Summary
A drop in Sender Score can stem from several interconnected factors, often reflecting underlying deliverability issues. Poor list hygiene, characterized by high bounce rates, spam complaints, sending to spam traps, or acquiring lists from compromised or low-quality sources, significantly impacts Sender Score. Being blacklisted and experiencing sudden spikes in sending volume are also major contributors. Technical aspects like inadequate email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and inconsistent sending patterns further erode sender reputation. Engagement metrics, particularly low open rates, serve as indicators of deliverability problems. Shared IP addresses, where the actions of other senders influence your score, add another layer of complexity. Addressing a low Sender Score involves improving list hygiene, warming up new IPs, authenticating emails, ensuring consistent sending practices, delivering valuable content, actively engaging subscribers, monitoring sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools, investigating recent campaigns for deliverability issues, and optimizing sending infrastructure. Focusing on actual deliverability problems and doing root cause analysis is also considered a good practice, instead of solely focusing on the sender score metric as an absolute value.
Key findings
- List Hygiene: Poor list hygiene, marked by high bounce rates and spam complaints, directly impacts Sender Score.
- Authentication: Lack of proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) leads to deliverability issues.
- Engagement: Low engagement, like poor open rates, reflects negatively on sender reputation.
- IP Reputation: Blacklisting and blocklisting directly lead to lower sender scores.
- Sending Volume: Sudden changes in email sending volume will reduce your score.
- Content Quality: Sending spam content negatively impacts sender reputation and causes plummeting open rates.
- Shared IP Influence: On shared IPs, other users can affect scores, with above 70 a reasonable target.
- Algorithm Data: Sender Score calculations include Sender Rejected (blocks/bounces) data points.
Key considerations
- Monitor Reputation: Routinely use tools to monitor sender reputation and address deliverability challenges.
- Clean and Segment Lists: Keep lists clean by removing inactive subscribers and segmenting based on engagement.
- Improve Engagement: Create engaging, valuable content to foster positive subscriber interactions.
- Optimize Infrastructure: Ensure email infrastructure is properly configured and optimized for deliverability.
- Authentication: Validate that SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are in place
- Deliverability Audit: If scores are low, do a deliverability audit.
- Root Cause Analysis: Identify deliverability issues using root cause analysis.
What email marketers say
15 marketer opinions
A drop in Sender Score can be attributed to several factors, including poor list hygiene (high bounce rates, spam complaints), sudden increases in sending volume, sending spam, being blacklisted, and issues with email authentication. Maintaining a good Sender Score involves email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), consistent sending practices, providing valuable content, actively engaging subscribers, warming up new IPs, and regularly monitoring sender reputation through tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Sender Score itself. Some suggest not focusing solely on sender score as a metric but focus on whether there are underlying deliverability problems.
Key opinions
- Factors Affecting Score: Several factors impact Sender Score, including spam complaints, bounces, blacklisting, and sudden changes in sending volume.
- List Hygiene: Maintaining a clean email list by removing inactive subscribers and managing bounces is crucial for a good Sender Score.
- Authentication: Implementing email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is essential for establishing trust and improving Sender Score.
- Engagement: Actively engaging subscribers and providing valuable content helps improve sender reputation and Sender Score.
- Shared IP: When on a shared IP, a score above 70 is reasonable.
- Sender Rejected: Sender Rejected (blocks / bounces) is one of the data points that go into the Sender Score algorithm.
Key considerations
- Monitor Deliverability: Regularly monitor your sending reputation using tools like Sender Score and Google Postmaster Tools to identify and address potential issues early on.
- Investigate Causes: If your Sender Score drops, investigate recent email campaigns for issues like high bounce rates or spam complaints.
- Optimize Practices: Optimize your sending practices by segmenting lists, improving email content, and warming up new IPs to improve deliverability and Sender Score.
- Focus on Deliverability: Consider focusing on deliverability as the overall metric and not solely rely on the sender score as an absolute value
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks advises checking for a sudden increase in subscriptions from compromised forms or poor-quality list sources, which could be causing the sender score to drop.
9 Sep 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from SendPulse says that a drop in Sender Score can be caused by sending spam, high bounce rates, low engagement, being blacklisted, or having a sudden spike in sending volume. To fix this, warm up your IP, improve list hygiene, and send relevant content.
22 Nov 2024 - SendPulse
What the experts say
5 expert opinions
A drop in sender score can be linked to IP address blocklistings, inconsistencies in sending patterns, authentication issues, poor list hygiene, low engagement, high complaint rates, or problems with your infrastructure setup. It can also be signaled by emails landing in spam folders, plummeting open rates, or blacklisting. Shared IPs, like those used by Klaviyo, can affect the score, but recovery is possible. While Sender Score can be useful for root cause analysis, especially for dedicated IPs, drastic changes in any of the factors can impact the score negatively.
Key opinions
- IP Blocklisting: IP address blocklistings can be a direct cause of a reduced sender score.
- Inconsistent Sending: Inconsistencies in sending patterns, such as volume and frequency, can negatively impact sender reputation.
- Authentication Issues: Problems with email authentication can lower sender scores.
- List Hygiene and Engagement: Poor list hygiene (high bounce rates, spam complaints) and low engagement contribute to reduced sender reputation.
- Infrastructure Setup: Improperly configured email infrastructure can damage sender score.
- Shared IPs: Using shared IPs can impact sender score based on the behavior of other users on the same IP.
- Spam Indication: Emails landing in spam folders or plummeting open rates indicate potential issues affecting sender reputation.
Key considerations
- Investigate Blocklists: Check if your IP address is on any blocklists and take steps to be removed if necessary.
- Maintain Consistency: Establish and maintain consistent sending patterns to build a positive sender reputation.
- Ensure Authentication: Verify that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured to authenticate your emails.
- Improve List Hygiene: Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers and addressing bounce issues.
- Monitor Engagement: Monitor engagement metrics (open rates, click-through rates) and address any declines promptly.
- Review Infrastructure: Ensure your email infrastructure is properly configured and optimized for deliverability.
- Root Cause Analysis: If sender score drops, use tools to do a root cause analysis.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that a number of factors contribute to sender reputation including consistency in sending patterns, authentication, list hygiene, engagement, complaint rates, and infrastructure setup. Drastic changes in any of these will negatively impact sender score.
13 Jul 2024 - Word to the Wise
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks finds Sender Score relatively useful for root cause research of troubles that a dedicated IP might be having.
23 May 2023 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
3 technical articles
Sender Score is influenced by various factors, including complaint rates, blacklist status, sending volume, spam traps, and sending to unknown users. Bounces and spam complaints negatively affect sender reputation. Preventing emails from being blocked requires email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), maintaining low spam rates, following sender guidelines, and utilizing feedback loops to monitor complaints, as well as maintaining list hygiene.
Key findings
- Complaint Rates: High complaint rates significantly reduce Sender Score.
- Blacklist Status: Being on external blacklists negatively impacts email deliverability and Sender Score.
- Sending Volume: Inconsistent or sudden spikes in sending volume can lower Sender Score.
- Spam Traps: Hitting spam traps damages sender reputation and lowers Sender Score.
- Bounces: High bounce rates negatively impact sender reputation.
- Authentication: SPF, DKIM and DMARC are important to maintain deliverability.
Key considerations
- Monitor Complaint Rates: Implement feedback loops to monitor and address spam complaints.
- Maintain List Hygiene: Regularly clean email lists to remove inactive and invalid addresses.
- Authenticate Email: Ensure proper configuration of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to authenticate email.
- Low Spam Rates: Follow Google's Guidelines to prevent your emails from being blocked by Gmail users.
Technical article
Documentation from Validity Support explains that Sender Score is influenced by various factors including complaint rate, external blacklist status, sending volume, sending to spam traps, and unknown users. A high complaint rate and blacklisting impact the score negatively.
5 Sep 2024 - Validity Support
Technical article
Documentation from SparkPost explains that sender reputation is key and is affected by bounces, spam complaints and spam trap hits. They suggest using feedback loops to monitor complaints, and list hygiene to manage bounces.
13 Jan 2025 - SparkPost
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