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Deliverability Download Edition #7:
Engagement Drives Reputation: How to Track and Improve It
Over the past few months, the Deliverability Download has focused on the various aspects of email reputation, including what it is and the fundamental building blocks to maintaining a good reputation. Now you’ve got the technical foundations under your belt, it’s time to focus on the most influential factor – subscriber engagement. In this edition we explore why engagement is the driving force of deliverability, how to effectively measure it in today’s ever-evolving privacy landscape, and the importance of using both internal data and external tools to monitor your domain’s reputation.
Engagement: The key ingredient to good reputation
While the email ecosystem continually changes, one thing remains the same since our interview with Gmail – engagement reigns supreme. As Gmail’s postmaster once said, “Think about how you can make the user love your mails, rather than how to land in the inbox.”
And, although the goal of landing in the inbox is the same, this mindset shift can help you create truly valued content. If a recipient wants and expects your email, filters are less likely to block it.
Consistent and strong deliverability starts with the relevance of content and the respect for a subscribers’ experience, remember that the power is in the recipient’s hands, as they determine and flag what is considered ‘spam’, so it’s safe to say any unsolicited email is spam.
Go beyond open rates: The multi-metric approach
Measuring engagement has become more complex in recent years. With Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), open rates can significantly inflate due to automated opens that occur regardless if a recipient actually viewed the email or not. These ‘opens’ happen when Apple's proxy servers pre-fetch email content, triggering the tracking pixel even if the user never opens the message.
Similarly, some security software systems can trigger server clicks when examining links in your email, creating the false impression of high engagement that may not exist. This is why relying solely on open rates can lead you astray in today's complex email environment.
Instead, focus on these more reliable engagement indicators:
- Click-through rate (CTR): A comparatively reliable indicator of active engagement, showing how many recipients clicked a link compared to emails delivered
- Conversion rate: Tracks how many recipients completed a desired action after clicking, giving insight into business impact
- Response rate: Responses indicate high engagement. Actively connecting with your audience, not only improves interaction but also strengthens your sender reputation over time. Avoid “noreply” addresses to encourage this
- Spam complaint rate: Keep it below 0.1%. Any spike should be treated as a reputation red flag
- Inbox Placement: While you can’t directly measure inbox placement, taking a holistic approach, combining engagement metrics with external tools (see below), can provide valuable insight into where your emails are landing. This is crucial for diagnosing and resolving deliverability issues.
For email marketers, it’s essential to understand and acknowledge the importance of software systems (like Apple MPP) and their goal to protect recipients' inboxes. However, these new developments bring new challenges.
We’ve introduced several intuitive features in response to these changes to help Campaign Monitor customers track and measure their email program with accurate and real engagement.
Firstly, the engagement segments* feature automatically categorizes and identifies inactive subscribers, so you can easily review and remove ghost and zombie addresses. While the Non-human click filter feature identifies and removes third-party (also known as ‘bot’ clicks), so our customers report on genuine behaviors and not misleading engagement data.
The power of personalization
Be sure to work closely with your own internal teams to utilize the right kind of information for your campaigns. Think about the type of targeted and dynamic content you'll be sending, and what elements of your email you can personalize and tailor to your audience's preferences, so they open, interact and engage with your messages.
Don't assume all subscribers are interested in the same content or messages, instead leveraging a preference centre in your contact strategy gives your subscribers more flexibility and choice over what content they receive and how often they hear from you. The more personalized your emails are to your audience’s interests and needs, the more likely they'll remain on your list and engage.
Monitoring your reputation
Your domain reputation isn’t universal. Each Mailbox Provider (MBP), Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, may see your domain differently based on its own user interactions and internal policies.
That means:
- A strong reputation at Gmail doesn’t guarantee the same with Yahoo
- What works for one provider might not work for another
Here are some tips on how you can monitor your reputation across multiple providers:
Leverage Campaign Monitor's in-built capabilities:
- Access Insights > Engagement to review open, click, and bounce rates across your top subscriber domains
- Adjust timeframes to identify trends
- Investigate any drop-offs and question patterns:
- Is the dip tied to a specific content or list?
- Has the send frequency increased?
- Have you recently added new contacts at this recipient domain?
Mailbox provider feedback:
- Gmail Postmaster Tools – View your domain’s reputation, spam complaint levels, and other significant data in the various dashboards
- Yahoo Sender Hub – Still evolving, but this is shaping up to be a valuable source for Yahoo-specific insights
- Microsoft SNDS – Provides basic IP-level data and relatively high-level insights compared to other tools, with access limited to the IP owner (like Campaign Monitor).
Remember, each tool only shows a sender’s reputation at that specific provider. Using Campaign Monitor's Insights regularly, constantly tracking campaign reports, and reviewing spam complaints data from MBPs will help paint a vivid picture of your performance across different domains, so you can adjust and optimize your marketing program accordingly.
7 tips for reputation management
Whether you're established or just starting out, here are key strategies to manage and improve your sender reputation:
- Segment by engagement levels: Prioritize sending to your most engaged subscribers first, and reduce sending (think opt-down rather than opt-out) to your less engaged segments. This builds a positive pattern of engagement that MBPs and your subscribers notice
- Implement re-engagement campaigns: Before removing inactive subscribers, try a targeted re-engagement campaign with compelling content or offer to win them back
- Monitor deliverability signals: Regularly reviews bounce rates, complaint rates, and engagement metrics to catch potential issues early
- Warm up new domains gradually: If you're starting with no established domain reputation, begin with small volumes to your most engaged audiences and slowly increase over subsequent campaigns. The domain should be at least 30 days old to avoid MBPs treating it with suspicion.
- Monitor results by domains: Review how your campaigns perform across major MBPs using Insights > Engagement and external tools, as reputation varies across providers.
- Personalize beyond "Hello [Name]": Use behavioural data and preferences to create truly targeted content that resonates with individual subscribers.
- Never buy lists: Even “opt-in” or “GDPR-compliant” sellers can’t deliver quality, and bad lists will sink your engagement and reputation from the outset. Purchased lists are prohibited under our Anti-Spam policy.
- Balance email frequency: Finding the sweet spot between too many and too few emails is crucial. Test different cadences to determine what works best for your audience.
For those starting completely fresh, reputation is built during the ramp-up phase, so crafting relevant campaigns and sending them to targeted lists filled with highly engaged subscribers is crucial. Be mindful of volume, and gradually increase sends over time and be sure to monitor your results after each send.
Putting it all together
Sender Reputation is intricate, nuanced, and often a little opaque. But with the right mix of measurement, monitoring, and best practices, you can gain the correct insights needed to guide a smarter email strategy.
Don’t rely on a single metric like open or click rates. Instead, take a holistic view by tracking multiple engagement signals, clicks, replies, conversions, unsubscribe and complaint rates. Together, these provide a much clearer picture of your deliverability and audience engagement.
Ensure your sending domain is properly authenticated, grow your audience through clear, permission-based opt-ins, and send targeted campaigns that reflect real subscriber interests. When possible, give your audience control over the content they receive and how often they hear from you.
Finally, remember: your domain reputation follows you. Switching ESPs won’t erase a poor history. By applying the strategies in this three-part series, you’ll give your domain the best chance of long-term success, with better inbox placement and stronger campaign results.
This concludes our Deliverability Download series on Email Reputation. We hope these articles have given you practical, actionable guidance to help you build and maintain a stellar sender reputation.
Check out the previous articles on Email Reputation:
- The Deliverability Download Edition #5: An Insight into Email Reputation
- The Deliverability Download Edition #6: The Building Blocks of Email Reputation
Author: Deliverability Manager John Peters has been with Marigold for over 10 years and has extensive expertise in email compliance and deliverability. John is passionate about helping senders navigate the complexities of email deliverability and fostering a healthy email ecosystem that benefits both senders and recipients.
