Summary
Email deliverability is fundamentally a global concern, not isolated by geographical boundaries. Sending practices to non-US domain versions significantly impact deliverability to US domains because sender reputation-including IP and domain reputation-is largely universal. Poor sending practices, such as high spam complaints, elevated bounce rates, or low engagement from international recipients, contribute to a negative overall sender score. This degraded score is then applied universally, making it harder to reach inboxes in the US. Mailbox providers and email service providers aggregate feedback and data across all sends, meaning that issues in one region will directly diminish your global reputation and affect inbox placement for all your audiences.
Key findings
- Global Sender Reputation: Sender reputation, encompassing both IP and domain reputation, is largely global and not confined to specific geographic regions. Actions in one region directly influence deliverability everywhere.
- Holistic Evaluation by Providers: Major mailbox providers, including Google and Microsoft, evaluate sender reputation holistically. Spam complaints, high bounce rates, or blacklistings from sends to non-US domains contribute to a lower overall sender score.
- Aggregated Data Feedback: Email service providers and mailbox providers aggregate deliverability metrics, such as complaint rates, spam trap hits, and engagement levels, across all mail streams. Negative feedback from non-US sends diminishes your shared or dedicated IP reputation and domain reputation.
- Shared Filtering Approaches: Domains with similar architecture, like AOL and Yahoo, often share data and filtering approaches across international versions, meaning issues in one region can quickly translate to others due to close proximity in their systems.
- Universal Impact of Poor Performance: Regardless of location, if your campaigns generate high unsubscription rates, low open rates, or are marked as spam, these issues tarnish your domain's reputation globally. This directly affects how US mailbox providers filter your emails, potentially leading to more messages landing in spam folders.
Key considerations
- Maintain Global List Hygiene: Effective list management, including removal of invalid or unengaged addresses, is crucial for all email campaigns, regardless of geographic target. Poor hygiene on non-US lists directly degrades your overall sender reputation.
- Ensure Content Relevance Worldwide: Delivering relevant and welcome content across all your international audiences is vital. High complaint rates or low engagement from any region signal to mailbox providers that your emails may not be valued, impacting your global sender score.
- Understand Interconnectedness: Recognize that your email sending practices are not isolated by country. While nuanced differences may exist between some international domain versions, the overarching impact on your global sender reputation from any market is significant.
- Impact on Reputation Building: Negative performance from non-US sends, such as high bounces or low engagement, can impede the 'warm-up' process for new sending domains or damage an already established reputation, making it harder to reach US inboxes effectively.
What email marketers say
9 marketer opinions
Building on the understanding that email deliverability is a global metric, it's clear that your sending performance to non-US domains directly influences your success with US audiences. Mailbox providers, along with Email Service Providers, largely evaluate sender reputation-at both the domain and IP level-as a universal score, not limited by geography. This means any negative signals originating from your international campaigns, such as high complaint rates, increased bounces, or low engagement, contribute to a diminished overall sender trust score. This degraded reputation then applies across all your sending, making it significantly more challenging to achieve optimal inbox placement for your emails delivered to US domains. The interconnected nature of global mail systems means poor practices in one region can have widespread repercussions.
Key opinions
- Universal Reputation Assessment: Mailbox providers and ESPs assess sender reputation, for both domain and IP, as a universal, global metric rather than isolating it by geographic region.
- Cumulative Impact on Trust Score: All recipient behaviors, irrespective of their location, contribute to your sending domain's overall trust score. Negative interactions like low engagement, high complaint rates, or bounces from non-US domains directly degrade this universal score.
- Interconnected Mail Systems: Many international domain versions of the same mailbox provider, for example Yahoo.com and Yahoo.co.uk, share filtering logic and data, meaning issues in one locale can quickly affect others due to their close system proximity.
- Global Consequences of Poor Practices: Sending irrelevant content, maintaining poor list hygiene, or encountering spam traps in any international market tarnishes your domain's reputation worldwide, directly impeding deliverability to US inboxes.
Key considerations
- Strategic List Management: Implement stringent list hygiene practices and recipient engagement monitoring across all your global campaigns, as issues in any region can universally harm your sender reputation.
- Content Relevance Across Borders: Ensure your email content is consistently relevant and desired by recipients in every country. High rates of disengagement or complaints from non-US audiences signal a broader problem, impacting US deliverability.
- Holistic Deliverability Management: Approach deliverability as a global endeavor. Any practices that might hinder the warm-up process or damage an established reputation in non-US markets will consequently affect your ability to reach US inboxes effectively.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that domains sharing the same architecture, such as AOL and Yahoo, tend to behave substantially the same regarding spam placement. She notes that differences between yahoo.com and yahoo.co.uk would likely be nuanced, and observed Hotmail/Outlook seeds often point to outlook.br, suggesting shared filtering approaches due to close proximity.
5 Sep 2023 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks clarifies that while most Yahoo international domains share data, with Yahoo JP being a possible exception, the system is complex. He notes that data volume is substantial, implying sharing might not be as nuanced as one expects, but it is safe to assume some degree of data sharing occurs.
11 Feb 2024 - Email Geeks
What the experts say
1 expert opinions
Expert insights confirm that email sender reputation operates on a unified, global scale, meaning regional sending performance directly impacts worldwide deliverability. Poor practices in non-US markets, such as targeting unengaged users or generating high complaint rates, degrade this universal reputation score. Consequently, this diminished global standing makes it harder to achieve optimal inbox placement for emails destined for US domains. The interconnected nature of email systems means that deliverability issues in one geographic area can have widespread repercussions, affecting your sender trustworthiness across the board.
Key opinions
- Unified Sender Reputation: An email sender's overall reputation is largely global and unified, rather than being segmented strictly by country-specific domains.
- Negative Signal Transference: Poor sending practices, such as sending to unengaged users or incurring high complaint rates in non-US markets, generate negative reputation signals that transfer across all regions.
- Cross-Border Deliverability Impact: Significant deliverability challenges originating from non-US markets directly diminish your global sender reputation, which can then negatively impact your email deliverability to US domains.
Key considerations
- Consistent Global Practices: Apply consistent email marketing best practices, including rigorous list hygiene and highly relevant content, across all your global audiences to safeguard your overall sender reputation.
- Monitor All Market Performance: Actively monitor deliverability metrics and recipient engagement in all target markets, not just the US, as issues in any region can signal broader problems affecting your global sender health.
- Holistic Deliverability Strategy: Develop a comprehensive deliverability strategy that accounts for the interconnectedness of all email sending activities, recognizing that regional performance directly influences your ability to reach inboxes worldwide, including in the US.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that while some reputation metrics can be country-specific, an email sender's overall reputation is largely global. Therefore, significant deliverability issues in non-US markets due to poor sending practices, such as sending to unengaged users or experiencing high complaint rates, can negatively impact deliverability in other countries, including to US domains.
10 May 2023 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
6 technical articles
Email deliverability is intrinsically interconnected across the globe, meaning your sending performance to non-US domains significantly impacts your ability to reach US inboxes. This stems from the fact that sender reputation-including both IP and domain standing-is primarily evaluated on a universal level. Consequently, negative feedback, such as high spam complaints, elevated bounce rates, or low engagement from international recipients, contributes to a collective reduction in your overall sender score, which then adversely affects deliverability to all your audiences, including those in the US.
Key findings
- Global Reputation Standard: Sender reputation, encompassing both IP and domain standing, is assessed globally. This means poor sending practices to non-US domains directly degrade your universal reputation.
- Holistic Provider Evaluation: Major email providers, such as Google and Microsoft, evaluate sender reputation holistically. Spam complaints, high bounce rates, or blacklistings from non-US sends contribute to a lower overall sender score that applies universally.
- Aggregated Negative Signals: Email service providers like Twilio SendGrid, Campaign Monitor, and HubSpot aggregate feedback from all campaigns. Negative signals, such as high unsubscription rates, low open rates, or spam trap hits from non-US domains, diminish your shared or dedicated IP and domain reputation.
- Direct US Deliverability Impact: Issues originating from non-US email streams, such as high complaint rates or invalid addresses, directly impede your global sender trust, consequently harming your ability to achieve optimal inbox placement for US recipients.
Key considerations
- Universal Best Practices: Apply consistent email marketing best practices, including rigorous list hygiene and highly relevant content, across all your global audiences to safeguard your overall sender reputation.
- Cross-Border Performance Monitoring: Actively monitor deliverability metrics and recipient engagement in all target markets, not just the US, as issues in any region can signal broader problems affecting your global sender health.
- Integrated Deliverability Strategy: Develop a comprehensive deliverability strategy that accounts for the interconnectedness of all email sending activities, recognizing that regional performance directly influences your ability to reach inboxes worldwide, including in the US.
Technical article
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that sender reputation, including IP and domain reputation, is largely global. This means that poor sending practices to any recipient domain, regardless of its geographic location, will negatively impact your overall sender reputation and consequently affect deliverability to all domains, including those in the US.
20 May 2024 - Google Postmaster Tools Help
Technical article
Documentation from Microsoft Learn, regarding Exchange Online Protection, indicates that sender reputation is evaluated holistically. Spam complaints, high bounce rates, or blacklistings from sends to non-US domains will contribute to a lower overall sender score, which then adversely affects email deliverability to US-based Microsoft 365 inboxes.
20 May 2024 - Microsoft Learn
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