Improve your email sending reputation with a repair plan

When you send marketing emails, your sending reputation will change based on how your recipients engaged with your email. If your cumulative open rate consistently falls below 10%, you should limit who you're sending email to, and instead focus on repairing your reputation. If you continue to send to unengaged contacts, inbox providers are much less likely to place your email in the primary inbox of your recipients.

By following the steps below, you can gradually improve your sending reputation. Each step should take about two weeks, but you should not move onto the next step until you've met or exceeded the recommended open rate.

Please note: if it takes you longer to achieve the recommended open rate for one of the steps, you should adjust the time period for the next step accordingly. For example, if it takes you two extra weeks to achieve the recommended open rate for step one below, you should add two weeks to each subsequent step.

Send only to contacts who clicked on one of your emails in the past two weeks

For the first two weeks of your repair plan, you should only send emails to contacts who've clicked on any email you've sent in the last two weeks. These contacts have demonstrated clear engagement and interest in your brand and content, and their continued engagement will increase your overall click-through rate.

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to CRM > Segments.
2. In the top right, click Create segment.
3. In the top right, click Next.
4. In the segment editor, click Add filter. 
5. In the pop-up box, click Last marketing email click date. 
6. Next to Last marketing email click date, click the second dropdown menu and select is less than. 
7. Next to Relative date, enter 14 for the number of days. 

8. At the top of the segment editor, click the edit edit icon, then enter a name for the segment. 
9. In the top right, click Next. 
10. In the right panel, click Save and process segment. 

You can now use this segment to select recipients for marketing emails.

Send only to contacts who opened one of your emails in the past 4 weeks

After your clickthrough rate has reached 20-25%, you can broaden your sending criteria to include contacts who've opened one of your emails since you started your repair plan.

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to CRM > Segments.
2. In the top right, click Create segment.
3. In the top right, click Next.
4. In the segment editor, click Add filter. 
5. In the pop-up box, click Last marketing email open date. 
6. Next to Last marketing email open date, click the second dropdown menu and select is less than. 
7. Next to Relative date, enter 28 for the number of days. 

8. At the top of the segment editor, click the edit edit icon, then enter a name for the segment. 
9. In the top right, click Next. 
10. In the right panel, click Save and process segment. 

Send only to contacts who opened one of your emails in the past 6 weeks

After your cumulative open rate increases to 20-25%, you can broaden your sending criteria to include the past six weeks since you started your repair plan.

1. In your HubSpot account, navigate to CRM > Segments.
2. In the top right, click Create segment.
3. In the top right, click Next.
4. In the segment editor, click Add filter. 
5. In the pop-up box, click Last marketing email open date. 
6. Next to Last marketing email open date, click the second dropdown menu and select is less than. 
7. Next to Relative date, enter 42 for the number of days. 

8. At the top of the segment editor, click the edit edit icon, then enter a name for the segment. 
9. In the top right, click Next. 
10. In the right panel, click Save and process segment. 

Expand criteria to include contacts based on older email engagement data

If you maintain a cumulative 20-25% open rate for another four weeks, you can repeat step 3 above but expand the time period further. You can repeat this process as long as your open rate is stable or increases above 25%.

As your sending reputation improves, you should incorporate other deliverability best practices:

• Select the Don't send to unengaged contacts checkbox when sending marketing emails. Learn more about how to use graymail suppression.
• Limit engagement with contacts who have neither clicked nor opened a promotional email in over six months. Consider running a re-engagement campaign to connect with these contacts and incentivize them to engage with your content again.
• Never send to contacts who haven't opened one of your emails in over a year, as they pose a high risk for deliverability problems and don't meet HubSpot's minimum requirements for sending marketing emails.

If you notice your cumulative open rate or click-through rate decline at any point while following the steps above, go back and repeat the previous step, until you've met or exceeded the threshold of 20-25%.