When it comes to cold email outreach, success doesn't stop at crafting the perfect messaging. Technical aspects and decisions must be made with your infrastructure that need to be handled correctly if you want maximum deliverability and campaign success.
In this article, we’ll review 2 key technical components: your choice of ISP and ESP. We’ll explore what they are and how they impact deliverability, and we'll go over how you can improve your odds of landing in primary inboxes.
Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
ISPs are companies that provide individuals and businesses with access to the internet.
They host the hardware and infrastructure required for connecting large populations to the internet. Examples of some well-known ISPs include telecom providers such as Comcast and AT&T.
Types of ISPs
ISPs can be divided into three tiers ranging from wide-reach global networks to smaller local networks.
Tier 1 ISPs provide tier 2 with global access and use many transmission mediums to deliver large-scale web usage. These ISPs work together by allowing traffic to flow through their networks to reach its destination. Examples of tier 1 ISPs include AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon.
Tier 2 ISPs are more limited and only expand to regional and national reach. They purchase access to the global network from tier 1 and focus on providing access to consumer and commercial customers. Examples of tier 2 ISPs include Comcast, Cox, and CTS Telecom.
Tier 3 ISPs are significantly more localized and receive an internet connection from Tier 2. They involve regional and local providers and focus on supplying network access to local businesses and consumer markets.
Email Service Providers
ESPs are companies that provide the software and infrastructure required for sending, receiving, and managing emails.
There are a handful of features ESPs offer that are critical for cold email:
- Sending Infrastructure utilizes powerful servers to handle the many factors involved with sending emails, such as deliverability and routing.
- Management Tools offer features that help users streamline their email operations. This includes vital tools such as contact management, marketing automation, template generation, data analytics, spam filtering, and reputation checks.
How ISPs and ESPs Can Impact Email Deliverability
ISPs and ESPs play crucial roles in email deliverability. They regulate and ensure that emails reach their intended recipients by filtering out spam and managing the sender's reputation.
IP Reputation
Some ISPs assign dynamic (shared) IP addresses, which means multiple users share the same IP at different times. This can create challenges for email deliverability, as your emails could be affected if another user sharing the same IP has been flagged for spam or other suspicious activity.
Even if you follow cold email best practices, your reputation could be influenced by the actions of others using the same IP.
Choosing an ISP that offers dedicated IPs will allow you to have better control over your sender reputation. This means that your emails will not be impacted by the actions of other users. However, dedicated IPs can sometimes be more expensive and require additional maintenance.
Spam Filtering
ESPs monitor suspicious sending behavior (sudden volume spikes, high bounce rates, or spam complaints). If your email is suspected to be spam, it will either land in the recipient's spam folder or not be delivered at all.
To avoid being flagged as spam, you should consider providing an easy way to unsubscribe and ensure that your content is relevant to your audience.
You should also regularly monitor your email deliverability by checking your bounce rates and spam complaint rates. If these metrics are high, it may be a sign that you need to fine-tune your campaign.
Email Tools for Managing Deliverability
Email deliverability is crucial for ensuring your messages reach the intended audience without being trapped in spam filters. Popular email tools allow you to manage and improve deliverability rates, ensuring the success of your cold email campaigns while staying compliant with industry standards.
Instantly
G2 Rating: 4.8/5 ⭐ with 3,585 reviews
Instantly offers a variety of customizable features that work together to help manage your email account. Its tools enhance essential aspects of your email inbox to improve the effectiveness of your campaigns. Improved aspects include account reputation, deliverability, and contact management.
Using a visually pleasing, user-friendly UI, their intuitive platform presents key features and valuable data metrics. The AI tools Instantly offer can optimize email practices by automating tasks such as first contact, warmup, and follow-up schedules, as well as content generation, personalization, and editing to improve your email’s deliverability and quality.
Instantly’s AI tools can also help collect, manage, analyze, and present data metrics regarding your email account’s performance. They provide key insights such as delivery, reply, open, and click rates to track engagement and email reputation score, deliverability, and spam score to ensure effectiveness.
Key Features
- Intuitive UI to efficiently manage functions and access valuable data metrics
- Convenient connection to your email platform with one-click integration
- Seamless collaboration with other instantly features with Instantly Outreach
- Automation tools to streamline repetitive tasks such as email sending and content generation
- Fast and secure deliverability network to enhance your sender reputation
Pricing
In addition to their monthly subscriptions, Instantly offers 20% savings when you sign up for their annual plans. Here are the monthly pricing plans:
- Growth: $37/month
- Hypergrowth: $97/month
- Light Speed: $358/month
- Enterprise: Custom Pricing
Instantly offers a free trial you can use to run your first cold email campaign!
Litmus
G2 Rating: 4.6/5 ⭐ with 432 reviews
Litmus adds value to your email operations by providing extensive email design and testing tools. It allows you to test your emails before they're sent to verify that they pass authentication tests, spam filters, and block lists.
Their highly customizable email designer offers features for tweaking every part of your email. This improves personalization based on the recipient to encourage responses and engagement. Their platform also allows you to centralize your email review and approval process to simplify management and increase the approval rate.
Key Features
- Expansive email designer to personalize email content
- Email testing to prevent deliverability issues
- Collaboration and review tools to ensure the likelihood of approval
- AI-driven data analytics to monitor essential metrics
Pricing
Litmus offers a variety of subscription plans and customization options, so you only get the features you need. Their payment structure is as follows:
- Litmus Basic: $99/month
- Litmus Plus: $199/month
- Enterprise: Custom Pricing
- Litmus Personalize Pro: Custom Pricing
Key Takeaways
If you are short on time, here are the main points of this article:
- Internet service providers and email service providers are essential networks that allow us to access and communicate over the Internet.
- ISPs provide us with the infrastructure needed to access the internet
- ISPs with dedicated IP addresses are recommended for email campaigns because you won’t be impacted by others getting flagged as spam.
- ESPs provide us with the infrastructure to manage, receive, and send emails.
Try Instantly for free and discover how their features can enhance your email-sending operations!
