Reputation Monitoring User Guide
Overview
PostBeagle's reputation monitoring system helps you maintain excellent email deliverability by tracking key metrics and alerting you to potential issues before they impact your campaigns.
Understanding Reputation Metrics
Bounce Rate
What it is: The percentage of emails that permanently fail to deliver to recipients.
Threshold: Bounce rates above 5% are considered problematic across the industry (the same limit Gmail, Yahoo, and other mailbox providers enforce) and will trigger an automatic pause.
Common causes:
- Invalid or outdated email addresses
- Typos in email addresses
- Deleted or deactivated accounts
- Domain no longer exists
How to improve:
- Regularly clean your email lists
- Use double opt-in to verify email addresses
- Remove hard bounces immediately
- Validate email addresses before importing
Complaint Rate
What it is: The percentage of emails marked as spam by recipients.
Threshold: Complaint rates above 0.1% are considered problematic across the industry (the same limit Gmail, Yahoo, and other mailbox providers enforce) and will trigger an automatic pause.
Common causes:
- Sending to people who didn't opt-in
- Unclear or missing unsubscribe links
- Misleading subject lines
- Sending too frequently
- Content doesn't match expectations
How to improve:
- Only email people who explicitly opted in
- Make unsubscribe links prominent and easy to use
- Set clear expectations during signup
- Segment your audience and send relevant content
- Monitor engagement and remove inactive subscribers
Reputation Score
What it is: A calculated score (0-100) based on your bounce and complaint rates.
Scoring:
- 90-100: Excellent - Your reputation is healthy
- 70-89: Good - Minor issues detected
- 50-69: Fair - Action recommended
- Below 50: Poor - Immediate action required
Reputation Policies
PostBeagle uses reputation policies to protect your sending reputation. Your account is assigned one of three policies:
Standard Policy (Default)
- Recommended for: Most users
- Behavior: PostBeagle automatically pauses sending when high-severity reputation issues are detected
- Thresholds: Bounce rate > 5% OR Complaint rate > 0.1%
- Best for: Users who want automatic protection with reasonable thresholds
Strict Policy
- Recommended for: High-volume senders or those with strict compliance requirements
- Behavior: PostBeagle pauses sending at the first sign of any reputation issue
- Thresholds: Lower than Standard policy
- Best for: Users who prioritize reputation over sending volume
None Policy
- Recommended for: Advanced users only
- Behavior: No automatic pausing regardless of metrics
- Warning: You are responsible for monitoring and managing your reputation
- Best for: Users with sophisticated monitoring and list management systems
Viewing Your Reputation Dashboard
Access your reputation dashboard from Settings → Reputation Monitoring.
The dashboard displays:
- Current Status: Whether your account is active or paused
- Reputation Score: Your overall reputation health (0-100)
- Bounce Rate: Last 7 days
- Complaint Rate: Last 7 days
- Active Findings: Any current reputation issues detected by PostBeagle's monitoring
- Historical Trends: 30-day charts showing metric trends
- Best Practices: Contextual tips based on your current metrics
What Happens When Your Account is Paused
If your reputation metrics exceed the thresholds, your account may be automatically paused:
- Immediate Effect: You cannot send new campaigns or emails
- Notification: You'll receive an email explaining the issue
- Dashboard Alert: A prominent banner appears with details
- Existing Campaigns: Scheduled campaigns are paused
Steps to Resolve
- Review the Issue: Check your dashboard to understand which metric triggered the pause
- Identify the Cause: Review recent campaigns and list sources
- Take Corrective Action:
- Remove invalid email addresses
- Review your list acquisition practices
- Improve email content and targeting
- Implement double opt-in if not already using it
- Request Reinstatement: Click "Request Review" on your dashboard
- Wait for Review: Our team will review your request and corrective actions
- Resume Sending: Once approved, your account will be reactivated
Best Practices for Maintaining Good Reputation
List Hygiene
✅ Do:
- Use double opt-in for new subscribers
- Remove hard bounces immediately
- Regularly clean inactive subscribers (6+ months)
- Validate email addresses before importing
- Segment your lists by engagement
❌ Don't:
- Purchase email lists
- Add people without explicit consent
- Keep invalid addresses "just in case"
- Ignore bounce notifications
Email Content
✅ Do:
- Use clear, honest subject lines
- Include a prominent unsubscribe link
- Match content to subscriber expectations
- Personalize when possible
- Test emails before sending
❌ Don't:
- Use misleading subject lines
- Hide the unsubscribe link
- Use all caps or excessive punctuation
- Send from no-reply addresses
- Ignore spam complaints
Sending Practices
✅ Do:
- Warm up new sending domains gradually
- Send consistently (not sporadically)
- Monitor engagement metrics
- Respect unsubscribe requests immediately
- Set appropriate sending frequency
❌ Don't:
- Send large volumes suddenly
- Email too frequently
- Continue emailing after unsubscribe
- Ignore low engagement rates
- Send at random times
Authentication
✅ Do:
- Set up SPF records
- Configure DKIM signing
- Implement DMARC policy
- Use verified sender domains
- Keep DNS records up to date
❌ Don't:
- Send from unverified domains
- Use generic email providers for bulk sending
- Ignore authentication failures
- Share sending infrastructure carelessly
Troubleshooting Guide
My bounce rate is high
Immediate actions:
- Check recent imports for data quality issues
- Review bounce notifications in your email logs
- Remove all hard bounces from your list
- Verify email validation is working during signup
Long-term solutions:
- Implement double opt-in
- Use email verification services
- Regularly clean your list (quarterly minimum)
- Monitor list sources for quality
My complaint rate is high
Immediate actions:
- Review recent campaign content and subject lines
- Check that unsubscribe links are working and visible
- Verify you're only emailing opted-in subscribers
- Review sending frequency
Long-term solutions:
- Improve targeting and segmentation
- Set clear expectations during signup
- Make unsubscribe process easy
- Send preference center link in every email
- Monitor engagement and remove inactive users
My account was paused
Step-by-step resolution:
- Don't panic: This is a protective measure
- Review the dashboard: Understand which metric triggered the pause
- Check recent activity: Identify the campaign or import that caused the issue
- Take corrective action:
- Remove problematic addresses
- Review and improve list quality
- Update email content if needed
- Document your actions: Be prepared to explain what you fixed
- Request reinstatement: Use the dashboard button
- Wait for review: Typically 24-48 hours
- Implement prevention: Set up monitoring and alerts
I can't send campaigns
Possible causes:
- Account paused: Check reputation dashboard for alerts
- Unverified domain: Verify your sending domain in settings
- No sender profile: Create a sender profile first
- Subscription limit: Check if you've reached your plan limit
How to diagnose:
- Check for error messages in the campaign creation flow
- Review reputation dashboard for pause status
- Verify domain verification status
- Check subscription status and limits
My metrics look wrong
Common issues:
- Recent changes: Threshold checks run every 15 minutes
- Small sample size: Need at least 100 sends for accurate metrics
- Time period: Dashboard shows a rolling send-window average
- Ingestion timing: Bounces and complaints arrive asynchronously from mailbox providers, so a spike can take a short while to fully register
What to do:
- Wait 15-30 minutes and refresh
- Check if you have sufficient sending volume
- Review the time period being displayed
- Contact support if metrics remain incorrect after 2 hours
Monitoring and Alerts
Email Notifications
You'll receive email alerts for:
- Warning: Metrics approaching thresholds (80% of limit)
- Critical: Metrics exceeding thresholds
- Pause: Account has been paused
- Resume: Account has been reactivated
Dashboard Indicators
- 🟢 Green: Healthy reputation (score 90+)
- 🟡 Yellow: Warning - action recommended (score 70-89)
- 🟠 Orange: Critical - immediate action needed (score 50-69)
- 🔴 Red: Paused or severe issues (score below 50)
Getting Help
Self-Service Resources
- Dashboard: Real-time metrics and status
- Email Logs: Detailed bounce and complaint information
- Documentation: This guide and deliverability best practices
- Best Practices: Contextual tips in your dashboard
Support Channels
- Reinstatement Requests: Use dashboard "Request Review" button
- Technical Issues: Contact [email protected]
- Urgent Issues: Include "URGENT" in subject line
- General Questions: Check documentation first, then contact support
Frequently Asked Questions
How often are metrics updated?
Bounce and complaint events are reflected as they are ingested, and threshold checks run every 15 minutes. Rates are calculated over a rolling send window.
Can I change my reputation policy?
Contact support to request a policy change. We'll review your sending history and help you choose the right policy.
What happens to scheduled campaigns when paused?
Scheduled campaigns are automatically paused and will not send. You'll need to reschedule them after reinstatement.
How long does reinstatement take?
Typically 24-48 hours. We review your corrective actions and sending history before approving.
Will pausing affect my subscription?
No, your subscription remains active. You can still access your account, manage lists, and prepare campaigns.
Can I prevent automatic pausing?
You can request the "None" policy, but this is only recommended for advanced users with robust monitoring systems.
What's a good bounce rate?
Aim for below 2%. Anything above 5% will trigger automatic pausing under Standard policy.
What's a good complaint rate?
Aim for below 0.05%. Anything above 0.1% will trigger automatic pausing under Standard policy.
How do I improve my reputation score?
Focus on list hygiene, send relevant content, use double opt-in, and monitor engagement. Improvement takes time - typically 7-30 days.
Can I export my reputation data?
Yes, use the "Export CSV" button on the reputation dashboard to download 30 days of historical data.