Deliverability Reputation
Email service provider ratings that determine whether messages reach inboxes or spam folders based on sender behavior and engagement.
Definition
Deliverability reputation is a composite score that internet service providers assign to email senders based on sending practices, engagement rates, and recipient behavior. This reputation directly impacts inbox placement.
Factors include bounce rates, spam complaints, sending frequency, list hygiene, and authentication protocols. Poor reputation results in emails being filtered to spam folders or blocked entirely, regardless of content quality.
Why It Matters
Strong deliverability reputation ensures marketing emails reach their intended audience, directly impacting campaign ROI and business communication effectiveness. Poor reputation can devastate email marketing programs.
Building and maintaining good reputation requires consistent best practices and monitoring. Companies with poor reputations often must rebuild slowly, making prevention more cost-effective than remediation efforts.
Examples in Practice
E-commerce sender: Online retailer maintains 98% inbox placement by implementing double opt-in, regular list cleaning, and monitoring engagement metrics to preserve sender reputation.
Newsletter publisher: Media company's reputation drops after purchasing email list, resulting in 60% of emails going to spam until they rebuild through organic subscriber acquisition.
SaaS platform: Software company uses dedicated IP addresses and gradual volume increases for transactional emails to establish strong deliverability reputation with major providers.