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Deliverability Thresholds Deliverability Intelligence

When it comes to monitoring email deliverability, there are many ways to

approach the task, many factors to consider, and many places to start. With

all of the metrics, resources and tools available, the task can sometimes

seem complicated and foreign for most email marketers. Our goal with this

document is to provide basic guidance and key thresholds to enable any

marketer to monitor their email program’s deliverability and optimize their

sender reputation with ISPs.

Soft Bounce Rate Abnormal spikes above typical average soft bounce rate could indicate reputation-related bulking or blocking. Soft bounce rates should be reviewed on a per ISP basis to narrow down where the deliverability problem may be occurring.

Volume ISP filters are configured to automatically monitor for any unusual activity to protect their users from spam. Sending inconsistent volumes and/or irregular volume patterns over time can trigger spam filters and damage overall deliverability.

Spam Traps There are two kinds of spam traps. One is an old or inactive email address that has been kept “alive” for the sake of catching spammers who continue to mail non-existent, or unengaged subscribers. The other kind is a pristine address that is created solely for the purpose of catching spammers. This latter type of address never subscribes or opts-in to any kind of marketing communications.

Recommended 7-day Average Thresholds Below 5% Overall Bounce Rate (Soft Bounces and Hard Bounces combined)

Below 2% Hard Bounce Rate

Below 0.2% Overall Complaint Rate (below 0.1% at some ISPs) Please note: Some ISPs can dynamically adjust thresholds based on the current sending behavior and recent trends specific to each sender. The above metrics are recommendations based on trends observed by Responsys | Oracle. These are intended solely as average guidelines to help keep deliverability performance in-line with our general observations.

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Spam trap hits can be one of the most damaging issues for email deliverability. Maintaining proper list hygiene is very important to avoiding spam traps. This requires monitoring engagement levels and removing inactive subscribers. At the very least, remove all subscribers who have not opened or clicked within the past 24 months.

Engagement Levels Abnormal declines from typical average Open and Click Rates could indicate delivery into bulk folder.

“If over 50% of your distribution list has not clicked or opened a single email in one year, we’ve seen major ISPs filter all the incoming email, even that going to engaged subscribers. ISPs tolerate even less inactivity from high-volume senders with list sizes in excess of 1 million subscribers [and] will begin sending those unengaged recipients emails to the junk folder,” says Heather Goff, Senior Deliverability Consultant at Responsys | Oracle.

Recipient actions that contribute to the positive engagement quotient are: » Clicking through links » Adding to an address to their contacts or address book » Enabling images » Opening the message » Scrolling through the message

Recipient actions that contribute to the negative engagement quotient are: » Reporting as spam » Deleting the message without reading or opening » Marking messages as read » Ignoring messages until they accumulate and mass delete or mark as spam

Blacklists aka Blocklists There are many public and privately maintained blacklists, but only a handful carry significant weight in terms of widespread damage to overall deliverability. Spamhaus is the most well-known private organizations that publishes a blocklist. They also share this information with multiple ISPs worldwide, which may trigger blocking across all of these ISPs. Some ISPs and smaller domains also maintain their own internal blacklists or blocklists.

In most cases, blacklisting occurs due to suspected spam-like mailing activity. This may be due to a high number spam trap hits, unknown users (Hard Bounces), spam complaints, content based filters, or lack of proper authentication measures.

Establishing Sender Reputation On any given day, 97%-98% of mail sent over the internet is filtered as spam by ISPs. Legitimate senders must follow guidelines and practices set out by ISPs so that they are readily identified as the 2%-3% that should be delivered to the inbox. When starting to send on a new IP address or new email platform, a sender’s reputation must be established carefully to foster consistent inbox placement. The recommended approach is to start with low, consistent daily volumes using your best possible

Copyright © 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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recipient data, and to progressively ramp up volume to desired safe levels. It’s critical to optimize good metrics, like opens and clicks, and minimize bad metrics, like bounces and complaints, during this period. Optimizing for early-term delivery success serves to establish a strong sender reputation that is critical to long term success. Ask your account representative how you can get addition strategic guidance on deliverability tailored to your needs.

Copyright © 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.