Strategy for Improving Deliverability

Overview

The following strategy should be used in conjunction with practicing responsible List Management and employing Deliverability Best Practices. While it takes patience, sticking to this strategy has been proven to help increase open rates and improve Email Reputation. 

Strategy Steps

1. Define your minimum open rate threshold (threshold) and open rate goal (goal)
2. Maximize your send volume while aligning with your goal and threshold
3. Scale without dropping below your threshold
4. Repeat step 3 until you're able to reach your full mailing list

Deliverability Improvement Example

• Full Mailing List - 100,000 Users
• Current Aggregate Open Rate - 15%
• Gmail Mailing List - 50,000 Users
• Gmail Open Rate - 5%
• Average Open Rate (All other domains) - 25%

1. Define your threshold & goal

• Gmail Threshold - 10%
• Gmail Goal - 15%

2. Maximize your send volume 

• If we assume the same number of opens, we can achieve a 10% open rate (our threshold) by reducing Gmail send volume by 50%.
  • 5% Open Rate x 50,000 Sends = 2,500 Opens
  • 2,500 Opens / 25,000 Sends = 10% Open Rate
• By sending to 50% of the Gmail mailing list and all of the non-Gmail mailing list, we can achieve the same amount of engagement despite reducing overall send volume by 25%.
  • Gmail mailing list x 50% = 50,000 x 50% = 25,000
  • Non-Gmail mailing list = 50,000
  • Total Send Volume = 75,000
  • Original engagement = 15% Open Rate x 100,000 Sends = 15,000 Opens
  • New engagement = (25% Open Rate x 50,000 Sends) + (10% Open Rate x 25,000 Sends) = 12,500 Opens + 2,500 Opens = 15,000 Opens

3. Scale without dropping below your threshold

• It is important to remain at this send volume until your open rate reaches your goal (15%). Immediately increasing the send volume is counterproductive because it drops your open rate below your threshold. (See: How Can I Increase my open rates?)
  • 10% Open Rate => 15% Open Rate is a 50% increase in Open Rate
  • 15% Open Rate x 25,000 Sends = 3,750 Opens
• If we assume the same number of opens, we can maintain a 10% open rate (our threshold) while increasing the Gmail send volume by 50%.
  • 15% Open Rate x 25,000 Sends = 3,750 Opens
  • 3,750 Opens / 37,500 Sends = 10% Open Rate

4. Repeat Step 3 until you reach your full list

• Continue the process of holding your send volume until you reach your goal and then increasing your send volume without dropping below your threshold.