How to troubleshoot shared IP reputation issues with Gmail when domain reputation is healthy but email click rates are declining?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Quora suggests gradually increasing sending volume to maintain IP reputation. Sudden spikes in email volume can negatively impact IP reputation, even with a healthy domain reputation.
Email marketer from Mailchimp answers that declining click rates may be related to poor segmentation. Re-evaluate your audience segmentation strategy to send more targeted and relevant content to specific groups, which can significantly improve engagement.
Email marketer from Litmus Blog shares that email design and rendering issues can deter clicks. Ensure your emails are responsive and display correctly across various devices and email clients to provide a seamless user experience.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that maintaining excellent email list hygiene is important. Regularly remove unengaged subscribers. Lower engagement can impact your overall sending reputation and click-through rates, even with a good domain reputation.
Email marketer from Email Geeks says that if the domain reputation is fine in Google Postmaster Tools and only the shared IPs have a lower reputation, and the ESP won't move you to a different pool of shared IPs, it might not be a major issue if emails are still inboxing. However, reduced open/click/conversion rates or spam placement in seed tests could indicate problems. Recommends pushing the ESP for a different IP pool or considering a dedicated IP.
Email marketer from MarketingProfs suggests using A/B testing is important. Consistently A/B test different elements of your emails, such as subject lines, calls-to-action, and content, to optimize for higher click-through rates and engagement.
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that a degradation in clicks over time is often due to audience aging within a segment, rather than deliverability issues, and suggests analyzing cohort graphs to understand user activity and acquisition funnels.
Email marketer from StackOverflow explains that setting up feedback loops with major ISPs like Gmail can provide insights into why your emails are not performing well, even with a good domain reputation. This helps identify potential issues like spam complaints or content triggers.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog shares that declining click rates, despite good deliverability, can often be attributed to content relevance. Ensure your email content aligns with your audience's evolving interests and preferences, and A/B test subject lines and calls to action.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests signing up for Google Postmaster Tools to monitor domain reputation.
What the experts say6Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that on shared hosting environments, IP reputation is often out of your direct control. Monitor your sending practices closely and consider using a dedicated IP or a reputable email service provider to mitigate the impact of other users on the shared IP.
Expert from Word to the Wise answers that consistent sending practices, and a solid understanding of your metrics is important. Use your engagement metrics to clean your data and ensure you are only emailing those who want to be emailed.
Expert from Email Geeks says that if emails are reaching the inbox, the fair IP reputation is just an interesting data point and confirms that Gmail deliverability depends more on domain reputation than IP reputation.
Expert from Email Geeks says that if emails are reaching the inbox, there is no need to change IPs.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that Gmail focuses more on domain reputation (DKIM and SPF) than IP reputation. He suggests ensuring DKIM and SPF domains belong to the sender and checking domain reputation in Google Postmaster Tools, as shared SPF domains across multiple clients can cause issues. Submitting a ticket to Gmail has a low chance of resolution.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that low engagement rates (opens and clicks) significantly impact deliverability, even with a strong domain reputation. Focus on improving subscriber engagement through relevant content and targeted campaigns to signal positive sender reputation to Gmail.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from RFC explains the importance of implementing and monitoring DMARC reporting. Analysing DMARC reports provides valuable insights into authentication failures and potential spoofing attempts, helping to protect your domain's reputation.
Documentation from Gmail Help explains that monitoring your sending reputation using Google Postmaster Tools is essential. Focus on domain reputation as Gmail prioritizes it over IP reputation. A sudden drop in reputation requires immediate investigation into sending practices.
Documentation from SendGrid Documentation explains that while a healthy domain reputation is crucial, shared IP reputation can still impact deliverability, especially if other users on the shared IP are engaging in poor sending practices. Consider warming up a dedicated IP to gain more control over your sending reputation.
Documentation from Microsoft mentions using their sender support resources to troubleshoot delivery issues, and if IP reputation is an issue there are support tickets you can raise with them.
Documentation from SparkPost explains the importance of DKIM, SPF, and DMARC. Ensure these email authentication protocols are correctly configured for your domain to improve deliverability and trust with email providers.