ORACLE BRIEF

Bulking, Blocking, and Blacklisting

Deliverability Intelligence

When a sender starts to notice poor performance with their email program
due to a deliverability related issue, it is likely that the sender is being be
bulked, blocked, or blacklisted. Although all three terms stem from similar
reputation related issues, it is important to note that there is a
distinguishable difference between how each effects your program.

Bulking
Bulking occurs when an ISP accepts your mail but routes the messages to the BULK or SPAM folder vs routing it to the INBOX.
Majority of bulking issues stem from poor subscriber engagement. ISPs will monitor your open rates, click through rates, read
rates, etc. in order to determine whether or not subscribers are interested in what you are sending them. Filtering systems used
by the large ISPs are sophisticated enough to monitor engagement at the subscriber level. This means that an email may go to
the inbox for one subscriber and the spam folder for another subscriber based on each individual’s engagement patterns with
your brand.

Indicators
Senders will often utilize a third party service that gives insight into inbox placement rates based on seed addresses and panel
data. Another way to monitor for bulking issues is to analyze how your open rates trend over time. Significant decreases in this
metric could indicate some level of bulking.

How to Improve Bulking Issues

» Leverage the data you have available to create highly targeted content
» Send to an engaged audience and focus on subscribers that have opened/clicked within the last 12 months
» Be conscious of your frequency, mailing too frequently will cause majority of your mail to go unopened and decrease your
engagement rates

Blocking
Blocking occurs when an ISP takes action and refuses to accept your emails by bouncing them back. A blocking issue will stem
from poor IP reputation. IP reputation is based around various metrics including hard bounces, spam complaints, engagement,
spam trap hits, consistent sending patterns, etc. If you are generating too many negative metrics an ISP will place a block.
Some blocks will be temporary and resolve automatically while others require direct mitigation with the ISP.

Indicators
To help understand if you are being blocked you will want to take a look at your bounce rates for each ISP. While having a high
hard bounce rate hurts reputation and can contribute to the cause of a block, the actual indicator for blocking would be a high
soft bounce rate. Soft bounce rates over 5% at the ISPs in which you send high volume should be investigated further.
 ORACLE BRIEF | 2

How to Improve Blocking Issues

» Utilize engagement based filtering to focus on your engaged segments
» Send on a consistent basis at the right frequency, avoid any major dips or spikes in volume
» Introduce new subscribers through a welcome program and set clear program expectations to help reduce spam complaints

Blacklisting
Being blacklisted means your IP has been flagged for sending unwanted traffic and followers of that blacklist (i.e. ISPs) may
decide to block your emails. Some blacklists will list a sender for generating a number of spam complaints; however, a majority
of listings are due to spam trap hits. If you are blacklisted, it usually signals an issue with your email acquisition practices and/or
list hygiene.

Indicators
Being listed on a significant blacklist such as Spamhaus will cause your delivered rates to drop dramatically at the major ISPs. A
Spamhaus listing can cause 80% or more of your list to be blocked. Most other blacklists will have little impact on your overall
deliverability and will mainly affect delivery to small ISPs and private domains.

How to Improve Blacklisting Issues

» Implement a double opt-in component for risky acquisition channels (i.e. POS collection)
» Utilize engagement based filtering to suppress inactive addresses
» Regularly keep up with list hygiene through the use of re-engagement and re-permission programs

Conclusion
Whether you are being bulked, blocked, or blacklisted the key takeaway is to ensure you are following best practices by
targeting your sends and sticking to your engaged audience. Don’t wait for an issue to surface. It’s important to proactively keep
up with proper list hygiene and regularly remove inactive subscribers from your list.

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