How does email engagement affect inbox placement for Microsoft and GWorkspace B2B emails?

Email marketer from Mailjet shares that having a large number of inactive subscribers negatively impacts engagement metrics, which can cause mailbox providers like Gmail and Outlook to filter your emails to spam. They recommend regularly cleaning your email list to remove unengaged subscribers.

Email marketer from Neil Patel explains that high engagement rates (opens, clicks, replies) signal to mailbox providers that your emails are valuable and wanted, thus improving deliverability and inbox placement. Conversely, low engagement or spam complaints can negatively impact your sender reputation.

Email marketer from Litmus states that engagement metrics are key indicators for inbox placement. Open rates, click-through rates, and spam complaints directly influence how mailbox providers assess the value and relevance of your emails.

Email marketer from HubSpot shares that in the B2B context, email engagement can involve multiple recipients within an organization. High engagement from key decision-makers and consistent interactions across various team members enhance inbox placement within the company's Microsoft or GWorkspace environment.

Email marketer from Reddit shares that for Google Workspace in the B2B sector, engaging with key decision-makers' emails directly (through forwarding, starring, labeling) is highly effective. This is because such actions strongly signal relevance to Google's algorithms, significantly boosting inbox placement.

Email marketer from StackOverflow explained that if a user moves emails from the 'Promotions' tab to the 'Primary' tab in Gmail, it improves sender reputation and the likelihood of future emails landing in the primary inbox.

Email marketer from EmailToolTester shares that low open and click-through rates harm deliverability because email providers see these as signs that your content isn't valuable to your audience.

Email marketer from Sendinblue explains that consistent engagement is essential for maintaining a positive sender reputation. Low open rates or high unsubscribe rates indicate a lack of relevance and can lead to placement in the spam folder by email providers like Microsoft and Google.

Expert from Spamresource explains that low engagement rates (lack of opens, clicks, and interactions) significantly impact sender reputation. Mailbox providers interpret low engagement as a sign that emails are unwanted, leading to decreased inbox placement in Microsoft and GWorkspace environments.

Expert from Email Geeks confirms that engagement matters even in the B2B space. However, what marketers can measure as engagement isn’t what Google measures as engagement.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that sometimes the inbox results differ because of differences in how Workspace versus Gmail works. Also, sometimes a company will have multiple sets of defenses to get through such as Proofpoint and GWorkspace.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that third party services like Proofpoint being inserted into the delivery chain changes how you have to model things.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that engagement is definitely still a big part of inbox placement, especially on GWorkspace.

Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes that the key to good engagement lies in delivering content relevant to the recipient. High engagement, demonstrated through opens, clicks, and positive interactions, signals to mailbox providers that the content is valuable, improving inbox placement across platforms like Microsoft and Google.

Expert from Email Geeks states that engagement matters, but what mailbox providers consider engagement is not the same as what marketers measure.

Documentation from RFC-Editor explains that Feedback Loops (FBLs) are mechanisms where mailbox providers send reports about spam complaints back to senders. Monitoring and acting upon FBL data helps improve email practices and user engagement. In addition, it improves deliverability across platforms like Microsoft and Google.

Documentation from Microsoft details that Outlook considers user actions (reading, replying, moving messages) as signals to refine its filtering accuracy. Positive user engagement strengthens the reputation of the sender, while negative actions (reporting as junk) weaken it.

Documentation from SparkPost explains the importance of monitoring feedback loops to identify and address issues that lead to negative engagement (spam complaints). Resolving these issues improves deliverability by signaling to mailbox providers that the sender is responsive to user feedback.

Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help shares that Gmail uses user engagement signals (marking as 'not spam', moving to inbox) to learn which emails users find valuable. Positive engagement improves the likelihood of future emails landing in the inbox, while negative engagement increases the chance of spam filtering.

Documentation from Spamhaus explains that sender reputation is heavily influenced by engagement metrics. Low engagement and high complaint rates result in a poor sender reputation, leading to increased filtering to spam folders across various email providers.