What are email reputation pools? (email IPs)
When you use Crisp to send emails, some emails you send may have a positive feedback from users (they get read), or a negative feedback (they get marked as spam by users). This can affect the deliverability of your emails positively or negatively.
By default, your Crisp emails, whether it be inbox message replies or campaigns, get sent via a pool of pre-heated email IPs that Crisp operates.
As the pool of email IPs is shared across all Crisp customers, it is important that users that tend to send more spammy emails than other users get to use a lower-reputation email IP pool. On the other hand, users that tend to send emails that are read and considered by receivers would be upgraded to a higher reputation email IP pool.
By avoiding to mix up low-spam risk emails and high-spam risk emails, we ensure deliverability is optimized for those who follow good sender rules. This also help reduce the risk that the used pool email IP gets blacklisted (even if the risk still exists, eg. blacklist systems mistake).
A website has a certain email sending reputation associated to it. By sending emails and collecting feedback from the network (server logs and user abuse reports), we are able to calculate a sending reputation for the website.
This reputation is used to move the website to a certain email delivery pool (eg. high-reputation pool).
At the time of the website creation, we don't know yet about the email sending reputation of the website. Thus, the website is assigned the medium-reputation pool by default. It is then moved up or down on the reputation ladder, or kept in the medium pool, provided more email sending data.
If your website moves up to the high-reputation pool, be warned that it can still be moved down, provided that you send poor-quality emails that get flagged as abuse more than usual. You must always be aware that anything you send can affect your email delivery reputation positively or negatively. Check often your email reputation status in your website settings, to get a feedback on the quality of the emails you're sending.
Reputation pools are split into 3 blocks:
High-reputation pools: good senders, with a very low number of spam reports and a good email open rate;
Medium-reputation pools: senders we don't know much about their reputation, or for whom there are some abuse reports or a low open rate;
Low-reputation pools: bad senders, with a large number of abuse reports or a very low email open rate;
The reputation pool for a website is automatically calculated, based on feedback from the network for emails that are sent.
Our systems use the following data sources, to calculate a reputation score for sent emails:
Total volume of emails forwarded for delivery;
Open rate of emails (ie. an human user opens the email, and reads it);
Click rate of emails (ie. an human user opens the email and clicks on a link in it);
Errors received from remote SMTP servers upon delivery;
Abuse reports (ie. spam reports) from human users, collected from popular webmail platforms;
Third-party reputation sources;
To get to know the reputation pool your website is using:
Open your Crisp Dashboard;
Go to your website settings: click on the "Settings" icon on the left sidebar, then click on "Websites" and select the target website in the list;
Select Advanced configuration;
Go to Outbound email IPs;
Check for your sending reputation there;
If you'd like to get assigned a dedicated email IP and stop using a pooled IP (and possibly being affected by other Crisp user's email reputation), you can upgrade to a private email IP.
The private email IP is a paid option. As we need to allocate an IPv4 for you (ie. 1 website = 1 IPv4), we charge an extra amount per month, no matter which paid plan you are using. There is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses, and thus IPv4 prices can be quite high on the market. We cover those extra monthly expenditures by selling this feature as an add-on.
To upgrade to a private email IP:
Open your Crisp Dashboard;
Go to the Plugins tab;
In the Plugins tab, search for the "Dedicated Email IP" plugin;
Click on "Install" (make sure you have a payment method on file);
Go to your website settings: click on the "Settings" icon on the left sidebar, then click on "Websites" and select the target website in the list;
Select Advanced configuration;
Go to Outbound email IPs;
Click on "Get your private email IP";
Once upgraded, you'll see the private IP we assigned you;
You have nothing else to do, you're all set (you can use an email testing tool to check all emails are now delivered using the private IP);
IP status before you upgrade:
IP status after you upgraded:
If you want to be sure the correct private IP is being used to send your Crisp emails, there's a simple way to check this.
Here's how to check which email IP is being used:
Send a message to a conversation with yourself in the Crisp Inbox (make sure your email is set);
Wait for "Delivered to email" to appear below the message you've sent (it can take up to 2 minutes);
In your email client, open the email you've received;
Click on a button that says "Show source" or "View raw" in your email client, to see the email raw contents;
In the raw contents that opens up, look for your private email IP in the email headers, in one of the multiple Received: attributes (first few lines);
It is important that you check on the emails that have been sent AFTER upgrading to the private email IP package. All emails that were sent before upgrading to private email IP will be marked as sent from the previously-used IP address.
Once you are assigned a dedicated email IP address, avoid sending huge campaigns from Day 1. As we're providing you a freshly-new, never-used email IP address, this IP is not known to receiving email servers.
Thus, receiving email servers will not be ready to accept a high volume of emails coming from an unknown IP address. You'll need to warm it up progressively, before you can send large campaigns; see this article from Return Path for more details about warming up an IP address.
We advise you wait for a few days before you start sending campaigns from your IP. If your Crisp Inbox is quite active, your users may already start receiving transcript emails and message reply notifications. This will be enough to warm up your email IP address over a few days.
We advise that you wait at least 1 week before sending your first campaign on your new email IP address.
If you cannot wait for your IP to warm up, you can still send a large email campaign. However, your IP may be flagged as spammy and you may hurt its long-term reputation. Hence why we advise you to wait a few days before it gets warmed up by sending regular notification emails.
By default, your Crisp emails, whether it be inbox message replies or campaigns, get sent via a pool of pre-heated email IPs that Crisp operates.
As the pool of email IPs is shared across all Crisp customers, it is important that users that tend to send more spammy emails than other users get to use a lower-reputation email IP pool. On the other hand, users that tend to send emails that are read and considered by receivers would be upgraded to a higher reputation email IP pool.
By avoiding to mix up low-spam risk emails and high-spam risk emails, we ensure deliverability is optimized for those who follow good sender rules. This also help reduce the risk that the used pool email IP gets blacklisted (even if the risk still exists, eg. blacklist systems mistake).
How do email pools work?
A website has a certain email sending reputation associated to it. By sending emails and collecting feedback from the network (server logs and user abuse reports), we are able to calculate a sending reputation for the website.
This reputation is used to move the website to a certain email delivery pool (eg. high-reputation pool).
At the time of the website creation, we don't know yet about the email sending reputation of the website. Thus, the website is assigned the medium-reputation pool by default. It is then moved up or down on the reputation ladder, or kept in the medium pool, provided more email sending data.
If your website moves up to the high-reputation pool, be warned that it can still be moved down, provided that you send poor-quality emails that get flagged as abuse more than usual. You must always be aware that anything you send can affect your email delivery reputation positively or negatively. Check often your email reputation status in your website settings, to get a feedback on the quality of the emails you're sending.
Which are the available reputation pools?
Reputation pools are split into 3 blocks:
High-reputation pools: good senders, with a very low number of spam reports and a good email open rate;
Medium-reputation pools: senders we don't know much about their reputation, or for whom there are some abuse reports or a low open rate;
Low-reputation pools: bad senders, with a large number of abuse reports or a very low email open rate;
How do you calculate which pool to switch a website to?
The reputation pool for a website is automatically calculated, based on feedback from the network for emails that are sent.
Our systems use the following data sources, to calculate a reputation score for sent emails:
Total volume of emails forwarded for delivery;
Open rate of emails (ie. an human user opens the email, and reads it);
Click rate of emails (ie. an human user opens the email and clicks on a link in it);
Errors received from remote SMTP servers upon delivery;
Abuse reports (ie. spam reports) from human users, collected from popular webmail platforms;
Third-party reputation sources;
How to see which reputation pool my website is using?
To get to know the reputation pool your website is using:
Open your Crisp Dashboard;
Go to your website settings: click on the "Settings" icon on the left sidebar, then click on "Websites" and select the target website in the list;
Select Advanced configuration;
Go to Outbound email IPs;
Check for your sending reputation there;
How do I get my own IP instead of a pooled IP?
If you'd like to get assigned a dedicated email IP and stop using a pooled IP (and possibly being affected by other Crisp user's email reputation), you can upgrade to a private email IP.
The private email IP is a paid option. As we need to allocate an IPv4 for you (ie. 1 website = 1 IPv4), we charge an extra amount per month, no matter which paid plan you are using. There is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses, and thus IPv4 prices can be quite high on the market. We cover those extra monthly expenditures by selling this feature as an add-on.
How to upgrade to a private IP?
To upgrade to a private email IP:
Open your Crisp Dashboard;
Go to the Plugins tab;
In the Plugins tab, search for the "Dedicated Email IP" plugin;
Click on "Install" (make sure you have a payment method on file);
Go to your website settings: click on the "Settings" icon on the left sidebar, then click on "Websites" and select the target website in the list;
Select Advanced configuration;
Go to Outbound email IPs;
Click on "Get your private email IP";
Once upgraded, you'll see the private IP we assigned you;
You have nothing else to do, you're all set (you can use an email testing tool to check all emails are now delivered using the private IP);
IP status before you upgrade:
IP status after you upgraded:
How to verify the IP in-use to send emails?
If you want to be sure the correct private IP is being used to send your Crisp emails, there's a simple way to check this.
Here's how to check which email IP is being used:
Send a message to a conversation with yourself in the Crisp Inbox (make sure your email is set);
Wait for "Delivered to email" to appear below the message you've sent (it can take up to 2 minutes);
In your email client, open the email you've received;
Click on a button that says "Show source" or "View raw" in your email client, to see the email raw contents;
In the raw contents that opens up, look for your private email IP in the email headers, in one of the multiple Received: attributes (first few lines);
It is important that you check on the emails that have been sent AFTER upgrading to the private email IP package. All emails that were sent before upgrading to private email IP will be marked as sent from the previously-used IP address.
Considerations before you send high-volumes of emails
Once you are assigned a dedicated email IP address, avoid sending huge campaigns from Day 1. As we're providing you a freshly-new, never-used email IP address, this IP is not known to receiving email servers.
Thus, receiving email servers will not be ready to accept a high volume of emails coming from an unknown IP address. You'll need to warm it up progressively, before you can send large campaigns; see this article from Return Path for more details about warming up an IP address.
We advise you wait for a few days before you start sending campaigns from your IP. If your Crisp Inbox is quite active, your users may already start receiving transcript emails and message reply notifications. This will be enough to warm up your email IP address over a few days.
We advise that you wait at least 1 week before sending your first campaign on your new email IP address.
If you cannot wait for your IP to warm up, you can still send a large email campaign. However, your IP may be flagged as spammy and you may hurt its long-term reputation. Hence why we advise you to wait a few days before it gets warmed up by sending regular notification emails.
Updated on: 13/06/2022
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