Publishing - Newsletter
We Love Book Seller
Discover how MailSoar fixed a publishing newsletter's 100% spam placement, reaching readers again with 95% inbox delivery.
Talk to a deliverability expert See more case studiesInbox Placement
Unique Open Rate
We Love Book Seller is a US marketing partner for independent bookstores, running newsletters — including new-release book highlights — for editors and readers nationwide.
- Industry
Media & newsletter, independent bookseller marketing.
- Challenge
Severe deliverability issues and no visibility on metrics, caused by an outdated email marketing platform.
- Solution
Migration to a more robust ESP (MailXpertise).
- Outcome
- Migration to a more robust ESP
- Deliverability issue solved;
- Ability to reach a wider audience while maintaining primary inbox placement.
- Subdomain segmentation,
- List cleaning, engagement-based warmup,
- Regular KPI check-ins.- Duration
12 months.
1M emails / month
Inbox Placement
Unique Open Rate
IP / Domain reputation
We Love Book Seller is a US marketing partner for independent bookstores, running newsletters.
For a marketing partner whose entire value proposition is getting bookstore newsletters read and acted on, deliverability is the product: if the "latest release" newsletter doesn't land in the primary inbox, the editors and avid readers who specifically signed up for new-book highlights simply won't see it — and neither will the bookstores counting on the resulting foot traffic and sales.
Gwyn, who runs We Love Book Seller, came to MailSoar running her email program on an outdated ESP that couldn't even provide accurate open and click tracking.
Initial tests showed close to 100% spam placement, with open rates likely below 3%.
We Love Book Seller's case is a platform-driven deliverability collapse, compounded by a total lack of visibility:
Outdated ESP missing core capabilities: no accurate open or click tracking, and no way to properly diagnose what was and wasn't working.
No modern deliverability practices in place: no subdomain segmentation, no list cleaning, no warmup — the sending infrastructure had never been built with deliverability in mind.
Near-total spam placement: initial tests showed close to 100% of mail landing in spam, effectively silencing a newsletter that its audience had actively opted into.
The concrete result: an inbox placement rate close to 0% and a unique open rate below 3% — a newsletter that readers wanted was simply not reaching them.
MailSoar migrated We Love Book Seller's email program to MailXpertise and rebuilt it around best practice — subdomain segmentation, list cleaning, engagement-based warmup, and regular KPI check-ins — replacing a platform that couldn't even measure whether emails were opened or clicked.
With deliverability restored and a proper multi-state sending strategy in place, the "latest release" newsletter now reaches editors and avid readers reliably and fast — protecting the timely moment that publishers and bookstores depend on.
A year into the partnership, Gwyn can also reach a wider audience than before without risking inbox placement.
What we did
How this publishing newsletter fixed 100% spam placement, thanks to MailSoar
Our 4-step approach
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ESP migration
Moving the email program off the outdated platform and onto MailXpertise, a more robust ESP with proper open and click tracking.
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Infrastructure setup
Subdomain segmentation put in place to give the sending domain a clean, protected foundation to rebuild reputation on.
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List cleaning and engagement-based warmup
The contact list was cleaned, and sending was ramped up gradually through an engagement-based warmup rather than resuming at full volume.
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Ongoing KPI check-ins and multi-state scale-up
Regular check-ins on deliverability KPIs, paired with a multi-state sending strategy, to ensure the newsletter reaches readers nationwide on time, at growing volume.
I was running a complex, large-scale email campaign (...) and unfortunately, we discovered that poor hygiene and other technical issues meant almost all of our emails were going to spam. The MailSoar team was so proactive, creative, and professional. I knew I didn't just have a vendor: I had a true partner whom I could trust completely, and who cared about the success of this project as much as I did. MailSoar saved my email campaign contract. I absolutely could not have done this without them.
The results
Strong improvements in email performance
Frequently asked
Can switching email platforms alone fix a 100% spam placement rate?
No — migrating to a better ESP is necessary but not sufficient. It has to be paired with deliverability fundamentals: subdomain segmentation, list cleaning, and a proper engagement-based warmup. That combination is what took We Love Book Seller from close to 0% inbox placement to 95% within a year of moving to MailXpertise.
