How should I handle machine opens when rebuilding IP/Domain reputation and implementing a suppression approach?

Email marketer from Email Geeks shares their conclusion after reviewing Apple MPP and Gmail data and internal data, suggesting that Apple MPP data should be filtered, while Gmail proxies seem acceptable.

Email marketer from Litmus states monitoring email engagement metrics beyond opens, such as time spent reading emails and click-through rates, provides a more accurate picture of user engagement. They suggest using these metrics to segment your audience and identify users who are genuinely interested in your content.

Email marketer from Email on Acid suggests A/B testing different sunset policies to determine the optimal timeframe for suppressing inactive users. Experiment with different criteria for defining inactivity and monitor the impact on your overall deliverability and engagement rates.

Email marketer from Email Geeks says that, in a B2B context, machine opens often indicate email security software scanning, not necessarily a machine recipient.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares how to use marketing automation to track user engagement and automatically move inactive users into a re-engagement campaign or suppression list. Automation helps streamline the process of managing machine opens and maintaining a healthy email list.

Email marketer from HubSpot shares to improve email deliverability by focusing on sending relevant and engaging content to your audience. This helps reduce the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam or ignored, and it increases the chances of genuine engagement, making it easier to distinguish between real opens and machine opens.

Email marketer from Email Geeks advocates giving contacts a finite number of chances to open and a finite number of chances to click before sunsetting them, with more chances to click than open (e.g., 10 opens, 100 clicks, but those are illustrative).

Email marketer from Reddit suggests implementing a sunset policy to remove inactive users from your email list. They advise segmenting your list based on engagement and gradually reducing the frequency of emails to inactive users before removing them entirely.

Email marketer from Mailchimp shares advice on cleaning your audience to remove unengaged subscribers and addresses that may be generating machine opens. They recommend using segmentation to identify and target these subscribers with re-engagement campaigns or, if necessary, remove them from your list to improve deliverability.

Email marketer from Neil Patel explains that identifying and removing bot traffic from your website can significantly improve your data accuracy and help you focus on real user engagement, which indirectly addresses the problem of inflated open rates from machine opens.

Email marketer from MarketingProfs explains that implementing robust list hygiene strategies, including regularly cleaning your email list and suppressing inactive users, is critical for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and improving email deliverability. They recommend using a combination of automated tools and manual review to identify and remove problematic addresses.

Expert from Email Geeks adds that any website interaction from a user overrides open data when considering sunsetting.

Expert from Email Geeks says suppressing mail with NHI image loads is not a great idea as it will remove Apple users. Suppressing email without image loads is more reasonable.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests that in a B2C context, machine opens can indicate privacy-preserving proxies like Apple MPP.

Expert from Email Geeks questions the risk and suggests that those addresses are likely going to the inbox, and mailing them improves reputation if bulk folder mail decreases, pointing to a related discussion.

Expert from Word to the Wise shares that engagement metrics like clicks, purchases, and form submissions are more reliable than open rates which can be inflated. She recommends using these more trustworthy metrics to segment and manage your email list, particularly for suppression.

Expert from Email Geeks notes that spam traps generally do not fetch images.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains how engaging third-party services to verify email addresses and score leads can significantly reduce the amount of machine opens affecting your data. These services use various techniques to identify bots and invalid email addresses before they enter your system, thus preventing them from skewing your engagement metrics.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that the industry is moving away from relying on open rates as a primary metric due to the rise of machine opens. He suggests focusing on click-through rates and conversions as more reliable indicators of engagement and using those metrics for suppression strategies.

Expert from Email Geeks shares they are changing their language and never referring to an image load as an open.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests there is no general rule for sunsetting users based on 180 or 365 days of inactivity, as the optimal timeframe varies by business.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that machine loads likely indicate delivery to the inbox for consumer recipients, echoing Laura's point.

Expert from Email Geeks recommends further analysis of suspected machine opens, suggesting "Are you still there?" messages or gradually reducing mail volume if there's no engagement beyond opens. They also suggest using them for testing wilder ideas.

Documentation from Microsoft shares the importance of maintaining a good sender reputation. Machine opens and other forms of invalid traffic can negatively impact your reputation. Implementing measures to filter and suppress such traffic is essential for ensuring your emails reach the intended recipients.

Documentation from SparkPost explains how to track engagement metrics beyond opens, such as clicks and conversions. Relying on multiple engagement signals can help you differentiate between genuine human interaction and machine opens, allowing you to make more informed decisions about suppression.

Documentation from RFC Editor explains that understanding the underlying SMTP standards and protocols can help you identify and address issues that may be contributing to machine opens. Ensuring your email infrastructure complies with these standards is crucial for improving deliverability and reducing the impact of automated traffic.

Documentation from Google Support explains how to use Google Analytics to identify and filter out invalid traffic, which includes bot traffic and other non-human interactions that can skew your email open rates. Filtering invalid traffic helps you get a more accurate picture of your audience engagement.