Will migrating hurt my email deliverability?

What actually changes when you move

Not the emails. The machinery underneath them.

systeme.io describes the transition to a new autoresponder as altering the technical infrastructure, including the IP addresses and the email header configuration. That produces a new sender profile, and with it a reset of the reputation attached to the old one.

Keeping the same domain, the same address and the same content does not carry the reputation over. In systeme.io's own words, it takes time to rebuild a strong reputation with the inbox providers after the switch.

There is also nothing to bring with you. Where an autoresponder such as systeme.io is used, the reputation of the sending IP address is managed by the service rather than by the sender.

Why did my open rate drop after switching platforms?

Because during the transition emails can be sorted into the promotions tab, or into spam, while the new sender profile is being established. systeme.io says the rate can move in either direction until that settles, rather than only downwards.

Hold on to one distinction while reading the numbers. Delivery means the email reached the receiving server. Deliverability means it reached the main inbox rather than another folder. systeme.io puts its own delivery rate above 99%, and that figure is about reaching the server. Which folder the message lands in is decided afterwards by Gmail, Microsoft or Yahoo, on their own algorithms and on the recipient's habits.

So a delivery rate that looks perfect and an open rate that has fallen are not in conflict. They are measuring two different things.

What to do differently during a move

systeme.io's migration guidance is specific about the first weeks, and most of it is about who you send to rather than how much.

• Start with the people who already open. Target contacts who have recently opened or clicked, because that produces the signal the providers are watching for.
• Leave the dead weight behind. Unsubscribed and inactive contacts should not be reactivated on the way across, and importing outdated addresses is named as the thing to avoid.
• Do not change the domain at the same time. systeme.io advises keeping the same domain and email address where they already have a good reputation. Changing them alongside the platform means warming a new domain as well as a new profile.
• Hold off the re-engagement campaign. Its guidance is to avoid re-engagement sends to inactive contacts during the initial period, which is the opposite of what a fresh start tempts people into.
• Run one tool, not two. Testing several autoresponders at the same time can create conflicting sender profiles and skew the results, so an overlap period is not a free trial.

The check that runs before anything sends

A migrated list does not start sending the moment it lands.

systeme.io states that a contact list brought in as part of a migration goes through an initial verification by its team before any sending, and that a short form is sent asking questions to confirm the compliance and consent of those contacts.

Its platform migration guides describe the same step from the other side: the list is passed to the deliverability team, who verify it by getting in touch, and the contacts and their tags are imported once that is approved.

The two descriptions tie the check to different steps. The first says it happens before any sending. The second says it happens before the contacts and their tags are imported, which also comes before anything can be sent to them.

Both describe the migration that systeme.io's team carries out. systeme.io's general advice on migrating without hurting deliverability says only that the team may ask for proof of consent.

Either way, two things are worth checking before assuming the hold is still in place. The first is whether the compliance form actually arrived. The free migration article says the team keeps you updated by email once the migration begins, but it does not say how the form itself is sent. The second is the individual contact's own status in the CRM. systeme.io says imported contacts with the Unsubscribed status receive no communication through the platform.

The part of the move that helps deliverability

Domain authentication is a step in the migration itself, not an afterthought. The ClickFunnels migration guide puts integrating and authenticating the domain at step eight of its nine, which generates the DKIM or SPF records for it.

systeme.io notes that this step is included in the data migration process unless you choose to handle it yourself.

Handling it yourself means Settings, then Custom Domain, under your profile picture, then Add domain. What that connection involves is covered on its own page.

What to watch once it is running

Send test campaigns to small segments first rather than to the whole list, and watch the open rate, the click rate, the bounce rate and the spam complaint rate as the volume climbs.

Those four numbers are how the new profile is being judged while it has no history to judge instead.