Definition
Sender reputation is a score assigned to a sender based on the quality of email campaigns, their frequency, massiveness, and user's interaction. It determines whether email service providers will deliver emails to users' inboxes or not.
Why is sender reputation important?
- Influences email deliverability. Email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc., are responsible for delivering emails to customers’ inboxes. There are several metrics that form the sender reputation (open rates, number of deleted messages and fake addresses, etc). These are the main criteria which ESPs take into consideration.
- Saves recipients from fraud. ESPs use the sender reputation to identify and suppress cybercriminals, who aim to manipulate people’s trust.
- Identifies the level of success. If your institution has a solid sender reputation, it shows that your recipients like your email campaigns. On the contrary, if your sender reputation isn't very high, you will want to take action and find out the reasons.
Factors that influence sender reputation
- Email sending volume and frequency. It matters how many emails an institution sends during each email campaign and how often it takes place. Consistent mail volume is a good thing.
- User interaction. As users interact with with your messages, your sender reputation improves. High open rates indicate people enjoy getting your emails.
- Spam complaints. This measurement counts emails that subscribers marked as spam. You can get information on spam reports in Email Marketing Reporting.
- Spam traps. These look like real email addresses, but they don't belong to a real person. For more information, visit the Spam Traps article.
NOTE: Purchased lists often include spam traps.
NOTE: If an email address hasn't opened a message in six months, it may become a spam trap. - Bounces. Soft bounces indicate a temporary problem that doesn't depend on you taking action. Hard bounces indicate a problem with the email address and influence the sender reputation in a negative manner.