Introduction
If you are sending email to more than 1,000 recipients at a time, you will need to make your server environment perfect to avoid any possible problems and minimize the change getting black listed across spam filters.
In this chapter, we summarized steps you need to follow and complete in order to run 100% legitimate email marketing campaigns.
We did our best to explain every step and process with plain English, however some steps may require mid-advanced level of server experience. Please consult your server administrator for any questions.
Here's a basic chart which displays how email delivery works:
Email marketing and mass email delivery performance depend on your server configuration and several other factors:
- Enough physical server specifications (RAM, hard disk, CPU, bandwidth, etc.)
- Properly configured and fine tuned MySQL databse
- Properly configured web server
- Properly configured and fine tuned MTA (Mail Transfer Agent)
- Properly configured MTA IP address(es) (reverse DNS, clean and warmed-up IP addresses)
- Email authentication (SPF, SenderID, DKIM, DomainKeys)
Server Hardware
Your server plays a big role on sending performance and stability. There are different server and hosting types;
- Shared Hosting
- Grid Hosting
- VPS Hosting
- Dedicated/Managed Hosting
- Cloud Hosting
- Local Hosting
In theory, Oempro can be installed to any hosting types listed hosting types, however, if you are planning to perform professional email marketing, selecting the right hosting type for your server plays a big role on the performance and stability.
Shared Hosting
If you prefer shared hosting, your mail server will be sending emails through the shared IP address which your hosting company offers. This is the cheapest hosting method but it has many disadvantages such as;
- You will be using a shared IP address which means if any other hosting owner on the same server makes spam mailing, you will also be affected from black lists too.
- Since you will be sending through shared IP address, your delivery reputation will decrease a lot and it will depend on other hosting owners on the same server.
- Your shared hosting company will probably apply sending limit (ex: 1,000 emails per hour)
- Your shared hosting company will be monitoring your emailing activity and probably terminate your account after a certain amount of emailing volume
- You will have very limited server resources which will limit your sending activity
If you have limited budget and shared hosting is the only choice for Oempro hosting, we strongly recommend you to use a third party SMTP relaying service such as octeth.smtp.com. Your mailing activity will not be affected from your shared hosting company (except server resources)
Grid Hosting
Based on Wikipedia, Grid computing (or the use of computational grids) is the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains applied to a common task, usually to a scientific, technical or business problem that requires a great number of computer processing cycles or the need to process large amounts of data.
Grid hosting is more flexible and powerful compared to shared hosting, however it's not enough for powerful email marketing, especially when you are sending to big lists.
VPS Hosting
If you don't have enough budget for getting dedicated servers, VPS is the right choice for you. It's powerful, scalable and almost dedicated. You will have dedicated IP addresses and even you are using shared server resources, you will have dedicated resources.
VPS is almost dedicated, you will not have the same hardware flexibility but it's the right choice for limited budget owners.
Dedicated/Managed Hosting
This is the right choice for professional email marketers and big list senders. You will have fully dedicated server resources, several dedicated IP addresses and scalable hardware.
Getting a dedicated server from a reputable hosting company is important. Customer service quality and clean IP address available are important factors on choosing the right dedicated server hosting company.
Local Hosting
We don't recommend hosting Oempro and your MTA on your computer at the office or home. Sending emails through ADSL or similar internet connection IP addresses will cause your email delivery rate to get minimized.
MySQL Database Server
All your data (recipients, lists, campaigns, statistics, etc.) are stored on your MySQL database. There will be huge MySQL transaction volume during email delivery and campaign statistics tracking. Your MySQL database should be configured properly in order to handle the load.
Standard MySQL database server configuration will still be able to handle the load until a certain level. But if you start having connection problems to your server, it's the time to scale and optimize your MySQL database server.
Web Server
Web server serves Oempro components (statistics tracking and other HTTP processes) to your recipients. You should configure it considering the load you will have upon email campaign delivery. If you send an email campaign to 100,000 recipients, this kind of email delivery will cause at least1;
- [number of opens] x [email open tracking image size] HTTP request
- [number of clicks] x [link click tracking] HTTP request
Oempro
Configure your Oempro properly based on your server environment to avoid any possible email delivery problems. Please refer to "Setting Up Your Oempro" chapter for more details.
MTA (Mail Transfer Agent)
This is the server component which sets the email delivery success and delivery reputation. You must configure your MTA properly to make it ready for email marketing.
Using an MTA with a standard configuration for mass email delivery will not work on big lists. You will start having delivery problems, black listing issues and several other unexpected problems in time.
MTA is the heart of your email marketing success. A properly configured MTA will maximize your email delivery success and minimize the chance of getting black listed.
Email Authentication
Email authentication is the most important factor which affects your inbox delivery rate. If you have not done email authentication properly for sender domains, your emails will not arrive in inbox mostly. All major email services such as Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, AOL checks for properly set email authentication for incoming emails.
There are four email authentication methods and we strong recommend you to set all of these methods:
Setting these authentication methods are done on your sender domain DNS zones as well as on your MTA (mail server) side.
Setting up authentication methods has no relationship with Oempro. You need to set these on your domain DNS zones as well as mail server. You may request assistance from your server administrator.
Sender Reputation
Sender reputation is another important factor on your inbox delivery performance. The sender reputation is calculated for your sender domains based on many factors such as the bounce volume, spam complaint volume, delivery frequency, etc.
You can check your sender reputation by using ReturnPath's free tool.
Useful Links
- PreviewMyEmail.com
This service takes screen shots of your email on several email applications and shows you within a few minutes. Also provides you detailed information about your inbox delivery rate. Comes with an API option. - SenderScore.org
Monitor your SenderScore by entering your MTA IP address(es) - SPF
Important information regarding SPF email authentication method - SenderID
Important information about Microsoft's SenderID email authentication method - DKIM
Important information about Yahoo's email authentication method - DomainKeys
Important information about DomainKeys email authentication method
