Why has my sender score dropped and what can I do about it?
Summary
What email marketers say15Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email Geeks advises checking for a sudden increase in subscriptions from compromised forms or poor-quality list sources, which could be causing the sender score to drop.
Email marketer from SendPulse says that a drop in Sender Score can be caused by sending spam, high bounce rates, low engagement, being blacklisted, or having a sudden spike in sending volume. To fix this, warm up your IP, improve list hygiene, and send relevant content.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests focusing on actual deliverability problems rather than solely relying on Sender Score.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum suggests investigating recent email campaigns for issues like high bounce rates or spam complaints. They suggest segmenting lists to reduce bounces and improving email content to decrease spam complaints.
Email marketer from Gmass shares that maintaining a good sender reputation includes consistently sending valuable content, avoiding spammy practices, and actively engaging with your subscribers to encourage positive interactions.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that focusing on email list hygiene, warming up new IPs, and consistent email sending are important. Monitor sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign that in addition to authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC), to also segment lists to send appropriate content to the correct people, monitor deliverability and keep your lists clean.
Email marketer from Email Geeks says >70 is a reasonable score when using a shared IP as you don't own the total output or input.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that a low sender score combined with some blacklists might indicate being on a less optimal IP address block. They suggest a deliverability audit and optimizing sending practices to potentially improve the IP address block.
Email marketer from GlockApps explains that key factors impacting deliverability and thus sender score include email authentication, list quality, engagement metrics, and sender reputation. Regularly monitor and optimize these factors to improve deliverability.
Email marketer from MailMonitor advises that to improve your sender score, ensure your sending infrastructure is properly configured, authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and follow best practices for list management and email content.
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that Sender Rejected (blocks / bounces) are one of the data points that go into the Sender Score algorithm and that a spike in bounces on that IP address can cause the SS to drop.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that to improve Sender Score, you should authenticate your emails (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), maintain a clean email list by removing inactive subscribers, and monitor your sending reputation using tools like Sender Score.
Email marketer from Litmus answers that sender reputation is like your credit score for email. The higher your score, the more likely mailbox providers are to deliver your messages to the inbox.
Email marketer from Email Geeks says that SS gives you a decent idea of where you stand on the inbox food chain. Not absolute but very useful feedback.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that a number of factors contribute to sender reputation including consistency in sending patterns, authentication, list hygiene, engagement, complaint rates, and infrastructure setup. Drastic changes in any of these will negatively impact sender score.
Expert from Email Geeks finds Sender Score relatively useful for root cause research of troubles that a dedicated IP might be having.
Expert from Email Geeks says the IP address appears to be a Klaviyo shared IP and that the score seems to be recovering.
Expert from Email Geeks shares a link showing the IP address has a lot of blocklistings, which could be related to the sender score issue.
Expert from Spam Resource answers that sender reputation can be affected if your emails suddenly start landing in spam folders, your open rates plummet, or you get blacklisted. This is a bad sign and potentially you have underlying problems
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from Validity Support explains that Sender Score is influenced by various factors including complaint rate, external blacklist status, sending volume, sending to spam traps, and unknown users. A high complaint rate and blacklisting impact the score negatively.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that sender reputation is key and is affected by bounces, spam complaints and spam trap hits. They suggest using feedback loops to monitor complaints, and list hygiene to manage bounces.
Documentation from Google explains that to prevent your emails from being blocked for Gmail users, authenticate your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Maintain low spam rates, and follow Gmail's sender guidelines.