How do email volume and volume fluctuations affect deliverability and sender reputation?
Summary
What email marketers say8Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Litmus states that maintaining good list hygiene is critical, especially at high volumes. Sending to invalid or unengaged addresses increases bounce rates and spam complaints, damaging your sender reputation.
Email marketer from SendPulse shares that maintaining a consistent sending volume builds trust with mailbox providers. This predictability helps them identify you as a legitimate sender, positively impacting your reputation.
Email marketer from Mailjet explains that consistent email volume helps establish a sender reputation with ISPs. Sudden spikes or drops in volume can negatively impact deliverability as they may be perceived as suspicious activity.
Email marketer from Warrior Forum states that a sudden increase in frequency and volume can damage your sender reputation and affect deliverability, especially if the recipient engagement is low. Gradual increases alongside monitoring performance is important.
Email marketer from GMass explains that exceeding sending limits set by email providers or ISPs can result in deliverability issues. It's important to adhere to these limitations and gradually increase sending volume as your reputation grows.
Email marketer from EmailToolTester explains that sending too many emails too quickly, especially when first starting, can lead to deliverability issues. ISPs may see this as spammy behavior and throttle or block your emails.
Email marketer from GlockApps answers that higher email volumes require careful segmentation and targeting. Sending relevant content to engaged subscribers minimizes spam complaints and improves deliverability.
Email marketer from Reddit's r/emailmarketing mentions that inconsistent sending patterns (large spikes/drops) can make it harder for ISPs to trust your mail stream, leading to filtering issues. A stable, predictable volume is generally preferred.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that volume doesn’t directly affect reputation or deliverability. Poor reputation develops because people don’t like the emails and interact with them negatively, signaling to machine learning filters that the mail is unwanted.
Expert from Email Geeks shares notes from 4 hours of talks on reputation, providing a link to a Google document that contains the call from last night and links back to the previous 3 calls. Calls 1 and 2 covered theory, while 3 and 4 focused on monitoring and development.
Expert from Email Geeks mentions that fluctuations in email volume can cause problems, especially when you’re initially starting out.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that a sudden spike in volume can be interpreted as a sign of a compromised account or bot activity, leading to filtering or blocking. She emphasizes the importance of gradual and controlled volume increases, especially during IP warming.
Expert from Spamresource explains that consistently sending email at a predictable volume is a cornerstone of establishing and maintaining a good sender reputation. Large fluctuations in volume can trigger spam filters and negatively impact deliverability.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools shares that keeping spam rates low is crucial, especially with high email volume. Even a small percentage of spam complaints can significantly damage sender reputation when sending a large number of emails.
Documentation from Microsoft responds that sudden increases in email volume can trigger spam filters. Gradual increases are recommended to maintain a positive sender reputation.
Documentation from SparkPost explains the importance of gradually increasing email volume during IP address warming. This helps establish a positive sending reputation with ISPs by demonstrating consistent and legitimate email practices.
Documentation from RFC Editor explains that RFC 5321 advises that message senders should avoid sudden large increases to email sending volume, and should incrementally increase email sending volume to build a solid sender reputation.