Why are email open rates declining for political campaigns acquired through Facebook ads despite strong engagement?

Email marketer from Reddit shares that political emails frequently end up in the spam folder due to aggressive acquisition tactics, low engagement, and recipients marking them as spam. They suggest focusing on high-quality content and targeted messaging to improve engagement and reduce spam complaints.

Email marketer from Smart Insights shares that creating re-engagement campaigns to target inactive subscribers can help improve email list quality and overall deliverability. Re-engaging subscribers or removing them from your list can boost open rates and engagement metrics.

Email marketer from Email on Acid explains that using a dedicated IP address for sending emails can improve your sender reputation and deliverability, especially for high-volume senders. A dedicated IP gives you more control over your sending environment.

Email marketer from Litmus explains that A/B testing different elements of your email campaigns, such as subject lines, sender names, and content, can reveal what resonates best with your audience. Testing helps optimize open rates and engagement.

Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that declining open rates can be attributed to factors like poor subject lines, sending emails at the wrong time, not segmenting your audience, or having deliverability issues. He emphasizes testing different subject lines and send times to optimize open rates.

Email marketer from Email Geeks recommends using Google Postmaster Tools to identify issues causing deliverability problems with Gmail. They also suggest ruling out statistical issues by comparing open rates based on increased global sending volume versus discrete measurements.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that one reason for declining open rates is a lack of segmentation and personalisation. With segmentation, you can target based on specific data points to make your email more relevant to the recipient and boost open rates.

Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that if click rates are strong despite lower open rates, ensure inbox placement by seeding data and testing. Also, consider the impact of from names and subjects on deliverability.

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog shares that personalizing email content can improve open rates. Personalization can include using the recipient's name, tailoring content based on their interests, or sending emails at times when they are most likely to engage.

Email marketer from Sendinblue says that declining open rates occur when subscribers aren't genuinely interested in your email. With double opt-in, they are confirming they want to recieve your email which means they are much more likely to open it when it arrives.

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor answers that segmenting your email list based on demographics, interests, and engagement levels is essential. Sending targeted content to specific segments increases relevance, leading to higher open rates and overall engagement.

Email marketer from Email Geeks advises reviewing hygiene on a campaign-base and cautions against relying solely on 'opened in the last 30 days' metrics, especially with frequent campaigns. He also notes opens are an unreliable metric due to false positives and negatives, suggesting a focus on other metrics.

Email marketer from Mailchimp explains that maintaining a clean email list is important for deliverability. They state that removing unengaged subscribers and regularly cleaning your list helps improve sender reputation and ensures that your emails are reaching interested recipients, ultimately boosting open rates.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that Facebook addresses can be old, sign-ups from petitions often yield invalid addresses, and political issues attract harassment, all leading to spam complaints and lower deliverability. She suggests the declines are likely due to machine learning filters identifying unwanted mail.

Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains that political content often faces issues related to "list bombing" where people sign up others who disagree with the political position to cause deliverability issues. This can significantly impact open rates as the list becomes filled with unengaged or hostile recipients.

Expert from Email Geeks explains the importance of user control over their email address. She goes on to say filtering systems use user data to determine if mail is permissioned or unwanted and also reinforces the idea that hygiene practices aim to remove data that indicates unwanted mail to improve delivery.

Expert from Word to the Wise, Dennis Dayman, shares that political email deliverability is challenging due to heightened scrutiny from mailbox providers and increased spam complaints. He mentions that acquiring email addresses through Facebook ads, while providing initial engagement, doesn't guarantee sustained interest or permission, potentially leading to lower open rates over time.

Documentation from Microsoft Sender Support explains that they use feedback loop (FBL) data to identify and mitigate spam. Senders should monitor their FBL data to understand complaint rates and address any issues causing recipients to mark their emails as spam.

Documentation from DKIM.org explains that DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) adds a digital signature to your emails, verifying the sender's identity and ensuring the message hasn't been altered in transit. Implementing DKIM helps improve email deliverability and trust.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools Help explains that ensuring proper authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is critical for deliverability. They also recommend monitoring your sender reputation through Google Postmaster Tools to identify and address any issues affecting your sending domain's reputation.

Documentation from RFC explains Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records and says they help prevent email spoofing by specifying which mail servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of a domain. Implementing SPF records can improve email deliverability by authenticating your sending sources.