What email engagement metrics affect inbox delivery and sender reputation?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Litmus explains the quality of your email list, authentication setup, and most importantly, how recipients engage with your emails impact deliverability. Monitor metrics like opens, clicks, and spam complaints. High engagement contributes to a positive reputation, while low engagement or negative actions signal deliverability problems.
Email marketer from Neil Patel explains that to improve deliverability, focus on building a clean email list by using double opt-in, segmenting your audience based on engagement, and regularly cleaning out inactive subscribers. Personalize your emails, use a reputable email service provider, and monitor your sender reputation to avoid being marked as spam.
Email marketer from Quora shares that to improve email deliverability, focus on creating engaging content that recipients want to read. Use personalization to make your emails more relevant, segment your list based on user behavior, and regularly clean your email list to remove inactive or invalid addresses. User interaction like replies also boosts your sender reputation.
Email marketer from HubSpot shares that a positive sender reputation is built on consistent sending habits, low bounce rates, and high engagement rates. Ensure your emails are properly authenticated, your content is relevant to your audience, and you’re following best practices for email list management to maintain a good sender score and avoid the spam folder.
Email marketer from Email on Acid says factors include authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list quality (opt-in practices), and engagement rates (opens, clicks, conversions). Negative impacts arise from high bounce rates, spam complaints, and blacklisting. Regularly review and adjust your email practices to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
Email marketer from Sendinblue shares that email engagement metrics like open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates are crucial indicators of deliverability and sender reputation. High engagement signals that recipients find your content valuable, while low engagement or spam complaints can lead to deliverability issues.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that several factors impact email delivery, including using a dedicated IP address, warming up your IP gradually, segmenting your list based on engagement, and avoiding sending unsolicited emails. User engagement, such as opens and clicks, is crucial to maintaining a positive sender reputation.
Email Marketer from Email Geeks explains that there are costs associated with sending to unengaged users, such as batch and blast taking focus away from targeted programs, time spent on list hygiene, deliverability concerns, and degradation of list equity. They suggest testing different approaches to see what gets the best ROI and that if you don't feel good about what you're doing your motivation will take some sort of hit, which is also a cost.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum notes that if your emails are going to the spam folder, check your sender reputation, ensure your emails are properly authenticated (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and avoid using spam trigger words in your content. Also, actively monitor your bounce rate and remove invalid email addresses from your list. Also if you get users to add you to their contacts this can help you get into the inbox.
What the experts say10Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks explains negative engagement metrics are similar, but it depends on the history of the users behavior and the broader reputation of the mailstream. At its simplest, not reading an email doesn't mean much, but not reading any emails from a mailstream for six months means more. One user being disinterested in your emails doesn’t mean much. If most of the recipients at a mailbox provider ignore them then it’s greymail of little value to anyone.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that recipient engagement is a significant factor; positive engagement (opens, clicks, forwards) helps, while negative engagement (deleting without reading, marking as spam) hurts sender reputation and deliverability.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that any measurable metric may or may not have an impact on delivery decisions. They’re not combined like a simple addition or compared in order. Depending on how your mail is perceived across the entire population of recipients, the behaviour of a particular recipient may affect their individual delivery decisions in different ways. He also mentions that the most common way to get on a safe sender list is to have the recipient reply to you.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests reviewing Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft postmaster pages for language about sending mail users want and what that looks like. This can justify removing users who haven't interacted in a while, maintaining the percentage of active users without impacting revenue.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that recommendations about recipient engagement are much less relevant for B2B audiences. B2B filters don’t work the same way and there’s a TON of mail that comes into a business that isn’t ‘engaged’ with in the classic sense and so the filters measure engagement differently. If you’re sending to consumers, you want to send to folks who are engaged with your brand - even if they may not be measurably engaged with your email.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that MBPs determine engagement with a complex set of metrics designed to identify mail that their recipients want.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that different ISPs have different factors involved in their measurements, so it depends on which ISPs you're talking about. They can track things that happen in the web interface or on gmail managed mobile clients but can't track private mail client activity. Also believes reply is important, as addresses are automatically added to the address book, acting as a safe sender list. Safe sender lists are less effective due to spammers faking emails from folks on the same mailing list.
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that feedback loops (FBLs) are essential for identifying and addressing spam complaints. Monitoring FBLs and promptly removing complainers from your list helps maintain a good sender reputation and improve deliverability.
Expert from Email Geeks states consumer mailbox providers want to deliver mail that users want, using user actions to determine what 'wanted' means. They apply filters globally when they don't have good individual measurements, and act on individual knowledge when they do. The big questions are: can they measure X? Do they measure X? Does X give them insight into whether mail is wanted or unwanted by the recipient? Can X be extrapolated from individual user behavior to more global delivery decisions?
Expert from Email Geeks shares insights from a client who found that after 180 days from the last measurable activity (open or click), there was basically no further activity ever from that user. They were able to determine exactly how much revenue is lost by removing folks from sends after 180 days of non-activity, however, generally 180 days is too short, this is what the data says is appropriate for them.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Validity details that recipient engagement data is a critical factor in deliverability. Opens, clicks, forwards, and even read time signal to mailbox providers that users want your emails. Conversely, deleting without reading, marking as spam, or ignoring your messages negatively impacts your sender reputation.
Documentation from Google explains that several factors influence sender reputation, including sending authenticated mail, avoiding sending unwanted mail, maintaining a low spam rate, and keeping your sending IP in good standing. High spam rates and sending to invalid user accounts negatively impact sender reputation and delivery rates.
Documentation from Mailjet explains that key factors impacting deliverability include sender authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list hygiene (removing inactive or invalid addresses), content quality (avoiding spam trigger words), and consistent sending volume. Engagement metrics like opens and clicks signal positive sender reputation, while spam complaints and unsubscribes negatively affect it.
Documentation from SparkPost shares that engagement signals like opens, clicks, and adding to address books positively influence deliverability. Conversely, spam complaints, deleting without reading, and ignoring emails negatively impact sender reputation. Deliverability optimization includes sending relevant content and regularly pruning unengaged subscribers.
Documentation from Microsoft shares that maintaining a clean sending IP is crucial. It's essential to avoid spam traps, keep complaint rates low, and authenticate your email. Consistent sending volume and positive recipient engagement contribute to a positive sender reputation, whereas sudden spikes in volume or high bounce rates can harm it.