Email Marketing Tool

JenniFlynn
Contributor

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

On June 9, our open rate got cut in half and has been that low ever since. HubSpot support is baffled.

 

I compared the email we sent on June 2 with the email we sent on June 9 to see what might have happened. If you look at the image below, you'll see that Cell D3 shows a difference of about 1,200 leads for the opened category. However, neither Cell D2 (difference in sents) and D4 (difference in bounces) account for this many leads. Also, our content hasn’t changed, so that wouldn’t be the reason.

 

Has anybody else experienced this? Is there another stat I'm missing that shows me what happened to these 1,200 leads? This clearly isn't a deliverability issue because the bounces only increased by 21 so that only accounts for 21 of the decrease in opens. Could it be that the emails are being delivered but leads aren’t able to open them for some technical reason? Could it be that the opens are not being recorded due to some technical reason? Thanks!

 

email issue 2.PNG

1 Accepted solution
karstenkoehler
Solution
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

Hi @JenniFlynn,

 

While it's hard to say for sure, this could indeed an email deliverability issue. 

 

Email deliverability does not only relate to bounces, but email engagements such as clicks. opens, and spam complaints. Higher rates of positive engagements improve your chances of reaching the inbox instead of getting stuck in a spam filter – and unfortunately vice versa. There is a chance that your mail server IP has been blocklisted. You could check that using this tool fom MXToolBox: https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

 

If that's not it, can you rule out with certainty that other factors play into this? Were the two emails identical regarding their subject line? Could seasonality, regional bank holidays or vacation times play into this?

 

Best regards!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

Did my post help answer your query? Help the community by marking it as a solution.

View solution in original post

0 Upvotes
12 Replies 12
siez
Contributor

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

It's been a month and Hubspot still haven't come up with solution (or even an explanation) to this. Our open rates went from 35%+ to 13-15% in last 2 months. 

I think they can give an option to use our own internal email server to send these emails? Since their own IP addresses are on blocklists. 

0 Upvotes
djoldzic
Participant

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

Don't use one of their white listed IPs. We paid for a dedicated IP and the Hubspot range is corrupted.  We finally left Hubspot because they did not take this seriously and our Opens are back to normal. Inside Hubspot, they had a message how their tracking cookie was being flagged as malicious. I suspect the problem is this and their IPs and not your email content.

IMG_6875.png

0 Upvotes
siez
Contributor

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

If they don't fix it soon we will moving out soon as well. Our email list is very important for us and even if this is just an reporting issue, it is affecting our campaigns and their performances. 

 

Not sure why they are not doing anything about it. 

0 Upvotes
ChristineGast
Participant

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

I'm having this same issue. Our open rates for regular marketing emails went from 40-45% average to a sudden drop on September 30 to 15-17% average. Struggling to get info/answers. 

0 Upvotes
djoldzic
Participant

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

Hubspot's IP is on the SORBS blocklist.  Hubspot, why are you not checking this if we are relying on you for email deliverability.

 

In Gmail if you select the three button menu icon, select show original message.  This will show you your email header which will contain the sender IP.  For us, it is 54.174.52.248.  If you plug this into https://mxtoolbox.com/blocklists.aspx, you will see it is on SORBS.

 

Please note, this is Hubspot's IP, not yours.  So the message from Karsten is not fully accurate when it comes to your IP address being compromised.

PMcDonough0
Participant

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

Same. Our HubSpot IP is listed on SORBS, SPFBL DNSBL, and UCEPROTECTL2

0 Upvotes
TRichards
Contributor

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

@kb3 @JenniFlynn Are you both still having this issue? We started the year off with this drop and have been working to focus our lists better since then. Not many changes happening, though. What used to be a for-sure 20% open is now a 13%. 

0 Upvotes
kb3
Participant | Partner
Participant | Partner

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE
Yes, still having the problem, even though we are using our lists (in more stringent ways). This is happening across 2 HS accounts. It’s very puzzling. We also realized that ~50% of the HubSpot IP addresses are on the black/block lists ☹
djoldzic
Participant

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

@kb3 @JenniFlynn @TRichards, there is nothing you are going to be able to do if you are on the SORBS Spam list.  Many firms simply direct emails to Spam.  This is really on Hubspot to clean up their IPs.  Why no on monitors this is puzzling or maybe they know about it and decided to do nothing.

0 Upvotes
TRichards
Contributor

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

@kb3 @JenniFlynn kb3, I'm guessing the issue must be with the Hubspot IP addresses that you mention are on blocklists.

I looked up our domain reputation scores on a few sites and found no issues whatsoever.  

 

Still puzzling. I will post an update on here if our open rates start to climb as a result of narrowing the number of senders. So far that's not a quick fix.

0 Upvotes
kb3
Participant | Partner
Participant | Partner

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

@JenniFlynn  - this same thing is happening to us, and others. It seems HS keeps deflecting the issue. Just found that about half of the 'shared' IP addresses used for us are blocklisted. Still not a peep from HS other than "check your bounces" and "only send to engaged contacts", etc. This is much deeper than those solutions! Plus, some companies in our blasts have absolutely 0 opens across hundreds of receipients - HS is being blocked by some big enterprises!!

karstenkoehler
Solution
Hall of Famer | Partner
Hall of Famer | Partner

Open Rate Decrease That Isn't a Deliverability Issue

SOLVE

Hi @JenniFlynn,

 

While it's hard to say for sure, this could indeed an email deliverability issue. 

 

Email deliverability does not only relate to bounces, but email engagements such as clicks. opens, and spam complaints. Higher rates of positive engagements improve your chances of reaching the inbox instead of getting stuck in a spam filter – and unfortunately vice versa. There is a chance that your mail server IP has been blocklisted. You could check that using this tool fom MXToolBox: https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

 

If that's not it, can you rule out with certainty that other factors play into this? Were the two emails identical regarding their subject line? Could seasonality, regional bank holidays or vacation times play into this?

 

Best regards!

Karsten Köhler
HubSpot Freelancer | RevOps & CRM Consultant | Community Hall of Famer

Beratungstermin mit Karsten vereinbaren

 

Did my post help answer your query? Help the community by marking it as a solution.

0 Upvotes