Summary
New sender email addresses face lower deliverability rates due to a lack of established reputation and trust with inbox providers. These providers employ heightened skepticism, actively testing new senders across various parameters, and initially limiting features like pixel pre-fetching. The key to improving deliverability involves building trust through consistent sending habits, proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), implementing DMARC, maintaining clean email lists with engaged subscribers, gradually warming up IP addresses and domains, using dedicated IPs when possible, validating DNS entries, and actively monitoring sender reputation through tools like Google Postmaster Tools. Focusing on engaged users and avoiding spam triggers is also crucial in the early stages.
Key findings
- Skepticism and Testing: Inbox providers actively test and scrutinize emails from new sender addresses.
- Reputation Deficit: New senders lack established sending history, leading to a lower initial reputation.
- Authentication is Key: Proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is crucial for establishing sender legitimacy.
- Engagement Matters: Positive recipient engagement significantly impacts deliverability and sender reputation.
- IP Warm-up Essential: A gradual IP and domain warm-up strategy is vital for building trust with inbox providers.
Key considerations
- Implement Authentication: Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records correctly and monitor their performance.
- Prioritize Engagement: Target initial email campaigns to highly engaged subscribers to generate positive signals.
- Practice List Hygiene: Maintain a clean email list by regularly removing inactive or invalid addresses to minimize bounce rates.
- Monitor Reputation: Actively monitor your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools and address any issues promptly.
- Warm-up Gradually: Implement a slow and steady warm-up strategy, gradually increasing sending volume over time.
- Validate DNS: Ensure all DNS entries are valid, including those related to authentication.
- Consider Dedicated IP: Consider using a dedicated IP address to establish and maintain a consistent sending reputation (if volume warrants).
What email marketers say
11 marketer opinions
New sender email addresses often experience lower rates due to a lack of established reputation and trust with inbox providers. Filters are more skeptical and actively test new senders, assessing their address, content, IP, domain, and DKIM signing domain. Factors such as low engagement, high bounce rates, inconsistent sending volumes, and shared IPs can negatively impact deliverability. Warming up IP addresses, authenticating emails, focusing on engaged users, maintaining clean lists, and monitoring sender reputation are crucial for new senders to build trust and improve deliverability rates.
Key opinions
- Skepticism of Filters: Inbox providers exhibit heightened skepticism towards new sender addresses, employing various tests and assessments.
- Importance of Engagement: Initial engagement from recipients significantly influences sender reputation and deliverability.
- IP Warmup: Gradually increasing sending volume is vital for building trust with inbox providers (IP Warmup).
- Authentication: Email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) helps verify the sender's legitimacy and prevent spoofing.
- List Hygiene: Maintaining a clean email list with engaged subscribers reduces bounce rates and improves deliverability.
Key considerations
- New Sender Testing: Be aware that inbox providers will actively test emails from new senders to determine placement.
- Gradual Warmup: Implement a gradual IP/domain warmup strategy to establish a positive sending reputation.
- Engagement-Focused: Prioritize sending to engaged subscribers to generate positive signals and boost deliverability.
- Monitor Reputation: Actively monitor sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools to identify and address issues promptly.
- Consistent Sending: Establish a regular sending schedule and maintain consistent volumes to build a predictable sending pattern.
- Dedicated IP: Consider using a dedicated IP address to build a positive sending reputation, as sharing an IP address with other senders can negatively impact deliverability.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that new sender addresses experience a greater degree of skepticism from filters. Filters test new messages based on address, content, IP, domain, DKIM signing domain, using a similar methodology. Rate limiting and testing messages in different folders helps determine user reaction. Skepticism now extends beyond the domain to the individual sender address's behavior due to automated SDR and warming services.
9 Apr 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Deliverability Blog explains that new senders often trigger spam filters due to a lack of historical data. Focusing on sending to opted-in subscribers and maintaining clean lists is crucial.
7 May 2025 - Deliverability Blog
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
New email senders experience lower rates due to a lack of established trust. Inbox providers may throttle and filter unknown IPs, or refrain from pre-fetching pixels, even if the mail is delivered. Warming up IP addresses and validating DNS entries are key to building trust over time.
Key opinions
- Pixel Pre-fetching: New senders may not receive the benefit of pixel pre-fetching, affecting engagement tracking.
- Throttling & Filtering: Servers automatically throttle and filter emails from unknown IPs, impacting deliverability.
- IP Warm-up: Gradually increasing sending volume over time (IP warming) is crucial for building trust.
Key considerations
- Validate DNS: Ensure all DNS entries are valid to improve sender authentication and trustworthiness.
- Dedicated IP Warm-up: Implement a careful IP address warm-up strategy, especially when using new dedicated IPs.
- Limited Initial Data: Understand that initial data collection about your sending habits will be limited, potentially affecting how your emails are treated.
Expert view
Expert from Spamresource explains that deliverability issues for new senders can be caused due to the server automatically throttling and filtering unknown IPs. They recommend warming up IPs correctly and making sure all of your DNS entries are valid.
27 Dec 2023 - Spamresource
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks shares that sometimes inbox providers won't pre-fetch pixels for new senders. Mail is delivered the same, it just doesn't get the "great sender" treatment.
27 May 2024 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
New senders experience lower rates due to a lack of established sending history and reputation. To mitigate this, documentation from various sources emphasizes the importance of adhering to email best practices, including consistent sending, proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list hygiene, providing clear unsubscribe options, and implementing DMARC to protect against spoofing and phishing. These practices help mailbox providers verify the sender's identity, legitimacy, and commitment to security, leading to improved deliverability.
Key findings
- Lack of Sending History: New senders lack a sending history, resulting in a lower initial reputation.
- Importance of Authentication: Proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is critical for verifying sender identity and legitimacy.
- DMARC Implementation: Implementing DMARC protects against spoofing and phishing attacks, signaling sender security commitment.
- Best Practices Adherence: Adhering to email best practices (list hygiene, unsubscribe options) improves deliverability.
Key considerations
- Consistent Sending: Maintain consistent sending practices to build a positive reputation over time.
- Authentication Setup: Ensure proper setup and configuration of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.
- List Management: Implement robust list hygiene practices to remove inactive or invalid email addresses.
- Unsubscribe Options: Provide clear and easily accessible unsubscribe options in all email communications.
- DMARC Monitoring: Monitor DMARC reports to identify and address any potential spoofing or phishing attempts.
Technical article
Documentation from Microsoft highlights that new senders need to adhere to best practices, including proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list hygiene, and providing clear unsubscribe options. Failure to do so can lead to filtering.
29 Nov 2023 - Microsoft
Technical article
Documentation from SparkPost emphasizes the importance of proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) as a foundational step for new senders. It helps mailbox providers verify the sender's identity and legitimacy.
18 Apr 2024 - SparkPost
Do I need to warm up a new domain for a small email list?
Are IP warming services effective for improving email deliverability?
Do I need an IP warm-up when moving to a new ESP with shared IPs?
Can I skip a day during email warm up without hurting my IP reputation?
How do I warm up a new IP address for transactional emails?
How can I improve signup confirmation email delivery rates for a new domain?
