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You’re putting time and effort into creating email campaigns that should work—engaging subject lines, valuable content, and a clear call-to-action. But despite your best efforts, something’s not clicking. Emails aren’t reaching inboxes, open rates are disappointing, and your email deliverability stats make no sense.
It feels unfair, especially when you’re doing everything right. The truth is, if you’re using a shared IP, your emails could be paying the price for someone else’s mistakes. Shared IPs are exactly that—shared. If one sender behaves poorly, like spamming or ignoring best practices, it can damage the IP’s reputation and affect everyone using it, including you.
That’s where a dedicated IP can make all the difference. If you’re looking to buy dedicated IP address, it’s important to know how it works and whether it’s the right solution for your needs. By switching, you get full control over your email reputation. Your deliverability isn’t tied to anyone else’s behavior—it’s entirely in your hands.
In this blog, we’ll help you figure that out. We’ll cover:
- Key factors to consider before purchasing a dedicated IP.
- How to determine if your email strategy is ready for it.
If deliverability has been holding your campaigns back, keep reading. This could be the step that turns things around.
But before that, here’s a brief explanation of what a dedicated IP is and its benefits.
What is a Dedicated IP, and Why Does it Matter?
A dedicated IP is an IP address that’s exclusively yours—it isn’t shared with other senders. In email marketing, this means every email you send comes from a unique digital address that only your business uses.
Unlike a shared IP, where multiple senders share the same address (and its reputation), a dedicated IP gives you complete control over how that reputation is built and maintained.
Here’s why a dedicated IP matters for email marketing:
1. Complete Control Over Reputation
With a shared IP, your deliverability depends on the behavior of everyone sharing that IP. If one sender spams or violates email guidelines, it can damage the IP’s reputation and lead to issues like blacklisting. A dedicated IP eliminates this risk, as the reputation is solely based on your sending practices.
2. Better Deliverability
Email providers like Gmail or Outlook monitor the reputation of an IP address to decide whether to deliver emails to the inbox or the spam folder. A well-maintained dedicated IP can improve your deliverability, ensuring your emails reach your audience.
3. Consistency in Performance
Shared IPs can experience fluctuations due to varied usage patterns from multiple senders. With a dedicated IP, your sending patterns remain consistent, which helps email providers trust your messages over time.
4. Reduced Risk of IP blacklisting
With a dedicated IP, you are the sole user responsible for its reputation. Unlike shared IPs, where poor practices by others can lead to blacklisting and affect your deliverability, a dedicated IP gives you complete control. This significantly reduces the risk of blacklisting, as all sending activity is tied to your email practices.
When should you consider getting a dedicated IP? If you’re sending high volumes of emails regularly, have a solid email strategy, and want more control over your deliverability, it might be time to buy dedicated IP address.
By investing in a dedicated IP, you’re not just improving deliverability—you’re taking charge of how your campaigns perform, making it a vital tool for businesses that rely on email marketing to engage and convert their audience.
7 Factors To Consider Before You Buy Dedicated IP Address
When you're considering whether to buy dedicated IP address, there are several important factors to think through to ensure it aligns with your email marketing strategy.
A dedicated IP can greatly improve your email deliverability, but only if you're ready to manage it properly.
Here are seven key factors you should evaluate before making the switch:
1. Email Volume Requirements
Before purchasing a dedicated IP, it's essential to assess your email volume.
A dedicated IP is most effective when you're sending a high volume of emails consistently (like more than 150k per month)—this helps build a solid sender reputation over time.
If you’re only sending occasional campaigns, a shared IP might be sufficient. However, if you plan to send emails regularly (hundreds or thousands per day), a dedicated IP can improve your control over deliverability by isolating your sending patterns from other users.
Why it matters: If you don't have a high email volume, it can be hard to build a strong reputation on your dedicated IP. You'll likely need to scale up gradually to avoid sudden spikes that could harm your deliverability.
2. Warm-Up Process
A dedicated IP requires a gradual “warm-up” period where you slowly increase the volume of emails you send over time.
This process is critical for building your IP’s reputation with ISPs (Internet Service Providers). If you send too many emails too quickly, your IP might be flagged as suspicious, causing deliverability issues.
Why it matters: A slow and steady approach is key to avoiding reputation damage. Over the course of several weeks, you’ll gradually scale up your email volume, making your IP appear more trustworthy to email providers.
3. Vendor Reliability and Uptime
When purchasing a dedicated IP, consider the reliability of the provider you're buying it from. High uptime and excellent infrastructure are non-negotiable—your IP address should be consistently available and capable of handling the traffic.
Why it matters: Service disruptions or frequent downtime can negatively impact your email deliverability. Look for vendors that offer strong Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to ensure you get reliable service and support, including redundancy and backup systems.
4. Monitoring and Analytics
A dedicated IP gives you more control over your email reputation, but with that control comes the responsibility to monitor and manage it. Make sure the provider offers real-time monitoring tools and feedback loops so you can track performance, monitor bounce rates, open rates, and spam complaints.
Why it matters: Without continuous monitoring, you won’t know if your emails are being flagged or if your IP is being blacklisted. Feedback loops help you track complaints, so you can adjust your approach as needed and maintain a positive reputation.
5. Cost and ROI
Purchasing a dedicated IP comes with both upfront and ongoing costs. Be sure to weigh these costs against the expected benefits. While a dedicated IP can improve deliverability and open rates, it’s important to make sure the investment aligns with your email marketing goals and overall budget.
Why it matters: If your email volume isn’t high enough, or if you’re not sending emails consistently, you might not see a good return on investment. Consider whether your campaigns justify the additional costs associated with a dedicated IP.
6. Sending Practices and Compliance
Before purchasing a dedicated IP, evaluate your email-sending practices and ensure they comply with anti-spam laws like GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CASL. Additionally, adopting best practices such as proper list segmentation, personalization, and regular list cleaning is crucial to maximize the benefits of a dedicated IP.
Why it matters:
A dedicated IP won’t solve issues caused by poor sending practices. Compliance and high-quality campaigns are essential for building a strong sender reputation and achieving high deliverability rates.
7. Scalability for Future Growth
When selecting a dedicated IP, think about your future email marketing needs. Ensure the provider allows you to scale your infrastructure by adding more IPs, increasing sending limits, or upgrading services as your email campaigns grow.
Why it matters:
Your current email volume might meet the requirements for a single dedicated IP, but as your business expands, you may need additional IPs or advanced features. Choosing a scalable solution now saves you the trouble of switching providers later and ensures your infrastructure grows alongside your marketing efforts.
Taking these factors into account before purchasing a dedicated IP will set you up for success. It’s not just about buying an IP—it’s about making sure it’s the right fit for your business, your email volume, and your goals. Keep these considerations in mind, and you’ll be on the right track to better deliverability and more successful campaigns.
How Do You Set Up a Dedicated IP Address?
Setting up a dedicated IP address for your email campaigns is an important step towards better control over your email deliverability.
Here’s a simple guide to help you through the process:
1. Look for a Reliable Provider
The first step in setting up a dedicated IP address is choosing the right provider. You’ll want to go with a provider that offers a stable infrastructure, excellent support, and the ability to scale your IP needs as your email marketing grows. Also if your current email marketing tool does not offer dedicated IP addresses, you might want to switch to someone who does.
If you're using Smartlead, we offer dedicated IP addresses as part of our latest offering—SmartServers. This service provides you with a private IP, ensuring that you are not sharing it with other senders, giving you full control over your reputation (more on this in the next section).
2. Select the Right Plan for Your Needs
Once you’ve chosen a provider, you’ll need to select a plan that fits your email volume and sending frequency.
Most providers offer different tiers of service, depending on how many emails you plan to send each month.
Choose a plan that aligns with your email marketing strategy and allows you to scale as needed.
3. Configure the IP and Authentication Protocols
After purchasing the dedicated IP, the next step is to configure it properly.
This involves setting up essential email authentication protocols like SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance).
These protocols help ensure that your emails are verified and trusted by ISPs, improving your chances of landing in the inbox rather than the spam folder.
4. Warm Up Your IP
As mentioned earlier, you’ll need to gradually warm up your dedicated IP.
This process involves starting with a small volume of emails and slowly increasing it over time. The warm-up process helps build a positive reputation for your IP with ISPs, signaling that you're sending legitimate, well-targeted emails.
5. Assign the IP to Your Campaigns or Clients
Once your IP is warmed up, the next step is to assign it to your campaigns or clients, depending on your email marketing platform.
Most email service providers (ESPs) will give you an option to link a specific IP to particular campaigns or clients, ensuring that each sender uses the correct IP address for their emails.
This is particularly useful if you manage multiple brands or clients, as it allows for separate reputation management for each.
6. Monitor Performance
After everything is set up and you’ve started sending emails, it’s crucial to monitor your deliverability, open rates, bounce rates, and any potential complaints.
Real-time analytics and feedback loops are essential to track how your emails are performing and whether there are any issues with your reputation.
This ongoing monitoring ensures that your dedicated IP remains in good standing with ISPs and helps you catch any potential problems early.
Next, let's talk about SmartServers in detail.
Buy Dedicated IP Address With SmartServers
If you're serious about optimizing your email deliverability, SmartServers is the ideal solution.
SmartServers provides you with dedicated IP addresses that give you full control over your email-sending infrastructure.
Unlike shared IPs, where multiple users share the same IP address and risk affecting each other's reputation, SmartServers ensure your email campaigns are delivered on your terms.
What Are SmartServers?
SmartServers provide dedicated private infrastructure or isolated servers for users. While sourced from third-party vendors, these servers operate independently and are not proxies.
This gives you total control and eliminates the risks associated with shared IPs. Each dedicated server you purchase will operate independently, offering reliability, performance, and security without external dependencies.
By using SmartServers, your email deliverability is no longer at risk due to someone else’s bad practices. You can trust that every email sent through these servers is associated only with your sending reputation, ensuring better inbox placement.
Key Benefits of SmartServers
- Auto Server Rotation:
SmartServers automatically rotate between multiple servers to ensure that no single server gets overused or blacklisted, which optimizes your deliverability. - Smart Load Balancing:
Distribute the email load evenly across several servers to avoid overloading any one server. This enhances your ability to scale while maintaining excellent deliverability. - Blacklist Detection:
SmartServers constantly monitor the health of your servers. If a server is blacklisted, the system automatically notifies you and can rotate the server to keep your campaigns running smoothly. - Granular Control:
You can assign specific servers to different clients or campaigns, providing complete control over how each campaign’s reputation is managed. - Isolated Dedicated IPs:
Since SmartServers are hosted on dedicated servers, there’s zero downtime and complete control over your sending process.
How To Get Started with SmartServers
Here’s a simple guide to purchasing, managing, and assigning dedicated servers to your email campaigns:
1. Log in to Smartlead
Go to your Smartlead account and navigate to the SmartServers tab from the menu.
If it’s your first time purchasing, click on ‘Add Servers’ to start the process. If you’ve already bought servers, you'll see a list of your existing ones.
2. Purchase Dedicated IPs
Click on ‘Get Started’ and select the region you want your IPs to be hosted in.
Choose how many IPs you need and review the total cost.
After confirming your selections, click ‘Complete Purchase’ to finalize the transaction.
Your dedicated servers will now appear with key details like IP address, region, and email statistics (sent emails, replies, bounce rates, etc.).
SmartServers offers even more powerful features* that will take your email marketing to the next level:
- Blacklist Detection & Notifications:
You’ll receive immediate notifications if your IP is blacklisted, allowing you to rotate the IP before it affects your campaigns. - Server Rotation:
The system automatically rotates IPs to distribute the sending load, which helps maintain consistent deliverability across your campaigns. - Campaign-Level Metrics:
Filter metrics like bounce rates and reply rates at the campaign level for more granular insights into your email performance.
If you want to learn more about SmartServers, check out this demo video.
Winding-Up
Deliverability is key to successful email marketing, and dedicated IPs offer the control and reliability needed for consistent results.
With SmartServers, you gain not just a private IP but a complete solution for optimizing your campaigns with features like IP rotation, load balancing, and blacklist detection. Take full control of your email reputation and watch your deliverability improve. Ready to boost your email marketing performance? SmartServers is the way forward—try dedicated IPs today and unlock your campaigns' full potential. Your emails deserve to be seen.
Author’s Details
Priya Abraham
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Frequently asked questions
What is Smartlead's cold email outreach software?
Smartlead's cold email outreach tool helps businesses scale their outreach efforts seamlessly. With unlimited mailboxes, fully automated email warmup functionality, a multi-channel infrastructure, and a user-friendly unibox, it empowers users to manage their entire revenue cycle in one place. Whether you're looking to streamline cold email campaigns with automated email warmups, personalization fields, automated mailbox rotation, easy integrations, and spintax, improve productivity, or enhance scalability with subsequences based on lead’s intentions, automated replies, and full white-label experience, our cold email tool implifies it in a single solution.
What is Smartlead, and how can it enhance my cold email campaigns?
Smartlead is a robust cold emailing software designed to transform cold emails into reliable revenue streams. Trusted by over 31,000 businesses, Smartlead excels in email deliverability, lead generation, cold email automation, and sales outreach. A unified master inbox streamlines communication management, while built-in email verification reduces bounce rates.
Additionally, Smartlead offers essential tools such as CNAME, SPF Checker, DMARC Checker, Email Verifier, Blacklist Check Tool, and Email Bounce Rate Calculator for optimizing email performance.
How does the "unlimited mailboxes" feature benefit me?
Our "unlimited mailboxes" feature allows you to expand your email communications without restrictions imposed by a mailbox limit. This means you won't be constrained by artificial caps on the number of mailboxes you can connect and use. This feature makes Smartlead the best cold email software and empowers you to reach a wider audience, engage with more potential customers, and manage diverse email campaigns effectively.
How does Smartlead as a cold emailing tool can automate the cold email process?
Smartlead’s robust cold email API and automation infrastructure streamline outbound communication by transforming the campaign creation and management processes. It seamlessly integrates data across software systems using APIs and webhooks, adjusts settings, and leverages AI for personalised content.
The cold emailing tool categorises lead intent, offers comprehensive email management with automated notifications, and integrates smoothly with CRMs like Zapier, Make, N8N, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Smartlead supports scalable outreach by rapidly adding mailboxes and drip-feeding leads into active campaigns Sign Up Now!
What do you mean by "unibox to handle your entire revenue cycle"?
The "unibox" is one of the unique features of Smartlead cold email outreach tool, and it's a game-changer when it comes to managing your revenue cycle. The master inbox or the unibox consolidates all your outreach channels, responses, sales follow-ups, and conversions into one centralized, user-friendly mailbox.
With the "unibox," you gain the ability to:
1. Focus on closing deals: You can now say goodbye to the hassle of logging into multiple mailboxes to search for replies. The "unibox" streamlines your sales communication, allowing you to focus on what matters most—closing deals.
2. Centralized lead management: All your leads are managed from one central location, simplifying lead tracking and response management. This ensures you take advantage of every opportunity and efficiently engage with your prospects.
3. Maintain context: The "unibox" provides a 360-degree view of all your customer messages, allowing you to maintain context and deliver more personalized and effective responses.
How does Smartlead ensure my emails don't land in the spam folder?
Smartlead, the best cold email marketing tool, ensures your emails reach the intended recipients' primary inbox rather than the spam folder.
Here's how it works:
1. Our "unlimited warmups" feature is designed to build and maintain a healthy sending reputation for your cold email outreach. Instead of sending a large volume of emails all at once, which can trigger spam filters, we gradually ramp up your sending volume. This gradual approach, combined with positive email interactions, helps boost your email deliverability rates.
2. We deploy high-deliverability IP servers specific to each campaign.
3. The ‘Warmup’ feature replicates humanized email sending patterns, spintax, and smart replies.
4. By establishing a positive sender reputation and gradually increasing the number of sent emails, Smartlead minimizes the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. This way, you can be confident that your messages will consistently land in the primary inbox, increasing the likelihood of engagement and successful communication with your recipients.
Can Smartlead help improve my email deliverability rates?
Yes, our cold emailing software is designed to significantly improve your email deliverability rates. It enhances email deliverability through AI-powered email warmups across providers, unique IP rotating for each campaign, and dynamic ESP matching.
Real-time AI learning refines strategies based on performance, optimizing deliverability without manual adjustments. Smartlead's advanced features and strategies are designed to improve email deliverability rates, making it a robust choice for enhancing cold email campaign success.
What features does Smartlead offer for cold email personalisation?
Smartlead enhances cold email personalisation through advanced AI-driven capabilities and strategic integrations. Partnered with Clay, The cold remaining software facilitates efficient lead list building, enrichment from over 50 data providers, and real-time scraping for precise targeting. Hyper-personalised cold emails crafted in Clay seamlessly integrate with Smartlead campaigns.
Moreover, Smartlead employs humanised, natural email interactions and smart replies to boost engagement and response rates. Additionally, the SmartAI Bot creates persona-specific, high-converting sales copy. Also you can create persona-specific, high-converting sales copy using SmartAI Bot. You can train the AI bot to achieve 100% categorisation accuracy, optimising engagement and conversion rates.
Can I integrate Smartlead with other tools I'm using?
Certainly, Smartlead cold email tool is designed for seamless integration with a wide range of tools and platforms. Smartlead offers integration with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Clay, Listkit, and more. You can leverage webhooks and APIs to integrate the tools you use. Try Now!
Is Smartlead suitable for both small businesses and large enterprises?
Smartlead accommodates both small businesses and large enterprises with flexible pricing and comprehensive features. The Basic Plan at $39/month suits small businesses and solopreneurs, offering 2000 active leads and 6000 monthly emails, alongside essential tools like unlimited email warm-up and detailed analytics.
Marketers and growing businesses benefit from the Pro Plan ($94/month), with 30000 active leads and 150000 monthly emails, plus a custom CRM and active support. Lead generation agencies and large enterprises can opt for the Custom Plan ($174/month), providing up to 12 million active lead credits and 60 million emails, with advanced CRM integration and customisation options.
What type of businesses sees the most success with Smartlead?
No, there are no limitations on the number of channels you can utilize with Smartlead. Our cold email tool offers a multi-channel infrastructure designed to be limitless, allowing you to reach potential customers through multiple avenues without constraints.
This flexibility empowers you to diversify your cold email outreach efforts, connect with your audience through various communication channels, and increase your chances of conversion. Whether email, social media, SMS, or other communication methods, Smartlead's multi-channel capabilities ensure you can choose the channels that best align with your outreach strategy and business goals. This way, you can engage with your prospects effectively and maximize the impact of your email outreach.
How can Smartlead integrate with my existing CRM and other tools?
Smartlead is the cold emailing tool that facilitates seamless integration with existing CRM systems and other tools through robust webhook and API infrastructure. This setup ensures real-time data synchronisation and automated processes without manual intervention. Integration platforms like Zapier, Make, and N8N enable effortless data exchange between Smartlead and various applications, supporting tasks such as lead information syncing and campaign status updates. Additionally, it offers native integrations with major CRM platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive, enhancing overall lead management capabilities and workflow efficiency. Try Now!
Do you provide me with lead sources?
No. Smartlead distinguishes itself from other cold email outreach software by focusing on limitless scalability and seamless integration. While many similar tools restrict your outreach capabilities, Smartlead offers a different approach.
Here's what makes us uniquely the best cold email software:
1. Unlimited Mailboxes: In contrast to platforms that limit mailbox usage, Smartlead provides unlimited mailboxes. This means you can expand your outreach without any arbitrary constraints.
2. Unique IP Servers: Smartlead offers unique IP servers for every campaign it sends out.
3. Sender Reputation Protection: Smartlead protects your sender reputation by auto-moving emails from spam folders to the primary inbox. This tool uses unique identifiers to cloak all warmup emails from being recognized by automation parsers.
4. Automated Warmup: Smartlead’s warmup functionality enhances your sender reputation and improves email deliverability by maintaining humanised email sending patterns and ramping up the sending volume.
How secure is my data with Smartlead?
Ensuring the security of your data is Smartlead's utmost priority. We implement robust encryption methods and stringent security measures to guarantee the continuous protection of your information. Your data's safety is paramount to us, and we are always dedicated to upholding the highest standards of security.
How can I get started with Smartlead?
Getting started with Smartlead is straightforward! Just head over to our sign-up page and follow our easy step-by-step guide. If you ever have any questions or need assistance, our round-the-clock support team is ready to help, standing by to provide you with any assistance you may require. Sign Up Now!
How can I reach the Smartlead team?
We're here to assist you! You can easily get in touch with our dedicated support team on chat. We strive to provide a response within 24 hours to address any inquiries or concerns you may have. You can also reach out to us at support@smartlead.ai
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