You can have strong content, clean design, and a healthy list, but if your ROI is down and nothing else has changed, the problem might not be your message. It might be your reach.
Many marketing teams assume deliverability is something IT or the ESP handles in the background. But as inbox filters tighten and engagement rules shift, even the best campaigns are missing more inboxes than they used to.
Here are three things to try if your email performance is slipping, even when your creative and targeting look solid.
1. Track “Delivered” vs. “Actually Seen”
“Delivered” is a misleading metric. It only tells you that the message didn’t bounce – not that it reached the inbox.
Start tracking inbox placement instead. Even a 10–15% drop in inbox reach can erase thousands in potential ROI. You can test placement across Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail, or use a deliverability monitor.
If you see big performance gaps across providers, it’s not your subject lines. It’s your reputation.
2. Make Engagement Your Deliverability Strategy
Inbox algorithms reward engagement. Opens, clicks, replies, even positive time-on-message all boost reputation.
If your engagement is trending down, focus on reactivating your warmest segment before sending another large campaign. Trim dead weight – low engagement lists hurt more than they help.
Think of engagement as your new sender health score. The better your audience responds, the more inboxes your next campaign will reach.
3. Separate Sending Domains by Purpose
A common hidden issue: teams run both marketing and outbound from the same domain.
When one side ramps up volume or hits a bad engagement patch, the entire domain’s reputation takes the hit – dragging down nurture and campaign performance with it.
Set up dedicated, authenticated domains for each function (marketing, sales, transactional). It’s a simple move that can stabilize deliverability and protect brand reputation long-term.
Final Thought
Marketing success starts with visibility. If your emails don’t land in the inbox, your ROI data will always be skewed – no matter how sharp your strategy or creative is.
Before you rebuild your campaigns or switch platforms, make sure your audience is actually seeing what you send. Fix that, and the rest of your metrics tend to fix themselves.
We’d love to learn more about your business, email deliverability and outreach goals, and see if we might be able to help.
Whether you have questions about what we do, how Protocol works, or you’d just like to pick our brains on some of our best practices, we’d be happy to chat.
Schedule a call with our Revenue Director, Chrisley Ceme.
You can have strong content, clean design, and a healthy list, but if your ROI is down and nothing else has changed, the problem might not be your message. It might be your reach.
Many marketing teams assume deliverability is something IT or the ESP handles in the background. But as inbox filters tighten and engagement rules shift, even the best campaigns are missing more inboxes than they used to.
Here are three things to try if your email performance is slipping, even when your creative and targeting look solid.
1. Track “Delivered” vs. “Actually Seen”
“Delivered” is a misleading metric. It only tells you that the message didn’t bounce – not that it reached the inbox.
Start tracking inbox placement instead. Even a 10–15% drop in inbox reach can erase thousands in potential ROI. You can test placement across Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail, or use a deliverability monitor.
If you see big performance gaps across providers, it’s not your subject lines. It’s your reputation.
2. Make Engagement Your Deliverability Strategy
Inbox algorithms reward engagement. Opens, clicks, replies, even positive time-on-message all boost reputation.
If your engagement is trending down, focus on reactivating your warmest segment before sending another large campaign. Trim dead weight – low engagement lists hurt more than they help.
Think of engagement as your new sender health score. The better your audience responds, the more inboxes your next campaign will reach.
3. Separate Sending Domains by Purpose
A common hidden issue: teams run both marketing and outbound from the same domain.
When one side ramps up volume or hits a bad engagement patch, the entire domain’s reputation takes the hit – dragging down nurture and campaign performance with it.
Set up dedicated, authenticated domains for each function (marketing, sales, transactional). It’s a simple move that can stabilize deliverability and protect brand reputation long-term.
Final Thought
Marketing success starts with visibility. If your emails don’t land in the inbox, your ROI data will always be skewed – no matter how sharp your strategy or creative is.
Before you rebuild your campaigns or switch platforms, make sure your audience is actually seeing what you send. Fix that, and the rest of your metrics tend to fix themselves.
Our Revenue Director, Chrisley Ceme, is leading the Triggered Outbound program.Chrisley’s gone deep on this strategy and can walk you through:
- How Triggered Outbound fits with your outbound goals
- What triggers are available (and what’s possible within our platform)
- Pricing, onboarding, and getting started
