• What makes having a dedicated IP address better?
• I already use MailChimp. Can I just upgrade my account?
• Will I get 100% deliverability with a MailChimp PRO account?
• What is "email reputation" and what are "email certification" services?
• Tell me why I want email authentication
• Which ISPs and domains use Goodmail, Habeas, SenderScore, etc.?

What makes having a dedicated IP address better?

First of all, a dedicated IP address isn't going to help you if you send bad emails. In fact, it just makes it a whole lot easier for ISPs and firewalls to block all emails from that one IP address. That's why spammers send from as many different IPs as possible (such as from infected zombie computers), to avoid getting caught.

But if you're a legitimate email marketer, having one dedicated IP address that you send emails from shows that you have absolutely nothing to hide.

Furthermore, there are email certification and reputation services like Goodmail, SenderScore Certified, and Habeas that you can sign up for. If you're registered with one of these services, all emails coming from your IP are "flagged" as from a "trusted sender" so some ISPs and corporate domains will be less likely to accidentally throw your emails into the junk folder. The idea is that if you actually pay to certify your emails, you must be fairly confident that you are not a spammer (and there's also a paper trail to find you, if you did do something bad). Think of it like the Better Business Bureau, but for email.

Some of you may be wondering, "Why then, does MailChimp and other email service providers use a wide range of IPs to send emails?" Good question. We can't speak for other ESPs, but we have thousands of users from all over the world using MailChimp. On any given day, we're sending millions of emails at once. Some email firewalls are configured to block emails automatically if too many of them come from one IP (because that looks like a spam attack). So we've got to distribute them across many IPs. Also, should one of our users send an email that gets accidentally spam filtered too many times, that could affect the deliverability of that IP address. So if we experience problems with one IP, we can turn it off and instantly re-route email to all the others. If you are sending email campaigns from your own dedicated IP address, you are the only sender to worry about.

I already use MailChimp. Can I just upgrade my account?

Yes. Actually, you will use MailChimp the way you've always used it. Nothing changes, except under the "Account" tab, you'll see a new page with your "PRO" settings.

Will I get 100% deliverability with a MailChimp PRO account?

We'd be lying if we promised such a thing. The truth is, deliverability depends on a huge number of factors that MailChimp can't always control (your content, your HTML, the reputation of your domain name, and more). But there are things you can do to help your reputation and deliverability. Those things require that you send your emails from a dedicated IP address.

What is "email reputation" and what are "email certification" services?

When you send lots of email marketing on a regular basis, you develop a "reputation" with ISPs. They sort of keep records on how often you send, what type of content you typically send, how many bounces and complaints you normally get, and where your emails usually come from. They use all that information to determine if you're "friend or foe." Marketers who are very responsible, and who always do the right thing, and who keep their lists clean, will naturally become known as reputable senders, and earn good reputations.

One "shortcut" to establishing a good reputation is to sign up for email certification services. They usually involve the sender (marketer) paying to become certified, or putting up a "bond" of some sort. If you do something silly and get lots of spam complaints, they'll deduct from your bond, or they'll penalize you somehow. When you're "certified," your emails are marked in a way that ISPs can recognize your messages, and trust you a little more. For example, if you're Goodmail certified, your HTML emails won't have images blocked by default in AOL. It's very important to note that certification won't guarantee 100% that you'll "get past the spam filters." You can still get yourself spam filtered if you send spammy, irrelevant content. But when you're certified, it gives receiving servers a little bit of reassurance that you're a legitimate marketer.

In order to even apply for the various certification services out there, you'll need a dedicated IP address to send your emails from.

Explain email authentication

Email phishing is what brought about Email Authentication. Phishing is when a scammer sends an email that appears to be coming from someone reputable (like your local bank). The email asks you to click a link, taking you to a page that looks exactly like your local bank's website. Naturally, your next step is to enter your bank account's password. You've been hooked.

Emails are extremely easy to fake. Just like with snail-mail, you can send an email to anybody, and write down just about anything in the "From" area. Unless you're very good at reading email header information (the behind the scenes code in an email), it's extremely difficult to tell where an email really came from.

So ISPs and technology groups put together various methods of determining where an email claims to be coming from, and then double-check where it truly came from. If the message doesn't appear to be authentic, the email is either junked, or passed through even stricter spam filters. Microsoft and Yahoo! have developed different methods of authentication. They each use those methods to check emails sent to Hotmail and Yahoo!Mail's servers (and more and more ISPs are adopting their measures too).

There are two major ways to "authenticate" your messages. In the first method, you know that your emails will always come from a certain domain. It can even be a different domain from yours, like MailChimp.com. You go into your domain name settings, and you enter some information that basically says, "hi everybody, if you ever get an email that claims to be from my domain, but it actually came from this other domain, don't worry---that really is our email." The second method is a little more complex (some say it's superior to the first method, but it also takes more time to implement). It involves assigning a unique, cryptic "ID Tag" to every single email that's sent with your name on it, allowing the receiving server to cross-reference that tag with a file on your server. If they match, then it's authentic.

With MailChimp PRO, emails will come from a customized domain name unique to your company. That way, you can more easily have your emails authenticated.

Also see: How Email Authentication Works

Which ISPs and domains use email certification?

• Habeas
• Goodmail
• SenderScore Certified

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