How does complaint rate and inboxing rate affect Gmail placement reconsideration?
Summary
What email marketers say7Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Mailchimp shares that maintaining a healthy email list with engaged subscribers is crucial. Regularly cleaning the list to remove inactive or unengaged recipients helps reduce complaint rates and improve inbox placement, positively influencing Gmail's perception of the sender.
Email marketer from Reddit responds that focusing on improving inbox placement involves both reducing complaint rates and increasing engagement. This includes segmenting lists, sending targeted content, and actively soliciting feedback to address user concerns.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that inbox placement directly impacts engagement metrics like open rates and click-through rates. If emails land in the spam folder, they are less likely to be seen, lowering these metrics. Low engagement can further damage sender reputation, leading to a vicious cycle.
Email marketer from Gmass responds that if your emails go to the spam folder you need to get people to move your messages to the inbox. By doing that, users are telling Gmail that they want to see your messages. The more you do it, the more it helps your deliverability
Email marketer from SendGrid responds that sender reputation is significantly affected by both complaint rates and inbox placement. A high complaint rate signals poor email practices or irrelevant content, while low inbox placement indicates that mailbox providers don't trust the sender. Both negatively impact deliverability and reconsideration chances.
Email marketer from StackExchange explains that maintaining low bounce and complaint rates is essential for a good sender reputation. High rates can cause mailbox providers to filter emails as spam, reducing inbox placement and impacting engagement. Regular list cleaning and monitoring are important.
Email marketer from Email on Acid shares that deliverability metrics, including complaint rates and inbox placement, are key indicators of email program health. Monitoring these metrics and addressing issues proactively can improve sender reputation and increase the chances of Gmail placement reconsideration.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains that new email data affects reputation based on a rolling average, where older data has less impact over time. They advise that a 0% inboxing rate is a significant negative reputation factor, potentially more harmful than a 0.1% complaint rate. Sending to users whose mail consistently goes to the bulk folder also harms deliverability.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that Feedback Loops (FBLs) are critical for senders to identify and remove users who mark their emails as spam. Joining FBLs allows senders to monitor complaint rates and take corrective action, which is essential for improving inbox placement and sender reputation with Gmail and other ISPs.
Expert from Word to the Wise answers that good list hygiene is important because mailbox providers look at engagement as a proxy for whether or not a user wants to receive email. If an email program doesn't maintain a clean list then mailbox providers are more likely to filter the message.
Expert from Word to the Wise answers that authentication is critical in improving inbox placement for all email programs. Mailbox providers use authentication as part of their decision making process for where to place a message. Senders that don't follow recommended authentication protocols are more likely to have messages filtered.
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft explains that their SmartScreen Filter learns from user behavior, including junk mail reporting. High volumes of users marking emails as junk can negatively impact a sender's reputation and affect inbox placement within Outlook and other Microsoft services, which can indirectly impact Gmail deliverability as well.
Documentation from Google explains that a high complaint rate negatively impacts sender reputation. Consistently low complaint rates, ideally below 0.10%, are crucial for maintaining a good reputation and inbox placement. High complaint rates signal to Gmail that users don't want the emails, leading to filtering.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that feedback loops (FBLs) provide data on user complaints. Monitoring FBLs allows senders to identify and remove subscribers who mark emails as spam, improving overall complaint rates and protecting sender reputation.