What could cause a sudden drop in email open rates in a specific geographic region?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from GMass Blog explains that regional differences in email authentication requirements can affect deliverability. Certain regions may have stricter enforcement of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC policies, so it is important to ensure that your email authentication is properly configured for these areas.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests that regional internet outages or technical issues with local ISPs could prevent subscribers from accessing their emails. It also suggests that changes in local regulations regarding email marketing may impact open rates.
Email marketer from EmailOctopus Blog explains that language barriers or cultural differences in email content can negatively affect engagement in certain regions. Emails that are not properly localized or culturally sensitive may be ignored or marked as spam.
Email marketer from Litmus Blog shares that email client usage varies significantly by region. A sudden drop in open rates could be due to changes in the popularity or filtering practices of a specific email client in that region. For example, if a popular local provider tightened their spam filters.
Email marketer from HubSpot Blog shares that poor list hygiene in a specific region can lead to deliverability issues. High bounce rates or spam complaints from a particular area can negatively impact your sender reputation with regional ISPs.
Email marketer from ReturnPath Blog shares that regional blacklists and whitelists are common. It is important to monitor your sender reputation in different regions to identify and address any deliverability issues specific to those areas.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog explains that incorrect or outdated geographic data in your email list can lead to targeting issues. Sending emails to subscribers who are no longer located in the specified region can result in lower open rates and engagement.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that changes in local spam filtering rules by regional ISPs or email providers can lead to sudden drops. These changes can be hard to predict but can be identified through testing.
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog explains that a sudden drop in open rates in a specific region can be due to local events or holidays. These events can cause subscribers to be less engaged with their emails. Furthermore, it suggests to review sender reputation in that region by checking IP address and domain reputation and that Email providers may have different spam filtering rules or blacklists for different regions. It is important to check if you are on any regional blacklists.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks shares that breaking down changes by recipient domain helps narrow down the cause between something genuinely widespread and something more isolated.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that specific regions might have different spam filtering practices. Some regions may focus more on content-based filtering or prioritize certain blacklists over others. Being aware of these variations can help you optimize your email strategy for each region.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that regional infrastructure problems, such as internet outages or routing issues, can affect email delivery. She advises monitoring network performance and working with ISPs to resolve these issues.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that a major storm and associated power outages on the East Coast of the US could be the cause of the drop in email opens. He recommends checking the breakdown by recipient domain to determine if the issue is widespread or specific to certain domains. If it's just some domains, it might be a technical issue, such as a network failure or a change in image proxying policy.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft SNDS explains that it’s important to monitor IP reputation in different regions. Variations in filtering practices based on geographical location exist. Use SNDS to identify if your IP is flagged in a region where you're experiencing deliverability problems.
Documentation from RFC regarding SMTP standards explains that different regional configurations of mail servers can impact how messages are handled. Variations in DNS settings or routing protocols can affect deliverability in specific geographic areas.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that sudden changes in spam complaints from a specific region can negatively impact deliverability. High spam complaint rates can trigger filtering and blocklisting by ISPs in that region.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that regional IP blacklists can significantly impact deliverability. Email service providers in different regions may use different blacklists, so it is important to monitor IP reputation in the specific region experiencing issues.