• by Ray Schultz , March 26, 2019

Return Path has launched a service that uses analytics and machine learning to mimic how consumers interact with their inbox.

SmartSeeds, an addition to Return Path’s deliverability data platform, provides insights into subscriber engagement and engagement-based filtering, including which emails get opened and which are unread, the company says.

The product relies on artificially intelligent personas that mimic the behaviors of real-life users, providing a view of email deliverability, the firm adds.

The new service also supplies insights into the Gmail category assignment.

Return Path says it moved up development of SmartSeeds in response to policy changes at Google that limited access to Gmail data. 

“Google is one of the most important mailbox providers for our customers, as Gmail users consistently represent a majority of their email lists,” states Scott Ziegler, senior vice president of product management at Return Path. 

He adds: “While we’ve been working on the SmartSeeds concept for some time, the decrease in access to Google data inspired us to accelerate the development of this AI-powered data source.” 

SmartSeeds aligns with Google’s new data policy, and that the new feature will be expanded to include data from other major mailbox providers. 

SmartSeeds works with Return Path’s existing sources of deliverability data: Consumer Network and CoreSeeds. Traditional seed test accounts like  CoreSeeds allow marketers to identify deliverability issues at various mailbox providers, the company states. 

SmartSeeds goes beyond placement and filtering data to provide input on subscriber engagement and engagement-based filtering, it says.

One client, OpenText, uses Consumer Network, SmartSeeds, and CoreSeeds data to determine “how our customers’ emails are performing,” states Matthew Hill, senior postmaster for Canada at OpenText.

Ziegler says, “we’ve always maintained that no single source of data can tell you everything you need to know about email deliverability.” 

In a related development, Return Path has debuted Directive Reporting, a service that it says provides clients with a better grasp of their email performance. This offering is being delivered through ReturnPath’s service team.

Directive Reporting uses data visualizations to help marketers uncover the root cause of deliverability and placement issues, the company claims.