While looking for customers for my SaaS startup, I faced significant problems with email marketing because my emails were not being delivered. After experimenting with numerous tools and understanding how domains and IPs affect delivery, I gained a month’s worth of experience and knowledge. Consequently, I created a pipeline that can guide any startup in starting with email marketing.
In this article, I present to you a foolproof, effective pipeline to jumpstart your email marketing endeavors. I’ll walk you through the lessons I’ve learned over the past month, illustrating how you can establish an email marketing strategy for your startup that confidently delivers emails to inboxes with an impressive accuracy rate of over 95%.
Ready to embark on this journey? Let’s delve in.
Step 1: Buy Email Hosting with a Dedicated IP
You can purchase email hosting from Zoho, HostGator, or other email hosting providers. I personally use HostGator for my email hosting.
You can also opt for monthly email hosting without a dedicated IP, and this should suffice unless your IP gets blocklisted — a potential risk when multiple users share it. Hence, I recommend using a dedicated IP to maintain full control.
To determine if the IP is dedicated or to see how many websites are linked to it, use this tool:
Before or immediately after purchasing, it’s imperative to check the reputation of the IP using the following tool:
If your IP is blocklisted in more than two places, I suggest requesting a change of IP from your email hosting provider.
Key Takeaways
Avoid purchasing emails from GoDaddy; their restrictions on altering DNS records render them incompatible for bulk emailing.
Step 2: Assess Domain Reputation Before Purchase
Prior to buying a domain, it’s prudent to check its reputation with this tool:
Do not buy if the domain is already abused.
Step 3: Subscribe to a Few Newsletters
You can subscribe to multiple newsletters on the internet to start receiving emails. It will help you with your email reputation.
Step 4: Configuring Domain Records & Check Email Sending Score
Utilize this tool to evaluate your email-sending score; aim for a score exceeding 9 before initiating any email warming or dispatching process.
Ensure the correct setup of DNS records such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
If you have bought the email hosting from host gator and created the emails account from CPanel then most of records should already exists, You just need to create DMARC record.
Step 5: Must Warm your Email and IP
You can find information about email warming and IP warming on the internet. However, the crucial point to understand is the number of emails you should send per domain and per IP when both are new.
If you exceed this number, there’s a risk that your domain or IP could get blocklisted, which would be a significant setback. Refer to the images below for more details.
IP Warming
Email Warming
Step 6: Clean Your Email List
Before sending emails you can remove all the bounce emails. To achieve a zero bounce rate, consider using an additional domain solely for cleaning emails.
Platforms like Mailjet or other similar services can send mass emails from their IPs.
This allows you to discern which emails bounce and which ones are valid. Adopting this method can effectively help you refine your email list.
Step 7: Start Sending Emails
It’s time to start sending emails. You can use an email marketing tool to create campaigns and manage follow-ups. Some of these tools feature email warming functionality. One of the tools I am currently using is SmartLead.ai. It allows for an unlimited number of emails and offers effective warming up
There are other tools on the market similar to SmartLead, such as Apollo.io, Snov.io, Hunter.io, etc. You can use any of these tools, but ensure that you are following the warming process, as it is crucial when you have just started sending emails.
It’s important to remember that building a reputable sender reputation is paramount, so take the time to refine your email lists, employ effective warming strategies, and monitor your campaign’s success.