only for security but also for maintaining brand trust. A compromised or poorly maintained IP reputation can damage a company’s credibility, reduce customer trust, and lead to operational disruptions.

What Affects Your IP Address Reputation?

1. Recipients Reporting You as Spam - The Fast Track to a Damaged IP Reputation

When users report your emails as spam, it directly impacts the reputation of your IP address. This reporting typically indicates that the recipients perceive the sent content as irrelevant or unwanted. Many spam reports can damage your IP reputation, increasing the likelihood that future emails sent from that IP address will be flagged as spam or blocked by email providers.

2. Shared IP Addresses Can Be a Dangerous Game

A shared IP address’s reputation depends on its users’ actions. Even if you follow email best practices, poor behavior by others—such as spamming or distributing malicious content—can harm the IP's reputation and your email deliverability.

While monitoring and security measures can help, they don’t offer complete control. To maintain a consistent reputation and deliverability, it is recommended that you use a dedicated IP address.

3. The Risks of Not Warming Up Your IP Address

When you set up a new dedicated IP address, it’s tempting to start sending large volumes of emails right away. Doing so can harm your IP’s reputation. Since the IP is new and unfamiliar to mailbox providers, a sudden spike in email activity may be flagged as suspicious.

This abrupt change signals potential spam behavior to mailbox providers, as it doesn’t align with regular email-sending patterns.

4. Non-Targeted Email Blasts Hurt Engagement and IP Reputation

Email blasts refer to sending a single email to your entire list at once. While marketers may use this approach to drive conversions, it often backfires by damaging email deliverability.

Modern users expect personalized and relevant content tailored to their preferences. Sending the same email to everyone on your list is unlikely to resonate with all recipients, leading to lower open rates. This drop in engagement negatively impacts your sender IP’s reputation, ultimately harming your overall email performance.

5. Not Maintaining Email List Hygiene Can Cause Serious Damage

Failing to maintain proper email list hygiene can result in various issues that harm your deliverability. Inactive subscribers who no longer wish to receive your emails are less likely to open them, and a lack of engagement can negatively impact your IP reputation. If these disengaged recipients report your emails as spam, it further damages your credibility. Also, sending emails to invalid addresses contributes to the problem.

High bounce rates caused by non-existent email addresses signal poor list management to mailbox providers, further reducing your IP's trustworthiness. To protect your IP reputation and improve deliverability, regularly clean your email list to remove inactive subscribers and invalid addresses.

6. Missing Authentication Damages IP Reputation

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are essential authentication protocols that help validate the legitimacy of your email. If these protocols are missing or misconfigured, mailbox providers may suspect your emails are fraudulent or spam, damaging your IP reputation.

Properly setting up and maintaining these authentication methods ensures your emails are verified and trusted, contributing positively to your IP reputation.

8 Proven Ways to Improve Your IP Address Reputation

man working on laptop - IP Address Reputation

1. Reassess Your Email Strategy: Quality Over Quantity

A damaged IP reputation means your organization has work to do to verify its legitimacy to ISPs and email filters. This may take some time to rectify, but it’s essential to establish your reputation as a trusted source.

A negative IP reputation means your organization must verify its legitimacy to ISPs and email filters. This may take some time to rectify, but it's essential to establish your reputation as a trusted source.

2. Reassess Your Email Strategy

If recipients mark your emails as spam, they may have a reason. Focus on quality over quantity so your emails aren’t regularly seen as spammy.

3. Start Slow: You Have to Warm Up Your New IP Address

If you have a new SMTP server, domain, and IP address, you must warm up the IP to build a reputation. High email volume from a new sender may raise red flags from ISPs and spam filters.

4. After Ramping, Stay Consistent

Large spikes in sending volume may look suspicious.

5. Use Separate Email Servers for Different Needs

Marketing email needs are wildly different from other day-to-day business emails. You can protect and improve IP rep by using different email servers for each business need.

6. Respect the Unsubscribe

If you don’t give users an option to unsubscribe, they’re more likely to mark your emails as spam. And if they want to unsubscribe, they’re not your ideal target audience in the first place.

7. Trim Your Email List

Don’t send emails to inactive or disengaged users. Work on smaller, more personalized mailing lists with active targets. Engagement is more important than the size of a mailing list.

8. Improving IP Reputation Goes Beyond the Content of Your Email

Adhere to standard email protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Consider using separate servers for marketing emails and regular, day-to-day business emails. Monitor servers, systems, and devices for potential C2 connections or malware infections.

IP Address Reputation vs. Domain Reputation

Understanding Domain Reputation and Its Importance in Email Deliverability

Domain reputation centers on your sending domain. This means that your branded website takes precedence regarding ISP filtering decisions.

Some inbox providers will emphasize your domain reputation more than your IP reputation. Many will consider both your IP and domain reputation when deciding whether or not your mail will make the inbox.

Domain Authority: A Quick Look

Domain authority, closely linked to domain reputation, refers to your website’s overall strength or influence regarding ranking on search engine results pages.

While the connection between this and email marketing may not be immediately obvious, inbox providers can consider this when deciding whether or not you are a legitimate sender.

Portable Reputation: A New Concept in Email Deliverability

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 built from their sending activity.

IP Reputation vs. Domain Reputation: What’s the Difference?

After exploring the individual concepts of IP reputation and domain reputation, it’s essential to understand how they differ and interact in the context of email deliverability. Both are critical, but they function in distinct ways.

IP Reputation: What Is It?

IP reputation is focused on the source. This means that IP reputation is tied to the specific IP address from which emails are sent. It’s a measure of the trustworthiness of emails originating from that IP. IP reputation is influenced by volume and behavior.

High volumes of emails, especially if they trigger spam complaints or are marked as junk, can negatively impact IP reputation. Consistently good practices, and enhance it. There is also a shared vs. dedicated impact. On a shared IP, your reputation can be influenced by the actions of others using the same IP. With a dedicated IP, you have complete control over the reputation tied to that address.

Domain Reputation: What Is It?

Domain reputation is focused on the brand. This means that it is linked to your sending domain (your brand’s URL) and reflects the credibility of associated emails. Domain reputation relates to content and engagement.

This reputation is influenced more by the quality of the content, engagement rates, and how recipients interact with your emails (like open rates and forwarding). Domain reputation is long-term and portable. It builds over a more extended period and is not tied to a specific IP address, making it portable if you change email service providers.

Key Differences Between IP Reputation and Domain Reputation

IP reputation concerns the sending address’s behavior, while domain reputation concerns the brand’s email practices. You have more control over your IP reputation, especially with a dedicated IP. Factors beyond sending practices, like recipient interaction, influence domain reputation.

Longevity and portability also come into play. Domain reputation is more enduring and follows your domain regardless of IP changes. In contrast, IP reputation is specific to an individual IP address and needs to be built up when the IP changes. Both IP and domain reputations are pivotal in determining email deliverability.

While IP reputation can be seen as a short-term indicator heavily influenced by recent sending behaviors, domain reputation is a long-term indicator reflecting the overall trust in your brand’s communication. Understanding and nurturing both reputations is essential for a successful email marketing strategy.

Start Buying Domains Now and Set Up Your Email Infrastructure Today

Inframail revolutionizes cold email infrastructure with unlimited inboxes at a single flat rate. With Microsoft-backed deliverability and dedicated IP addresses, we help scale their outreach efficiently:

Agencies
Recruiters
SDRs

Main benefits of using our service:

Automated SPF, DKIM, and DMARC setup
Dedicated email servers for each user
16-hour priority support daily

Simplifying Email Infrastructure for Agencies, Recruiters, and Sales Teams

Unlike traditional providers that charge per inbox and leave you wrestling with technical configurations, Inframail streamlines the entire process. We handle the complex infrastructure setup while you focus on reaching more prospects. InfraMail provides a robust email infrastructure without the usual technical headaches and per-inbox costs, whether you're:

An agency looking to scale outreach
A recruiter connecting with candidates
An SDR driving sales

Start buying domains now and set up your email infrastructure today with our email infrastructure tool.

Table of Content

What is IP Address Reputation and Why It Matters

IP address reputation refers to an IP address’s trustworthiness based on its history of activities, which various systems track over time. This reputation is often categorized as good or bad, depending on whether the IP address has engaged in legitimate or malicious activities.

Factors influencing an IP’s reputation include whether the address has been associated with:

Spam
Phishing
Malware distribution
Denial-of-service attacks
Other types of cybercrime

A good reputation means the IP address has a clean history and is generally trusted by security services and email providers. On the other hand, a bad reputation implies the IP has been linked to malicious activities and is likely to be flagged or blocked by security measures.

How IP Reputation Management Affects Email Deliverability and Network Security

IP reputation is determined using real-time data and historical information collected by security systems, firewalls, and spam filters. These systems analyze traffic originating from an IP address and note behavior patterns. For instance, if an IP address frequently sends out unsolicited bulk emails, it may be flagged as a potential source of spam.

The Role of IP Reputation Databases in Enhancing Cybersecurity and Email Integrity

Similarly, if an IP distributes malware or engages in distributed denial-of-service attacks, it will be assigned a poor reputation score. This information is shared across networks and organizations, creating a collective knowledge base.

Reputation databases or IP reputation services aggregate data from various sources and provide a rating or score for each IP address. Many email service providers, hosting companies, and security firms rely on these services to block or allow connections from specific IPs.