Drop in Email Engagement?

[bjohnson]

Hi all!

Is anyone noticing a very significant decrease in email engagement? Specifically open and click rates? I went from an average open rate of 49% in November to a 6% in December. The trend is continuing into January. Could it be the change in Google's email sender guidelines?

[Darshil_Shah1 · Accepted solution]

It's definitely concerning to see such a drastic drop in your email engagement rates, and you're not alone. While Google's recent email sender guidelines update might play a part, several other factors could be contributing. Also, I'd not use email metrics like opens and clicks as primary measures for marketing success, as they're often unreliable due to bot activities.

Possible reasons for your drop in engagement:

• Increased email volume: Did you send more emails in December and January compared to November? Email fatigue can set in if users receive too many communications, leading them to tune out.
• Content relevance: Was the content in your December and January emails as relevant and engaging as your November emails? Make sure your content aligns with your audience's interests and solves their problems.
• Segmentation and targeting: Are you segmenting your list and sending targeted emails based on user preferences and behavior? Generic, one-size-fits-all messages might not resonate with everyone.
• Deliverability issues: Check if your emails are landing in spam folders due to poor sender reputation or spammy content. Consider running a deliverability test to identify any issues.
• Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP): If you have a significant portion of subscribers using Apple Mail, MPP, which hides open rates on iOS devices, could be impacting your overall numbers.
• Google's email sender guidelines: While less likely the main culprit for such a dramatic drop, the new guidelines do emphasize sender reputation and user engagement. Maintaining good practices as outlined by Google is always crucial.
• Marketo Email Bot Filtering: Did you recently turn on Marketo's bot filtering feature? Turning it on and choosing to not log bot activities could lead to drop in email opens and clicks as Marketo would filter out the activities it thinks are coming from bots.

[bjohnson]

Hi @Darshil_Shah1, thank you for your input. Here are some responses.

• Increased email volume: Did you send more emails in December and January compared to November? Email fatigue can set in if users receive too many communications, leading them to tune out. No, in fact, I'm sending a little bit less.
• Content relevance: Was the content in your December and January emails as relevant and engaging as your November emails? Make sure your content aligns with your audience's interests and solves their problems. Yes, the overall strategy did not change.
• Segmentation and targeting: Are you segmenting your list and sending targeted emails based on user preferences and behavior? Generic, one-size-fits-all messages might not resonate with everyone. We are, but there are still a good number of emails that go to large portions of our audiences.
• Deliverability issues: Check if your emails are landing in spam folders due to poor sender reputation or spammy content. Consider running a deliverability test to identify any issues. Where can I do that? I ran a deliverability test yesterday and scored very high.
• Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP): If you have a significant portion of subscribers using Apple Mail, MPP, which hides open rates on iOS devices, could be impacting your overall numbers. Would it be that dramatic? If so, what are your recommendations on what to tell leadership about the impact on our email efforts?
• Google's email sender guidelines: While less likely the main culprit for such a dramatic drop, the new guidelines do emphasize sender reputation and user engagement. Maintaining good practices as outlined by Google is always crucial. I ran a sender score reputation yesterday, and our scores were very high. Marketo Support also said we are compliant within the new standards from Google/Gmail.
• Marketo Email Bot Filtering: Did you recently turn on Marketo's bot filtering feature? Turning it on and choosing to not log bot activities could lead to drop in email opens and clicks as Marketo would filter out the activities it thinks are coming from bots. Not that I know of. Where is this option located within Marekto?

[Darshil_Shah1]

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@bjohnson wrote:

Hi @Darshil_Shah1, thank you for your input. Here are some responses.

• Deliverability issues: Check if your emails are landing in spam folders due to poor sender reputation or spammy content. Consider running a deliverability test to identify any issues. Where can I do that? I ran a deliverability test yesterday and scored very high.

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I think you'd need to purchase Marketo's deliverability powerpack or use any other deliverability monitoring platform to keep track of your sender reputation and deliverability rates with various ISPs. You basically send emails to a seed list beloning to various ISPs managed by the deliverability platform or team, and then you can assess your inbox placement, deliverability, reputation score, etc.

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Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP): If you have a significant portion of subscribers using Apple Mail, MPP, which hides open rates on iOS devices, could be impacting your overall numbers. Would it be that dramatic? If so, what are your recommendations on what to tell leadership about the impact on our email efforts?

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Yes, MPP can have a dramatic impact on your overall email numbers if a significant portion of your subscribers use Apple Mail. Here's why:

• Hidden open rates: MPP makes it impossible to track whether Apple Mail users open your emails, rendering open rates unreliable. This metric previously formed a key foundation for understanding email performance and engagement.
• Limited segmentation: You can't segment your audience based on open rates anymore, impacting targeted campaigns and personalization efforts.
• Geolocation masking: MPP masks users' IP addresses, making it difficult to tailor content based on location or time zone.
• Reduced deliverability: Some email service providers (ESPs) flag emails with low open rates as suspicious, potentially impacting deliverability for all subscribers.

Some recommendations for leadership:

• Be transparent: Explain MPP's impact on open rates and potential consequences for key metrics.
• Reassure on value: Emphasize the continued value of email marketing, focusing on metrics like form fills, conversions, and genuine database growth.
• Shift focus: Advocate for measuring engagement through clicks, CTAs, and other meaningful actions.
• Embrace alternative metrics: Explore pre-open metrics like subject line performance and unsubscribe rates.
• Diversify channels: Invest in other marketing channels to reduce reliance solely on email.

• Marketo Email Bot Filtering: Did you recently turn on Marketo's bot filtering feature? Turning it on and choosing to not log bot activities could lead to drop in email opens and clicks as Marketo would filter out the activities it thinks are coming from bots. Not that I know of. Where is this option located within Marekto?

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Well, the bot filtering is available in Admin section of Marketo (Marketo Admin > Email > Bot Activity). Check out the documentation on it here.

[bjohnson]

Thanks Darshil. Do you have any other recommendations on how to stay out of the Promotions Tab in gmail or to not land in the spam folder? We've also getting many reports of our emails landing in spam folders, myself included, when I used to engage with our emails.

What are your thoughts?