Hotmail has started using new engagement metrics to measure reputation and make inbox placement decisions. According to George Bilbrey, president of ReturnPath, Hotmail is incorporating user behavior in decision-making about inbox placement. This analysis, he writes in a blog post, overrides the global spam filter's decision. In short, the same e-mail might end up in the junk folder of one user, but the inbox of another.
Among the metrics being used are messages read, then deleted; messages deleted without being read; messages replied to. "We are anticipating that this news will kick up a whole new firestorm of chatter about engagement metrics and what they mean for the future of deliverability," Bilbrey says.
Suggestions for marketers, he says, include:
1. Applying for certification as Hotmail's individual-level filtering does not impact certified mail.
2. Stepping up use of seed lists. "You will hear a lot of nonsense that 'seeds don’t work anymore.' This is not true at all. Seed lists measure how you are performing against the global filter."
3. Continuing to focus on reputation monitoring. "Complaint rates are a key metric at the individual level, so keeping an eye on them is even more crucial."
4. Deleting inactive respondents - after a last-ditch effort to bring them back to active status has been tried.
What Do ISPs Mean By Engagement?
Bilbrey notes that ReturnPath has found that a "shocking" high number of marketers allow subscribers to remain inactive. In part, this is because marketers and ISPs tend to think of engagement differently. In another ReturnPath blog post Tom Sather explains the difference between the two - a distinction that will become even more important as ISPs continue to fine-tune their reputation monitoring and deliverability best practices.
To marketers, engagement means opens, clicks and conversion. When ISPs talk about engagement, though, they are referring to subscribers that are active in their inbox - that is, they log in, they respond to messages. It shows the ISP there is a live person monitoring and using this account – an essential component to its anti-spam campaigns. "The ISP doesn't actually care if your marketing 'works,' which is how marketers think about engagement and activity," Sather explains. "What the ISP does care about is, whether or not they can trust their reputation metrics on your mail."
To avoid confusion ISPs have started referring to users as active as opposed to engaged. Still, though, no matter what it is called, opening, sending and receiving e-mail is behavior that marketers can only indirectly track. Don't give up, Sather advises. "There is a lot you can do with the metrics you do have access to. You know if your recipients open your messages. You know if they click. You know if they respond. You certainly know if they interact with some other part of your organization."
Other Hotmail News…..In a separate development, Microsoft has introduced Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) for Hotmail, which allows Exchange users to send their e-mails, contacts and calender to mobile devices, including the iPhone.
