Once you’ve confirmed that there are significant and ongoing deliverability issues for your email marketing program, it’s important to have a solid strategy to help get back into the inbox. It’s rare that large issues will fix themselves, especially if there are no changes to sending habits.

If you recall back to the days you first started sending from your IP address and domain name, you likely remember executing an IP Warming plan, where you gradually built up your send volume and sender reputation over time. Deliverability mitigation can be looked at as a rewarming of all or select domains. Below are actions to consider when creating a Deliverability Mitigation Plan.

Decrease daily send volume. It may seem extreme but rewarming often means starting at volumes as low as 500 to 1000 emails per day for each domain that is having issues. 

Reduce send cadence. Aside from reducing the actual contacts you send to each day, it is also recommended that you cut back and only send the highest priority sends. This can include campaigns and promotions that have historically performed well. If you do get into the inbox, you want to make sure your metrics are strong. You may even consider selecting one campaign and sending that same email to small groups every day for a week.

Target your most engaged contacts. Since the recommendation is to start very low on sending volumes, you may have to start with very small groups such as contacts who have clicked on any of your emails in the past week or two weeks, gradually expanding the audience until you get to the volume you need for the send. 

Another group to potentially target would be your newest opt-ins, such as people who have joined your database in the past 7 days. If you have multiple opt-in sources and you know that some bring in higher value subscribers, be sure to take that into account as well.

Regularly monitor sends. Hopefully, this goes without saying but be sure to check on your email performance and measure against your internal benchmarks. It’s good to review your last message’s performance before sending your next email in case you need to make adjustments to your plan. If your metrics haven’t improved, you’ll want to remain at that volume. If metrics worsen, you may even need to reduce your next send or decide to push your next send back a day or two.

Increase volume gradually over time. Just like during an initial IP warming, you’ll want to make sure that volume isn’t increased too quickly. Even if performance improves, it’s recommended to stick with one volume for 3 to 5 sends and ensure that the improvement is sustained over time. If performance doesn’t improve, volume should not be increased.

Improve Future Sending Habits

Keep in mind that Mitigation Plans take patience and persistence. It is rare that a sender gets back into the inbox overnight. Once an email provider has marked a Sender as spam, it can take weeks or even months to get reestablished in the inbox. After you’re back in the inbox, you’ll want to make sure you’re maintaining good sending habits or you’ll end up in an endless cycle of deliverability issues. 

Here are some best practices to keep in mind that should help you stay in the inbox and save you from the headaches of mitigation.

1. Send relevant and targeted messages. The more that you can send to people based on their preferences and behaviors, the more likely they are to engage with your content. Solid metrics go a long way to help deliverability.
2. Keep your email list clean. If you’re regularly sending to contacts who haven’t opened in 6 months or more, there’s an increased risk of accidentally sending to inactive email accounts that have been turned into honey pots or spam traps. 
3. Consistency is key. Email providers value a consistent sending pattern. Sending in a large burst once a month, followed by long periods of inactivity, can look suspicious, potentially leading to emails being marked as spam. Ideally, you should aim to send several times a week, or leverage automated emails, to keep the IP warm and demonstrate legitimate, ongoing activity.
4. Low Volume Risks. Sending too little volume (e.g., less than a few hundred emails per day or under 50,000 per month) makes it difficult for email providers to build a reliable reputation profile for your IP address.
5. High Volume Threshold. If you consistently send over 250,000 emails per month, or into the millions daily, you should consider adding multiple dedicated IPs to distribute the volume and avoid throttling issues.