What email engagement factors are most important for inbox placement?
Summary
What email marketers say12Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that a reply back is a stronger positive signal than a click, as replies tend to add addresses to address books and keep all future messages in the recipient's inbox.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that high engagement rates, such as opens and clicks, indicate to ISPs that your emails are valuable, leading to better inbox placement and deliverability.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares a scale of positive and negative email engagement signals, where replies are the most positive, followed by clicks, and marking as spam is the most negative.
Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog shares that positive engagement signals, such as opens, clicks, and replies, improve inbox placement by signaling to mailbox providers that recipients find your content valuable.
Email marketer from Gmass Blog explains that warming up an IP address gradually by sending increasing volumes of emails helps establish a positive sending reputation and avoids triggering spam filters, improving inbox placement.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that consistent sending volume and frequency help establish a sender reputation, leading to better inbox placement.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog shares that segmenting your email list and sending targeted content to specific audience segments increases engagement and reduces the likelihood of being marked as spam, improving inbox placement.
Email marketer from HubSpot Blog emphasizes that regularly cleaning your email list by removing inactive or unengaged subscribers improves inbox placement rates and protects sender reputation.
Email marketer from Email on Acid Blog explains that providing valuable and relevant content that aligns with subscriber expectations drives engagement and reduces the likelihood of spam complaints, improving inbox placement.
Email marketer from Litmus Blog shares that avoiding spam traps (email addresses used to identify spammers) helps maintain a clean sending reputation and improves inbox placement.
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog explains that consistent sending volume and frequency help establish a sender reputation, leading to better inbox placement.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that google AI looks at past interactions to determine relevance, adding a relevance score to engagement.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that actively monitoring your sender reputation through tools like Sender Score and Google Postmaster Tools allows you to identify and address deliverability issues proactively, improving inbox placement.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that having interested recipients opening mail and reading interesting content are strong positive signals.
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes the importance of meticulous list management practices, including regular cleansing of inactive or disengaged subscribers, to maintain a healthy sender reputation and enhance inbox placement.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Microsoft Docs shares that using email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC helps verify the sender's identity, preventing spoofing and improving inbox placement by building trust with mailbox providers.
Documentation from DMARC.org explains that a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) policy allows domain owners to specify how email receivers should handle unauthorized use of their domain, thus preventing phishing and improving deliverability.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools Help explains that maintaining a good sender reputation is critical. Factors contributing to sender reputation include IP address reputation, domain reputation, and spam complaint rates. Google uses this to filter spam.
Documentation from RFC explains that an SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record is a TXT record in your DNS that lists all the servers authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. This prevents spammers from forging your address.
Documentation from Return Path explains that feedback loops provide senders with information about spam complaints, allowing them to identify and remove problematic subscribers, reducing spam rates and improving inbox placement.