The Engagement Virtuous Cycle

Here’s the beautiful part: if you do these things and boost engagement, your deliverability improves, which then further boosts engagement, and so on. You are in a positive feedback loop.

For instance, say you tweak your approach and get your average open rate from 20% to 40%, and your reply rate from 1% to 5%. Email providers see that improvement and start delivering you to the ‘Primary’ inbox tabs instead of ‘Promotions’ or spam. Now even more people see and engage with your emails, because they’re not buried. That further signals to providers that users like your emails. You become a ‘good sender’ in their eyes, and your future campaigns benefit from a built-up reputation.

Meanwhile, your competitors who blast generic templates to stale lists are crying a river of tumbleweed (excuse the mixed metaphors).

Of course, engagement isn’t just about avoiding the spam folder; it’s the whole point of why we’re sending emails! High engagement means more conversations, leads, and sales.