What are email feedback loops and how do they work?

 

Email feedback loops are the significant mechanisms that notify senders about spam complaints. Your sender’s reputation plays a huge role in deciding whether a recipient’s mailbox will place your email in the inbox or spam folder or reject its entry. This is where email feedback loops step in and help you monitor your complaint rates so that you can take corrective measures for protecting and improving your domain’s sender reputation. Some of the common corrective measures are changing the way you write email content, using a better subject line, removing dormant subscribers from the list, providing an easy one-click unsubscribe option, etc. 

This blog primarily focuses on understanding how email feedback loops work. 

 

Email feedback loops- definition

An email feedback loop is a service offered by all major mailbox providers, such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc. It informs senders whenever their emails are marked as spam by recipients’ mailboxes. These notifications are in the form of reports that are sent to senders or email service providers. The data includes email addresses from which the spam emails were sent. Some mailbox providers send aggregate reports that are not too detailed. For example, Gmail handles feedback by providing aggregate spam rates in their Postmaster Tools dashboard rather than individual reports. 

Please note that only high-volume senders qualify for the email feedback loops. They help them identify problematic or malicious email addresses and work on fixing, removing, or blocking them. This exercise improves engagement and brings down spam complaint rates.

 

 

Explaining the working of email feedback loops using an example

Suppose you own a company named PurpleMails that sends out newsletters to its subscribers.

 

A user receives an email

Suppose your email marketing campaign sends a newsletter from newsletter@purplemails.com to thousands of subscribers. One of these subscribers, Jane, receives the newsletter in her inbox.

 

The user marks an email as spam

Jane decides the email is irrelevant to her and clicks the ‘Mark as Spam’ button in her email client. By marking the email as spam, Jane triggers the feedback loop mechanism.

 

The ISP notifies the sender (PurpleMails)

Jane’s ISP detects the spam report and sends a FBL report to PurpleMail. This report contains the original message or details like the sender’s email, subject line, and metadata. In some cases, personally identifiable information about Jane is removed for privacy reasons.

 

 

FBL report review by PurpleMails

PurpleMail receives the report via the feedback loop system, either by email or an automated system. The person in charge reviews the report and notices that Jane reported the newsletter as spam.

 

Action taken by PurpleMails

After analyzing the report, PurpleMail can take corrective actions. For example:

• Unsubscribing Jane: If PurpleMail follows best practices, Jane will automatically be unsubscribed from future emails to avoid further complaints.
• Reviewing the email list: If multiple users report similar emails as spam, the company might investigate whether those recipients genuinely opted in or the content is too promotional or irrelevant.
• Improving content: PurpleMail may decide to refine its content strategy to make future emails more engaging and relevant.

 

Result

By acting on FBL reports, PurpleMail can reduce the number of spam complaints. ISPs use the percentage of emails marked as spam as a key metric in determining a sender’s email reputation. Lower spam complaints lead to better deliverability rates, meaning future emails from PurpleMails are less likely to be filtered into spam folders.

 

 

Benefits of email feedback loops

The primary purpose of email feedback loops is to help bulk email senders improve their deliverability. This ultimately ensures that most of the legitimate outgoing messages from their domain land in the primary inboxes of recipients. By reviewing the insightful feedback reports, you can remove inactive subscribers from your mailing list to ditch potential spam complaints. 

Moreover, it lets you know if a threat actor has compromised any of your IPs. Email feedback loops also come in handy in detecting faulty acquisition methods—meaning, you can learn about campaigns that are triggering deliverability and sender reputation issues, leading to an understanding of frequency and content. 

 

 

Requirements for email feedback loops

The requirements differ from ISP to ISP, but more or less, they will ask you the following-

• You should be the owner of the IP or domain. If not, you should at least have administrative rights to register.
• The domain should essentially have a functional postmaster@ or abuse@ email address.
• There should be a correctly configured rDNS of the IP being entered.
• A good sender’s reputation is also one of the requirements. 

 

Common challenges of email feedback loops and how to deal with them

Email feedback loops support email marketers and other highly email-reliant segments of a business in knowing where they are going wrong and how they can fix the issue. However, they come with a few challenges as well-

 

Instances of false positives and negatives

False positives mean legitimate emails are wrongly perceived as fraudulent and hence marked as spam. On the other hand, false negatives occur when illegitimate emails bypass security checks and land in inboxes. 

 

 

It’s a challenge because malicious people’s emails can be opened by recipients, thinking they are actually sent on behalf of your business. Whereas some of the subscribers who genuinely signed up for your newsletters won’t receive them. While the former is the case of a potential phishing attack, the latter cuts down your chances of converting or retaining prospects and customers. 

 

Inconsistent feedback loop report

Different email clients handle feedback loops in various ways, with differing formats and processes. This can make it hard to track and analyze the feedback data. To manage this effectively, you should be ready to adjust your approach based on each client. You can also use tools from email service providers that gather feedback loop reports from multiple clients in one place, making it easier to manage.

 

ISP-specific feedback loop requirements

ISPs have their own processes and requirements for enabling email feedback loops for your domain. Meeting all these requirements can be somewhat tedious. 

 

How to leverage the maximum benefits of email feedback loops

If you already have email feedback loops in place or want to get started with them and enjoy the maximum benefits, then here’s what you should keep practicing-

 

 

Observing the feedback loops

Feedback loop reports are your guiding lights; they contain insightful data on what is working in your favor and what’s not. So, don’t underestimate their importance and evaluate them regularly and frequently to learn about recipients’ preferences, complaint rates, patterns, trends, etc. 

Take note of recurring issues and patterns to understand what is prompting them. Observe if certain types of subject lines and email contents trigger more complaints. Or if there are any specific days and times when the click-through and open rates are the maximum or vice versa.  

By tapping into these problems, you can make the necessary adjustments and make your email campaigns more efficient and result-driven.

 

Segment your subscriber’s list

Based on the engagement level and the kind of content they like, create groups of subscribers you have on your list. The ones engaging more should receive frequent and personalized emails. For the ones not showing any interest, you can try creating content that re-engages them. 

 

Personalize email content

Personalization goes beyond just using the recipient’s name. It means tailoring content based on their preferences, actions, and past interactions. The aim should be to make them feel more valued, leading to better engagement. 

 

 

Though feedback loops primarily highlight spam complaints, the data can also support personalization. For example, if a previously engaged subscriber starts marking your emails as spam (as shown in feedback reports), you can use this as a signal to send them a personalized re-engagement email to address their changing preferences.

 

Removing complaining users

Notice the subscribers who keep marking your emails as spam and remove or suppress them. Keeping them on your list will not do any good; it will increase the chances of further complaints, damaging your domain’s reputation. Aim to keep your subscriber’s list as clean and adequate as possible.

 

Monitor for security threats

Email feedback loops can alert you to security threats if emails you didn’t send are being reported as spam. This could indicate that your domain or IP has been compromised and is being used to send phishing or malicious emails. Immediate action can prevent further damage to your domain reputation.

 

 

How do DMARC and email feedback loops share a goal?​

These two technologies are connected through their shared goal of improving email security and sender reputation. 

DMARC works in tandem with SPF and DKIM to prevent phishing. The DMARC reporting mechanism helps domain owners gain insights into how their emails are being authenticated. Email feedback loops, on the other hand, focus on direct feedback from recipients. While DMARC reports provide technical data about authentication and email flows, feedback email loops offer user-driven feedback about message quality and reputation.

Together, they help strengthen security and improve deliverability and user experience. We at DuoCircle can help you implement, monitor, and manage DMARC. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested.