How to change your router without hassle?

Introduction:

Throughout my professional experience, I have seen quite a few advertisers going back and forth from one e-mail router to another (some have even made a specialty of it but they are not necessarily the best ones :p).
Leaving a professional router for another professional router is not easy and some sometimes forget important steps and start their routing with serious delivery problems (which will be hard to catch and will require a lot of time and energy to overcome).

1/ Why take this step?

In the life cycle of an advertiser, he has to change his professional router at least once. The reasons can be various, a small overview of the reasons I have encountered in recent years:

• I am no longer satisfied with the performance of my current router.
• I've reached the limits of my router, I need a better platform.
• I want to reduce my e-mail costs, I need to find a cheaper platform.
• I burned all my IPs and my router won't give me any more.
• …

Even if the approach can be relevant for some reasons, it is important for the advertiser to prepare well.

2/ Key steps for a successful migration.

a) Step 1: Retrieve your data

This step consists in recovering the most sensitive data in order to import them into your new router. These data are to be recovered in the form of export:

• Export containing the list of all unsubscriptions.
  > This will allow you not to re-solicit emails that have already unsubscribed naturally on your old platform, and thus avoid generating complaints (or even blockages) from the start.
• Export containing a list of all your hard/soft bounces
  > Another export not to be forgotten is the bounces. These are key data that will allow you to avoid generating too many errors at startup, and thus avoid being considered as a spammer.
• Export containing the list of all your complainants (feedback loops, abuse complaints)
  > If there is another export that you MUST not forget, it is the complaints. This is to avoid attracting the thunderbolt of former complainants but also of ISPs/Webmails.
• Export of the history of your openings, clicks for each profile
  > This data is extremely important for the first targeting since it will be used to warm up your new IPs and subdomains (unless you use the old ones).
• Export of your push lists.
  > You or your router may have created specific lists. Don't forget them, especially if they contain sensitive data that can impact your shipments to your new router.

b) Step 2: Prepare your new routing environment

Your decision is final and you have already signed up with a new professional router. From this moment, it is imperative to prepare your new routing environment by first importing your different exports but also by contacting the deliverability manager (if the router has a team) in order to set up your routing strategy. This corresponds to :

• Define your sending typologies (loyalty, acquisition, transactional).
• Define your business types (btob, btoc, other).
• Define the number of IPs you need.
• Define the number of subdomains/domains you need.
• Define a routing plan.

c) Step 3: Prepare your routing plan

Once your environment is properly set up (don't forget to test it beforehand by sending yourself a few campaigns), you need to set up a routing plan that will allow you to "warm up" your IPs & subdomains/domains.
For this plan to work properly, you will have to use a very limited and high quality targeting (hence the interest of your openers / clickers export).

d) Step 4: Routing

There are no fifty ways to start your shipments with your new router:

• The "Simple Routing": You have decided to change routers right away but have not prepared well. To start well, you will have to be patient (unless your router gives you nice shared IPs) and build your reputation yourself. The targeting will have to be restricted (we favor recent clickers and then recent openers)
• The "Double-Run": You are changing routers but you have some time before the account is closed. You will use your new platform to warm up your IPs/subdomains with some of your qualified traffic and your old platform will route the rest. This will allow you to route a very large portion of your emails without dead-ending (usually the method most used by advertisers).

3/ Points to watch out for

a) The grass is not necessarily greener elsewhere

Be careful, if you leave your old router because of problems you caused, there is a very good chance that you will encounter the same problems with your new router.
It's better to correct the situation before migrating, in order to start on the right foot.

b) Little by little the bird makes its nest

Take your time to migrate, plan a large routing schedule if you are doing a "double run", this is to prepare the new IPs/subdomains when you have only one router.
If you only use your new router, plan with it either to have already "pre-warmed" IPs or to use some shared IPs while you prepare your dedicated IPs.

c) The pot we're watching never overflows

It is not because you respect the letter of the good practices and all the instructions transmitted that nothing can happen to you. It is important to keep a close eye on your deliverability indicators provided by your router and those that you can find "free" (or not) on the Internet.
The more vigilant you are, the less likely you are to be surprised if an impact occurs. And if this should happen, you can take corrective action quickly.

Conclusion:

There you have it, now you have all the tools you need to achieve a near perfect migration, at least to limit the impact on the delivery of your messages.
If your new router does not have a deliverability team to follow you during this long process, do not hesitate to use our services.
Many advertisers switching platforms neglect this support point and unfortunately miss their start.