After the success of my article on " What's behind your deliverability rate?"Today, I am tackling a subject that is unfortunately still taboo for some people... I am talking about tracking statistics by destination...
I'll start this article with a question: Which photo do you think best represents the destination in deliverability?
If you choose the first photo, I think it's time for you to go on vacation... As for the one on the right, it should be more familiar to you! If not, you'll have to think about taking a vacation too, or read this article?
Sebastien, what is a destination in deliverability ???
If I had to give a simple definition I would say that a destination in deliverability is a group of domains that are managed by a single entity.
Not convinced? Here are some examples:
- hotmail.fr, hotmail.com, outlook.fr, outlook.com, live.fr, live.com, msn.com, dbmail.com are a list of domains managed by Microsoft.
- gmail.com, googlemail.com is a domain list managed by Google.
- orange.fr, wanadoo.fr are a list of domains managed by Orange.
Jonathan updated earlier this year a list of e-mail domains sorted by destination. Feel free to download it and why not complete it?
Ok that's cool but what's the point of following this ???
One thing is for sure, if it was useless... I wouldn't even mention it!
It will simply allow you to have a more detailed view on each ISP/Webmail. Don't forget - I've said it enough during my many years as a trainer - that each ISP/Webmail has its own filtering system and even if several ISPs use the same tool, each one will configure it to have its own rules.
So, looking at your statistics by destination, will allow you to see things that the average person does not see... I mean a problem of deliverability: either a blocking, or a spamming, or a drop in performance on one or more ISPs/Webmails.
On the other hand, domain grouping by destination is not always native on all routing tools. In the best case you will have a breakdown of your statistics by domain and in the worst case... you will have nothing! - And yes, some tools do not offer a detailed view... even in 2020! - Thus, you will have to calculate your own rates by destination (hence the list provided by Badsender).
So you think it's aberrant to only look at the overall statistics?!?
My answer is without appeal... YES!
Let's imagine the following scenario: your database is composed of 50% of Gmail addresses, 30% of Outlook addresses, 1% of La Poste addresses and less than 1% of Renault and Dacia addresses and your global statistics show an open rate at 40%.
How do you know if you are not delivering your e-mails as spam to the Post Office or even worse that your e-mails are blocked at Renault (Renault+Dacia) if you do not look directly at the open and bounce rates by destination?
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They remain a minority in your database and the impact of a spam or block on these destinations will go completely unnoticed in your overall statistics. Whereas if you have a detailed view by destination, you will be able to quickly see both impacts without having to do a reception test at all the ISPs/Webmails where you have an e-mail address - and in particular the Post Office - or analyze all the bounces of your campaign.
I don't believe you! Give me an example!?!
I'm going to tell you about a client case I had during a deliverability diagnostic.
Partner B asked his client to call on Badsender to perform a deliverability diagnostic because Partner B thought that his client had delivery problems and that Partner A (who was routing the emails) was not doing any reputation monitoring (as was the client).
At the beginning of the audit, I realize that the task will be difficult because partner A does not have a detailed view by destinationI have to be satisfied with global statistics per campaign...
By analyzing the technical architecture of the advertiser, I notice that DMARC is placed on its domain with a "quarantine" security policy (which is not shocking at this time).
The problem is that this DMARC record was set up during a test at another router (therefore with different IPs) and was not removed.
Result... for more than a year, all emails to Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo - at least all those who check and interpret DMARC - were delivered as spam... And unfortunately, no drop-off was observed on the overall opening rates (yet the impact was there: very low opening rate on US webmails, the Gmail Postmaster Tools indicated a very bad reputation of the advertiser's domain)...
DMARC has been removed from the domain, which has unblocked the situation on the US Webmails and seen the opening rates soar, as well as the reputation of the domain at Gmail! What is a pity here, if there had been a detailed view by destination on the campaign statistics, the advertiser would have been able to see the loss of openings or reputation and intervene very quickly on the problem.
Finally, you advise us to monitor which indicators by destination?
Just as I advise when I am asked this question for reputation monitoring, follow all the indicators you have: deliverability/bounces rate, openings, clicks, unsubscribes, dissatisfactions, etc. By looking at as many indicators as possible, you will not risk being caught off guard or missing an incident that could have a negative impact on your reputation or your turnover.
I conclude ?!?
I hope you enjoyed this article and that now - and if you haven't done so yet - you'll take a look at your statistics by destination because beyond the numbers, it will allow you to better control or tame your reputation on each ISP/Webmails, companies, Anti-Spam filters, ... in short the whole ecosystem related to e-mail marketing!
As always, don't hesitate to share, comment on the article, ask us questions, give us your point of view on the issue - anything goes!
I will try to answer you as soon as possible!
