Subscriber Insights by Inbox Monster allows you to safely and easily upload any subscriber list, analyze subscriber counts by ISP, and pair them with actual inbox placement results. This true ISP weighting tool provides a different dimension to deliverability measurement and helps develop a true picture of the composition of any subscriber list.
Additional data is generated that can help compliance teams identify new data risks in a subscriber file and offer customer success teams new signals that can be used to improve paid customer engagements.
Here's how it works!
Step 1: Prepare your subscriber file for processing
Subscriber Insights supports three different file upload types. Your subscriber file can be uploaded with any one of the following configurations (examples below):
Option 1: A single-column CSV with email address
Note: For Option 1, everything to the left of the @ symbol is automatically discarded before processing. Inbox Monster never stores PII for any reason.
Option 2: A single-column CSV with domain
Option 3: A CSV with first column domain, second column count of occurrences of that domain
Please save the file format as a Comma Separated Values (.csv).
At the bottom of this article you'll find a sample file containing ideal formatting for your Subscriber Insights import.
Step 2: Upload Subscriber List
Within the Inbox Monster platform, navigate to Subscriber Insights > List and click Upload Subscriber List in the top right corner.
Give your Subscriber List a name of your choosing, select the CSV for your file, and click Create.
At this stage, your file will begin processing. On the backend, the Inbox Monster Subscriber Insights tool is looking into the underlying mail systems for each domain to determine their ISP, and checking each for MX Failures, Recycled Traps, and Typo Traps.
Step 3: Review the Results
Once complete, you'll be able to click into your new Subscriber Insights file to review the results.
Subscriber Insight Data
You'll be presented with the following information for your list:
Total Subscribers: The total subscriber count of the uploaded list.
Classified Subscribers: The total number of subscribers that were successfully classified into a mail system that we monitor (Gmail, Proofpoint, etc.).*
*Subscriber Insight is constantly learning and will attempt to re-classify your list as it learns of newly classified domains.
Unique Domains: The number of unique domains identified on the uploaded subscriber list.
MX Fail (Domain): The number of domains that have misconfigured MX records. These domains cannot receive email. These can be exported by clicking on the Download symbol.
The MX record tells your email program where to send the email for that domain. It's like a map that says "if you want to send email to example.com, send it to this email server."
MX Fail (Subscribers): The number of subscribers impacted by any misconfigured domain MX records.
Recycled Traps (Subscribers): The number of subscribers that exist on our* Recycled Trap network. These are email addresses that once existed, were shut down for an extended period of time, and then reactivated as traps to see if marketers are still sending to them.
Note: Since this is first party only, Recycled Trap counts reflected here will likely be lower than the total Recycled Trap count displayed in the Spamtrap subsection.
Typo Traps (Subscribers): The number of subscribers that exist on our Typo trap network. These are email addresses that contain a misspelled domain.
Below, you'll also see individual ISPs detected, total subscribers per ISP, what percentage of your list is made up of a particular ISP, and how many unique domains are tied to each ISP.
💡 Quick Tip: These results are fully exportable!
Step 4: Bind your list to your domain
In the List Binding section, you have the option to select which of your domains you'd like to bind to the Subscriber Insights file.
By binding the list to a domain, your domain's recent inbox placement data by ISP will be weighed to match your actual subscriber list.
You can select your domain in the List Binding section, then by clicking Add.
Once the domain has been bound, scroll back up to the ISP chart and use the Domain Selector to choose your domain. Once selected, you'll be presented with a new data point in the chart - Inbox Percent.
Inbox Percent and Percent of List create a proxy data set that conflates Inbox Placement and ISP Percentage, allowing you to assess the actual placement percentage of your subscriber list.
On top of that, additional new modules will appear throughout the platform that take the users specific subscriber counts into account. Most notably, they'll be available for every Inbox Placement Campaign for that domain, further enabling you to make informed decisions about prioritizing inboxing issues.
Dynamic Sync
By Enabling the Dynamic Sync option for your bound domain, Subscriber Insights will automatically scan the Mail System results for this list and apply personalized ISP Management automatically.
Dynamic Sync is the best way to ensure that your Inbox Placement reporting is personalized to fit the actual subscribers within your email list.
Advanced/Optional: Unbinding and Rebinding your Domain(s)
If you are monitoring multiple domains in your Inbox Monster platform instance, multiple Subscriber Insights files can be processed and "bound" to the domains for which they represent.
You also have the option to re-run Subscriber lists at any time for more current weighting of your lists. This can be done by processing your new file using the processes outlined in Step 1 and 2, but then unbinding your domain from your older Subscriber file.
Click the "Trash" icon to the right of the Binded List
Once your domain has been unbound from the older file, it can then be re-bound to the new file to provide updated results. This is the same processes as outlined in Step 4 above.
Individual Domain Lookup
Individual domains can also be processed via Subscriber Insights without requiring a file upload. Navigate to Subscriber Insights > List and enter the domain you'd like to search.
The resulting data will include Mail System, MX Record Found (Y/N), and the MX Record itself.
Congratulations! You've successfully processed your first Subscriber Insights file to unlock a whole new dimension of deliverability measurement.
You'll now be able to view Subscriber Insights weighted results within each Inbox Placement report generated for domains bound to subscriber lists.
Now that you have a full breakdown of your Domain's Subscribers and which ISP they operate out of, this would be a great time to adjust your Domain's ISP Management Settings if you have not enabled Dynamic Sync to do so automatically.
These settings allow you to obscure any ISPs or Regions that are irrelevant to your program or absent from your subscriber file for increased accuracy of reporting.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about Subscriber Insights - we're here to help!
Download our sample Subscriber Insights file below to reference when formatting your own file.