Home M3AAWG Blog Exploring the growing impact of Nonhuman Interactions (NHI) on email send metrics

Author: Senders Committee

Received email may not be handled only by a human. In fact, these days an email may be partially or even fully handled by a software program and that can influence marketing and sales email campaign metrics in a massive way. 

NHI has been on the rise over the past several years, and we’re beginning to understand the impact that automated engagement may have on the performance analysis and reporting of an individual message or email campaign at large. 

The M3AAWG Senders Committee took a look at send, click, and open data from large and small ESPs and discovered that NHI typically occurs during security scans as part of a mailbox provider’s antivirus or security software checks. As the system follows the links in an email, it visits the target website and analyzes the content, resulting in a “click” or an “open” and affecting website and campaign analytics along the way. These scans are not meant to add uncertainty to the metrics of a marketing or sales initiative, yet it’s imperative that messages arrive free of potentially dangerous or malicious content. 

Today, the M3AAWG Senders Committee is publishing a new document that helps marketing and sales professionals understand the effects of NHI on outbound messages in Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) environments, as well as offers best practices for senders to consider that can help reduce NHI and ensure the delivery of safe messages and transparent engagement results. 

Click here to read the document in full.

The views expressed in DM3Z are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect M3AAWG policy.