How the heck do you check your email reputation?!
You've probably seen an iteration of this question or asked it yourself: "How do I tell what my deliverability score is?". What seems like an easy inquiry is deceptively complicated to answer. Sure, there are sites you can visit to check your domain or IP reputation if you really want a grade. Problem is, that score doesn't necessarily reflect what mailbox providers (MBPs) are using to inform their decisions, nor does it give you any specific guidance on what to change or maintain. Each MBP calculates its own version of your reputation as they see it, so there's not just one score but several. It's possible to have a positive reputation at Gmail but not at Comcast, or to hit the inbox consistently at Yahoo, but get bulked at Hotmail. An average score can disguise a glaring issue that affects just one provider, or highlight minor variables that have no discernible impact on your results. Since MBPs don't actually furnish a score, you'll have to gauge your reputation by reviewing the following, ideally per-domain or provider: 🚚 Delivery Rate: This should be close to 100%. If under 98% of mail is being delivered to a particular domain/provider, dive into your bounce logs to review the rejection reasons. Low deliveries can be a sign of a mounting reputation problem. 🏀Bounce Rate: Both temporary (often referred to as "soft") and permanent (generally called "hard") failures can contribute to and/or indicate a diminishing reputation. Among other reasons, soft bounces may mean that you're being blocked by a particular provider. Hard bounces tend to denote that there's a data quality issue, either during subscription or due to a lack of ongoing list hygiene. Risk tolerance varies, but bounce rates (either soft or hard, or both) over 2% are worth investigating. 😡 Complaint Rate: Complaints are extremely damaging to your reputation due to being the strongest negative feedback that recipients can provide. Perpetually under-reported since Gmail, iCloud, and more don't use traditional FBLs to facilitate complaint reporting, a healthy complaint rate should not exceed 1 complaint per 1,000 emails sent. Low complaints aren't always cause for celebration; if coupled with a low open rate, assume that most of your mail is going to the spam folder—a hallmark of diminished reputation. 📭 Open Rate: Most useful as a directional metric, the "open" rate is more like a "pixel load" rate. An open event may not mean that a human being laid eyes on your email, but it's probable that the message did at least hit the inbox, where images are often automatically loaded, triggering the "open". Opens are far from being obsolete, providing valuable insight for segmenting and sunsetting. A higher open rate tends to point to higher inbox placement and a better reputation with that MBP. Don't get complacent, though. A high open rate in tandem with elevated complaints can portend a reputation decline, so stay vigilant! 👀Request: Save Email as Template
I would love to have the ability to utilize emails I've created in campaigns in Canvases. But the only way to do that is to export the email out of campaign as a .zip file and then import it into templates. This then removes the best part of the email creation and editing process: drag and drop! So then I can no longer edit the email in the canvas without digging into the code. Anyone else have this problem? This is a feature I've been able to use in other email marketing services like hubspot! Would love a "save email as template" dropdown option. Or, when I'm creating a canvas, be able to select emails that I've created in campaigns.Promoting BLOX through app engagement
To celebrate the national holiday in Belgium, BLOX wanted to make an interactive in-app game, where people had to guess which crypto coins were not present in our app. This was used to further promote BLOX in Belgium, where the crypto market was still up and coming, compared to The Netherlands where we already have a large base. The campaign came with some technical challenges. Braze played a huge part in solving these challenges.Personalized Year in Review 2024
Hi everyone! I'm curious to know if you're planning on gifting your users a personal 2023 wrap-up, like Spotify does. I normally send emails with Liquid to show the user's personal stats and highlights of the year, including their avatar, but I'm looking to elevate it to more than just an email. Any ideas or recommendations? Cheers, Francisco.Black Friday/Cyber Monday are upon us!
Hey Bonfirers! I have been lax in my posting here and wanted to share a recent post I made on LinkedIn in case it helps! Everything is relative. Even sender reputation! Is yours strong enough to shoulder the (quickly approaching 😩) busiest season of the year? The ability to reach the inboxes of your subscribers depends on a ton of factors, some of which we can't even see and don't know about! FUN! In the absence of that information, we have to concentrate on the things we can control like list quality, mail frequency, volume, and content. When you regularly send to the same folks over and over again, you establish a reputation in relation to that behavior. But when you suddenly send way more than that, the mailbox providers grow concerned (and with good reason!). From a spam filtering & security standpoint, a marked increase in the amount of mail from your domain could mean that an intern made a mistake, or a malicious party has gained access to your credentials and is leveraging your reputation to send out spam or phishing attempts. Mailbox providers might delay delivery to recipients in excess of your usual amount traffic, and/or filter it as spam in an effort to protect your mutual customers. If you want to successfully reach a larger number of subscribers in a timely manner, these tips will give you a boost: 📝 Plan ahead. Create a realistic plan that allows ample time to reach your goals, especially if you'll be widening the audience to include less-engaged contacts. ⚠ Give everyone a heads up. If users will be receiving mail more often, let them know beforehand so they can update their preferences or opt out. Some subscribers may love hearing from you, but only occasionally. An unexpected or unwelcome uptick in messages could contribute to increased spam complaints or decreased engagement, both of which are barriers to continued inbox placement. You can also notify mailbox providers that you'll be sending more mail, which could be helpful context for future filtering decisions. 🐢 Go slowly. Increase your sends gradually, giving the providers and your subscribers time to react. 🖥 Monitor results closely. Keep an eye on delivery, bounce, open, complaint, and (if you have 'em) delay rates. Is mail being delivered? Quickly? Are recipients engaging? Positively? 🎓 Learn from those results. What do the outcomes mean about how you should proceed? Should you keep going, or should you reassess your goals? Let the data guide your decisions. 🍰 Have a treat. This isn't really deliverability advice, but holiday sending during an election year will definitely be challenging, so be nice to yourself and have a piece of cake or a cookie (or some garlic bread if you're a savory girlie/boyee).
Gmail’s Product Carousel: A New Way to Reach Your Customers
“When people visit the Gmail Promo Tab, they’re signaling right then that they’re in a deal-finding and shopping mood. It’s quite valuable to brands to have an important deal or great product shown with rich images, in the right place (the Promo Tab), at that moment.”
