How an e-commerce brand went from 40% to 92% email deliverability

TL;DR

Email is a major revenue channel for this online store. It sends around 700k emails a month, and up to 2.5M during Black Friday. But only about 40% of its emails were delivered, and the open rate was 15%.

The problem got expensive at the worst moment. During Black Friday, emails that should have driven sales never reached the inbox, and revenue was lost. We segmented the list, moved sending to a dedicated subdomain, cleaned the list and set up monitoring at Gmail and Outlook. In 9 months, deliverability went from 40% to 92%, and it is still improving.

Objectives

Get more emails to the inbox, especially during peak periods like Black Friday
Stop unengaged contacts from reporting emails as spam
Protect the main domain by moving sending to a dedicated subdomain
See where emails land at Gmail and Outlook, week after week
Raise the open rate and recover the revenue lost to deliverability problems

Strategy

1. Clean the list. A large part of the list was unengaged, and many of those contacts were reporting emails as spam. Providers noticed. We removed these contacts to stop the damage to sender reputation. The list got smaller, but healthier.

2. Segment the list. We split the list into groups so each contact receives emails that fit them. Better targeting means more opens and fewer spam reports. This matters even more at 2.5M emails during Black Friday.

3. Create a dedicated subdomain. We moved sending to a dedicated subdomain. This protects the main domain from reputation problems, and gives the brand a clean base to rebuild on.

4. Monitor Gmail and Outlook. We track deliverability at Gmail and Outlook on an ongoing basis. If placement drops, we see it early and fix it before it hurts a campaign.

Results

In 9 months, deliverability rose from 40% to 92%. The open rate, which started at 15%, now sits at 25%. More emails reach the inbox and get read, including during peak volume.

The work is still ongoing. Deliverability keeps progressing as segmentation and monitoring are refined.

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TL;DR

Objectives

Get more emails to the inbox, especially during peak periods like Black Friday

Stop unengaged contacts from reporting emails as spam

Protect the main domain by moving sending to a dedicated subdomain

See where emails land at Gmail and Outlook, week after week

Raise the open rate and recover the revenue lost to deliverability problems

Strategy

3. Create a dedicated subdomain. We moved sending to a dedicated subdomain. This protects the main domain from reputation problems, and gives the brand a clean base to rebuild on.

4. Monitor Gmail and Outlook. We track deliverability at Gmail and Outlook on an ongoing basis. If placement drops, we see it early and fix it before it hurts a campaign.

How an e-commerce brand went from 40% to 92% email deliverability

TL;DR

Objectives

Strategy

Results

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