Recently there has been a great deal of buzz around the idea that "engagement" is a new metric used by ISPs and other mailbox providers to determine mailbox placement.
However,
engagement isn't new at all. It has been a part of the filtering mix for quite a while. The ISPs are simply adding clicks, opens and a few other measure of user engagement to the long list
of other engagement metrics that have been in use for a while. All these metrics try to do the same thing -- figure out which messages are truly wanted by subscribers.
These
engagement metrics include:
This Is Not Spam: This has been an important reputation metric for over three years. It's the primary way that many ISPs get a feel for
whether they are making a mistake in placing a message in a junk/bulk folder. Most of the large ISPs that have built their own reputation systems are looking at this metric. "This
is Spam" and "This Is Not Spam Data" from Trusted Reporters: Certain senders try to game reputation systems. They mail to a large number of inactive accounts to bulk the denominator in the
complaint rate metric since inactive accounts don't hit the report spam button. Some senders will take this a step further and set up accounts at an ISP to register "this is not spam" votes for
their messages. Mailbox providers have responded by reviewing only reporting from active, engaged accounts that don't look dormant or look like they have been set up for the purpose of gaming.
AOL has publically stated that they are including trusted reporter data in their filtering algorithms, but we know a number of other top-tier ISPs that are doing this also. advertisement
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Panel Data from Trusted Users: Another technique to measure engagement is to create a large panel of trusted users to vote on messages that were sent to each user and placed in the
inbox or junk mail folder. The users are given a sample of their messages and asked to vote each as spam or not spam. This technique is most notably used by Microsoft. What should
marketers do to maximize their deliverability now? Here are three strategies I recommend:
Treat inactive subscribers differently: This is probably the biggest change that most
marketers need to think about. Mailing to a lot of inactive accounts may actually make your reputation look worse at some ISPs. Segment out inactive users and run a win-back campaign. If
you cannot win back these subscribers, you may simply want to stop mailing them altogether. Segment out "this is spam metrics" (spam reports) for more active subscribers - These
subscribers matter the most in terms of your overall reputation.
Do not try to game reputation systems: If you've been tempted to create a large number of accounts at webmail
providers, signing them up for your newsletters and programmatically hitting the "this is not spam" button for all your messages if you go into those inboxes, I have two words of advice: Just
don't. You will be caught and your mail is going to have a very hard time getting delivered. More importantly, is this really how you want to spend precious marketing resources? The
time it takes to set up and maintain this game would be far better spent on creating happier email experiences for your subscribers. I think the good news is that focusing on engagement
metrics means focusing on the same strategies that drive all great marketers: to create compelling email conversations with their customer. If marketers can craft a stream of messages that
drives a lot of opens and clicks and drives active email users to rescue the message from the junk mail folder, they should have no deliverability issues.