Microsoft SNDS Smart Network Data Services (Green/Yellow/Red) Demystified.
Time and again webmasters have been puzzled with Microsoft SNDS and the Meaning of what the yellow,green and red indicators mean to their deliverability.
The below table looks familiar ?
What do we make out of this ? - NOTHING
By the table we would infer that if it is going into the RED area our emails are ending up in their spam or does it mean that 90% of what we mailed out is being flagged as spam by our users.
After a week of experimentation we did manage to get our RED status to Yellow and then to Green Finally. Screenshot Below.
Here is what was wrong with our mailings earlier.
1. We were sending out a happy birthday to our userbase of over 13 Million Members (approx 25k birthdays everyday).
2. The user's email was not validated for over 5 years.
3. Our bounce rate for the mailings were about 15%
4. Many of the email accounts were transformed into Trap Accounts at Hotmail. We are not sure about how Yahoo treats dormant accounts.
5. Our senderscore would be oscillating between 95% to as low as 70.
Dessert - The fixes that made it neat and GREEN
1. We asked users to re-verify their email accounts by sending out a opt-in confirmation link when they logon.
2. On opt-in confirmation we flagged those accounts as email verified.
3. Birthday emails would only be sent to verified email accounts.
4. We added up a new mailer that sent out an incentive to engage with the emails. This was sent to each member once in a week and the email contained a coupon which had to be redeemed within a period of 3 days after which the coupon would expire. To claim the coupon the user had to click through the email. This email had an send to land ratio of over 20% which is a highly engaging number and it impacted our reputation positively.
5. Yahoo too uses the senderscore mechanism to place your emails accordingly. A positive senderscore and a GREEN band means your delivery to Yahoo is also at its best.
As seen in the screenshot above it took a day or two to jump into the YELLOW zone and then into GREEN and has stayed in GREEN till date.
The Formula
1. Spam is not the problem - Bounces are.
2. A email account of a user who has not read or landed from your emails in the last 6 months is not a interested user or the email account is obsolete. Stop mailing those users.
3. If a user has not landed from any email in the last 1 year then force them to re-verify their email address or stop mailing them altogether. The user either ways does not want your emails.
4. Mail more to users who like your emails and send less to those who don't read or land from your emails.
5. Keep a check on your bounce rates. Anything above 2% is a serious mess.
6. Volume of the email is not the KEY. The key lies in open rates and land rates. Any mailer that does not get you more than 15% send to land on any volume is a mailer which probably your users are not interested in.
7. Keep a tab on your Senderscore. If you notice a spike in your senderscore regularly it is caused by either inconsistent volume or by certain emails which are negatively impacting your score.
Let me know your thoughts below.
Time and again webmasters have been puzzled with Microsoft SNDS and the Meaning of what the yellow,green and red indicators mean to their deliverability.
The below table looks familiar ?
| Result | Example | Verdict percentage |
| Green | Spam < 10% | |
| Yellow | 10% < spam < 90% | |
| Red | Spam > 90% |
What do we make out of this ? - NOTHING
By the table we would infer that if it is going into the RED area our emails are ending up in their spam or does it mean that 90% of what we mailed out is being flagged as spam by our users.
After a week of experimentation we did manage to get our RED status to Yellow and then to Green Finally. Screenshot Below.
Here is what was wrong with our mailings earlier.
1. We were sending out a happy birthday to our userbase of over 13 Million Members (approx 25k birthdays everyday).
2. The user's email was not validated for over 5 years.
3. Our bounce rate for the mailings were about 15%
4. Many of the email accounts were transformed into Trap Accounts at Hotmail. We are not sure about how Yahoo treats dormant accounts.
5. Our senderscore would be oscillating between 95% to as low as 70.
Dessert - The fixes that made it neat and GREEN
1. We asked users to re-verify their email accounts by sending out a opt-in confirmation link when they logon.
2. On opt-in confirmation we flagged those accounts as email verified.
3. Birthday emails would only be sent to verified email accounts.
4. We added up a new mailer that sent out an incentive to engage with the emails. This was sent to each member once in a week and the email contained a coupon which had to be redeemed within a period of 3 days after which the coupon would expire. To claim the coupon the user had to click through the email. This email had an send to land ratio of over 20% which is a highly engaging number and it impacted our reputation positively.
5. Yahoo too uses the senderscore mechanism to place your emails accordingly. A positive senderscore and a GREEN band means your delivery to Yahoo is also at its best.
As seen in the screenshot above it took a day or two to jump into the YELLOW zone and then into GREEN and has stayed in GREEN till date.
The Formula
1. Spam is not the problem - Bounces are.
2. A email account of a user who has not read or landed from your emails in the last 6 months is not a interested user or the email account is obsolete. Stop mailing those users.
3. If a user has not landed from any email in the last 1 year then force them to re-verify their email address or stop mailing them altogether. The user either ways does not want your emails.
4. Mail more to users who like your emails and send less to those who don't read or land from your emails.
5. Keep a check on your bounce rates. Anything above 2% is a serious mess.
6. Volume of the email is not the KEY. The key lies in open rates and land rates. Any mailer that does not get you more than 15% send to land on any volume is a mailer which probably your users are not interested in.
7. Keep a tab on your Senderscore. If you notice a spike in your senderscore regularly it is caused by either inconsistent volume or by certain emails which are negatively impacting your score.
Let me know your thoughts below.
Thank you for your article. It was very interesting for me. I live in Chile.
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