Summary
Inbox placement is influenced by a combination of engagement factors, sender reputation, list management, and email authentication. High engagement, including replies, opens, and clicks, signals value to mailbox providers. Maintaining a positive sender reputation through consistent sending practices, low spam complaints, and proper email authentication is critical. List hygiene, encompassing the removal of inactive subscribers and avoidance of spam traps, is essential. Content relevance, achieved through segmentation and valuable content, further enhances engagement. Google AI considers past interactions for relevance scoring. Monitoring sender reputation and implementing feedback loops allows for proactive issue resolution. Warming up new IP addresses also aids in establishing a good sender reputation.
Key findings
- Engagement Signals: Replies, opens, and clicks are strong positive indicators influencing inbox placement.
- Sender Reputation: Maintaining a positive sender reputation is crucial, influenced by factors like IP/domain reputation and spam complaint rates.
- Email Authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols are essential for verifying sender identity and preventing spoofing, building trust with mailbox providers.
- List Hygiene: Regularly cleaning email lists by removing inactive subscribers and avoiding spam traps is vital for maintaining deliverability.
- Content Relevance: Providing valuable and relevant content that aligns with subscriber expectations reduces spam complaints and improves engagement.
- Proactive Monitoring: Monitoring sender reputation through tools and implementing feedback loops allows for proactive identification and resolution of deliverability issues.
Key considerations
- Engagement Balance: Balance positive engagement with efforts to minimize negative feedback, like spam complaints.
- IP Warmup: If starting with a new IP address, gradually warm it up to establish a positive sending reputation.
- Segmentation Strategy: Implement segmentation to ensure subscribers receive relevant content, enhancing engagement and reducing opt-outs.
- Authentication Protocols: Implement SPF, DKIM and DMARC to verify the sender's identity.
- Complaint Management: Actively monitor and address feedback from spam complaints to proactively fix issues impacting email quality.
What email marketers say
12 marketer opinions
Email engagement factors significantly impact inbox placement. Positive signals like replies, opens, and clicks are highly valued by mailbox providers and ISPs. Maintaining consistent sending volume and frequency builds a positive sender reputation. List hygiene, including removing inactive subscribers and avoiding spam traps, is crucial. Relevance, achieved through segmentation and valuable content, further enhances engagement. Warming up IPs and monitoring sender reputation contribute to improved inbox placement. Negative signals like spam complaints should be minimized. Google AI considers past interactions to determine relevance, impacting engagement scoring.
Key opinions
- Engagement Signals: Replies, opens, and clicks are strong positive indicators for inbox placement.
- Sender Reputation: Consistent sending volume, frequency, and a clean list contribute to a positive sender reputation.
- List Hygiene: Regularly cleaning your email list by removing inactive subscribers and avoiding spam traps is vital.
- Content Relevance: Providing valuable and relevant content that aligns with subscriber expectations reduces spam complaints.
- AI Influence: Google AI considers past interactions to determine relevance, impacting engagement scoring.
Key considerations
- Balance: Consider the balance of positive engagements (replies, clicks) versus negative engagements (spam complaints) when assessing inbox placement health.
- Warming IPs: If starting with a new IP address, gradually warm it up to establish a positive sending reputation.
- Segmentation: Segmenting your email list and sending targeted content enhances engagement.
- Monitoring: Actively monitor your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools.
- Authentication: Implement email authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC to verify the sender's identity.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that a reply back is a stronger positive signal than a click, as replies tend to add addresses to address books and keep all future messages in the recipient's inbox.
5 May 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Reddit explains that high engagement rates, such as opens and clicks, indicate to ISPs that your emails are valuable, leading to better inbox placement and deliverability.
25 Feb 2025 - Reddit
What the experts say
3 expert opinions
Experts agree that inbox placement is significantly influenced by email engagement, sender reputation, and list management. Interested recipients opening and reading content are strong positive signals. Proactive monitoring of sender reputation through tools helps identify and address deliverability issues. Meticulous list management, including cleansing inactive subscribers, is crucial for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and improving inbox placement.
Key opinions
- Positive Engagement: Interested recipients opening and reading content are strong positive signals for inbox placement.
- Reputation Monitoring: Actively monitoring sender reputation allows for proactive identification and resolution of deliverability issues.
- List Management: Meticulous list management practices, including removing inactive subscribers, are essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation.
Key considerations
- Content Quality: Focus on creating valuable and engaging content to encourage opens and reads.
- Tool Usage: Utilize sender reputation monitoring tools to gain insights into deliverability performance.
- Data Hygiene: Implement a regular process for cleaning and maintaining your email list.
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource explains that actively monitoring your sender reputation through tools like Sender Score and Google Postmaster Tools allows you to identify and address deliverability issues proactively, improving inbox placement.
28 Mar 2022 - Spam Resource
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that having interested recipients opening mail and reading interesting content are strong positive signals.
15 Dec 2022 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Email deliverability and inbox placement are heavily influenced by sender reputation and authentication. Maintaining a good sender reputation, which includes IP and domain reputation and low spam complaint rates, is critical for bypassing spam filters. Email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC verify sender identity, prevent spoofing, and build trust with mailbox providers. DMARC policies allow domain owners to specify how email receivers should handle unauthorized use of their domain. Feedback loops provide information about spam complaints, enabling senders to identify and remove problematic subscribers, reducing spam rates.
Key findings
- Sender Reputation: Maintaining a good sender reputation, as assessed by factors like IP and domain reputation and spam complaint rates, is crucial.
- Email Authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols are essential for verifying sender identity and preventing spoofing.
- DMARC Policy: Implementing a DMARC policy allows domain owners to control how email receivers handle unauthorized use of their domain.
- Feedback Loops: Utilizing feedback loops provides information about spam complaints and enables removal of problematic subscribers.
Key considerations
- IP/Domain Monitoring: Actively monitor your IP and domain reputation to identify and address any issues that may impact deliverability.
- SPF Configuration: Ensure your SPF record is properly configured to list all authorized sending servers for your domain.
- DMARC Implementation: Implement a DMARC policy with a 'p=quarantine' or 'p=reject' setting to protect your domain from unauthorized use.
- Complaint Handling: Actively monitor and address spam complaints to improve your sender reputation.
Technical article
Documentation from Microsoft Docs shares that using email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC helps verify the sender's identity, preventing spoofing and improving inbox placement by building trust with mailbox providers.
6 Jul 2022 - Microsoft Docs
Technical article
Documentation from DMARC.org explains that a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) policy allows domain owners to specify how email receivers should handle unauthorized use of their domain, thus preventing phishing and improving deliverability.
1 Mar 2025 - DMARC.org
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