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IP Allocation: How Many IPs Do I Need?

Setting up a new business or expanding your old one, you’ll need to switch to email marketing to reach out to more audiences. If you are new to email marketing, you might come across some obstacles in your way, such as, what is an IP and how many IPs do I need for my business? Here we have provided all the answers to your queries related to IPs so that you can set things up more efficiently.

What is an IP address?

Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical code associated with each device connected to the internet. It behaves as a unique identifier that distinguishes one device over the internet from another. Each device connected to the internet has a unique IP address meaning there are over a trillion IP addresses at a given moment.

There are two standards for IP addresses, IPv4 and IPv6.

● IPv4: IPv4 or Internet Protocol version 4 uses 32 binary bits to create a single unique address. IPv4 address consists of 4 numbers separated by dots. An example can be: 213.23.14.328

● IPv6: IPv6 or Internet Protocol version 6 uses 128 binary bits to create a single unique address. Each address is represented by 8 groups of hexadecimal numbers which are separated by a colon. An example can be: 2002:0000:0000:0000:cbda:1182:1929:2001. If 4 numbers are 0s then it is omitted in IP representation in order to save space. For example: 2002:::cbda:1182:1929:2001.

How many IPs do I need?

Depending upon the nature of your business, the number of IPs you need might differ. Should one IP be enough or do you need additional ones? Consider the following factors before deciding.

Email Volume

The number of IPs you need depends upon the number of emails you send out on a daily basis. This relationship is directly proportional, i.e., the more emails you send out daily the more IPs you will need.

So why do you need more IPs for sending more emails? This is because email providers have a limit on the number of connections that one IP can make with the email server. Moreover, the number of emails that can be sent across a single connection is also limited. Having more than one IP can help you in sending out more emails in a day without facing any limitations.

Inbox Provider

Inbox providers play an important role in email deliverability. Each inbox provider has a different limit for the number of connections allowed and the number of emails that can be sent. Big email providers like Gmail and Yahoo accept email fast and sending a large number of emails using these domains is easy and quick as opposed to other domains like wanadoo, tonline, etc, that accept emails slowly. As a result, sending a large number of emails to these domains can be a really slow process.

You should keep in mind your audience while deciding between one IP or multiple IPs. If most of the recipients use a domain like wanadoo, it would be a good decision to go with multiple IPs. Whereas, if the majority of the audience uses Gmail, then even one IP would suffice.

Sender Reputation

Your IP reputation plays an important role in deciding how many IPs do you need. A sender with a high reputation can send a large number of emails easily using fewer numbers of IPs but a sender whose emails are often reported as spam might have to use a large number of IPs to send the emails to everyone in your recipient's list.

It’s important to maintain a good sender reputation if you want to send emails easily. The following factors determine a sender reputation:

● Number of emails sent and received

● Number of spam reports against emails

● Number of times email was opened

● Number of times email was deleted or moved into another folder

● Number of emails identified as spam by the ISP

● Number of bounce backs

In order to maintain a good sender reputation, you should consider the following factors:

● Make sure the content is engaging

● Make sure the content is easy to read

● Make sure the content is properly formatted

● Make sure the subject is clear

● Choose a catchy topic

● Avoid fillers

While using multiple IPs, maintaining a good reputation on each IP is important so that no email is left undelivered. A good practice is to warm up the IP before using it for sending emails. A warmed-up IP has more chances of successful email delivery as compared to an IP that was not warmed up properly.

Content

The content of the email is an important factor as well. Normal transactional emails can be sent using a fewer number of IPs as compared to marketing emails. The reason for this is that transactional emails are spread throughout the day and do not require bulk sending, whereas marketing emails are sent in bulk hence require more IPs so that emails are sent out efficiently.

If you are going to send only transactional emails then you can use 1 or 2 or more IPs, as per your business size, because transactional emails won’t be causing a bottleneck as they’re sent after some intervals. In the case of business marketing emails, it is a good choice to use multiple IP addresses as a bulk of outgoing emails might create a bottleneck if not handled properly. If you are using CBT Mass Email Sender your deliverability is already quite high and you might not necessarily need more IPs.

Conclusion

By now you must have figured out that there is no clear answer to how many IPs do you need. The number of IPs needed depends upon a number of factors and must be decided accordingly. With all this information, you will not have a difficult time deciding the number of IPs you need based on your requirements. No matter how many IPs you use, don’t forget to warm them up before using to ensure a high email delivery rate.