Newsletter subscribers cannot reply directly via the newsletter to [email protected] (the sender)

[CGiattino]

Description

Replies to mailchimp newsletter issues are not delivered or end up in spam.

sequenceDiagram
    Mailchimp->>Subscriber: Send campaign ✅
    note right of Subscriber: the subscriber hits "reply"<br>in their mail client (e.g. gmail).<br>This copies the content of<br>the campaign below their<br>actual reply.
    Subscriber->>Our World in Data: reply to ❌

Loading

1. newsletter is sent by Mailchimp (reply-to: [email protected])
2. subscriber receive newsletter
3. subscriber hits "reply"
4. email is sent to [email protected]
5. email is not delivered (or end up in spam)

Charlie tried this multiple times and it was never delivered.

It seems to be something with the newsletter content itself — Charlie copied the newsletter contents to a fresh email to newsletter@, and it also was not delivered. But simply emailing newsletter@ a test email without any newsletter contents does work.

As a baseline, sending the email to both [email protected] and a disposable email at the same time:

• [email protected]: not received ❌
• disposable email: received ✅

More slack discussion here

Expected behaviour

Replies to the newsletter get delivered to us.

Context

• recent updates to sender guidelines by google: https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126?sjid=16638308369703138256-EU
• maybe: https://support.google.com/a/answer/13198639?sjid=16638308369703138256-EU

[mlbrgl]

@CGiattino partially rewritten description and shared with Mailchimp support

[mlbrgl]

Their reply:

So after running a few test it looks like youre domain is fine. What I do see id you have a few free domains attached to account, it may be best to remove the google domains, as they do carry limitations
Limitations of Free Email Addresses: https://eepurl.com/dyil9c
Also if you if you see specific adresses effected this process may help those contacts as well,
Use Safe Sender Lists to Stay out of Spam Folders: https://eepurl.com/dyikij,

[CGiattino]

huh, so besides the several spelling/grammar errors, what do you make of their reply — some things to investigate that might help with this?

[mlbrgl]

I asked for clarification today:

I went through the two links you shared, and they both relate to emails sent from Mailchimp, whereas my question was about the deliverability of replies to these emails (❌ below).

sequenceDiagram
    Mailchimp->>Subscriber: Send campaign ✅
    note right of Subscriber: the subscriber hits "reply"<br>in their mail client (e.g. gmail).<br>This copies the content of<br>the campaign below their<br>actual reply.
    Subscriber->>Our World in Data: reply to ❌

Loading

Would you have any insights about this particular issue?

[mlbrgl]

Skipping a back-and-forth for clarification, Mailchimp support suggested a possible workaround, by letting Mailchimp manage replies:

So this would be using the the domain that is sent with to manage replies. We also have a great way to manage campaign replies within Mailchimp as well. If you take a look at this page here: Set Up Your Mailchimp Inbox: https://eepurl.com/hcaXDr

This will allow you to have your own inbox within Mailchimp to manage replies that come in from your sent content.

Worth evaluating the cost/benefit. This would require some workflow adjustments.

[CGiattino]

thanks @mlbrgl for looking into this — I'll discuss with @matt-mun

[ikesau]

Without doing anything this seems to have been fixed 🤷