The very basic requirements before you start setting up your bulk email server are a domain name and a VPS provider for email marketing. These are very easy to get. But there are few things to keep in mind. Let’s discuss them in detail.
Selecting a Domain name for your Email Marketing
Never use your main domain for marketing emails. This is the most important thing when selecting a domain. Things can get little tricky with marketing emails. The chances of people reporting marketing emails as spam is high, even if they are opted-in to your list and you send great content.
When you use your main domain for all personal, transactional and marketing emails, if something goes wrong with your marketing emails, all email from your domain will be affected. If marketing email start to go to spam folder, both personal and transactional emails will follow too. This is something that is very hard to come out of. So, you need to separate these emails with subdomains or use entirely a different domain for marketing. Using a subdomain for transactional emails is acceptable and is the right way to go. But for marketing emails, I usually recommend a different domain with one condition.
When you’re using a separate domain with your perfect bulk email server setup, make sure to keep your branding consistent. Get a domain similar to your main domain. May be a different extension (TLD) of your domain. You can search for domains on Namecheap. So, if your domain is domain.com try searching for domain.net or domain.org. Doing it this way will help you resolve email deliverability problems. You just have to change the domain on your marketing system as the domain you’re using is expendable.Â
If possible, let the new domain sit for 30 days as sending emails from a newly brought domain rises immediate red flages with some inbox providers.Â
Getting a VPS with additional IPs
You need to select the VPS provider very carefully too. If you’re sending emails to a double opt-in list, you can get a VPS from our recommended unmanaged VPS providers list. These providers will not tolarate spam complaints on their network. However, they won’t have a problem if you’re sending legit content to people who are expecting to receive your marketing emails. You also need to be mindful of the amount of IP addresses you need. These providers have limits on number of IP addresses you can allocate to a server. We’ll look into the calculation in a bit. You may need to figure out a number and contact thier support to see the possibility.
We at vpsfix.com also provide Email Friendly Unmamaged VPS which you can use for your double opt-in lists. We’re a bit more tolerant than mentioned providers and provide support for your email server setup. You can also have up to 16 IP addresses allocated to your server with us. Other popular VPS providers that tolerate bulk emailing include OVH.com and Contabo.com. Although they are tolerant towards emails origination from their network none of them will tolerate you sending spam..
The other important requirement is number of IPs you need to buy. A VPS comes with a single IP address. General rule of thumb is an IP address can send 1000 emails per hour after the warmup period. So, if your list size is 100k and you want your campaign to go out in an hour, you need to get 10 IP addresses.
Although that’s the rule I follow for bulk emailing server setups, there’s no hard cap on how many emails an IP can send. You can configure your IP to send thousands of emails per hour as long as your server resources allows you to do. Inbox providers will decide to accept or reject your emails. They will reject in most cases. And that will ruin your domain’s credibility as a sender.
Hope this post will help you in selecting a domain name & a VPS provider for your email marketing.
