Subscriber unknown

Hello there @sandyseoane ,

Thank you for reaching out and for explaining your question so clearly. I completely understand why seeing “unknown” next to some of your subscribers’ engagement scores could be confusing, especially when you’ve been consistently sending newsletters for a while.

You can find a detailed explanation of how inactive subscribers and engagement scores work here:
Understanding inactive subscribers

To clarify, those inactive subscribers did receive your emails, but they haven’t engaged with them (for example, by opening or clicking). A subscriber score is only generated once someone has interacted with at least three emails. Until then, their engagement level will appear as “unknown.”

This doesn’t mean their email addresses are invalid or that there’s a glitch with the plugin, it simply indicates that there hasn’t been enough engagement activity to calculate a score yet.

I hope this helps clarify what you’re seeing, but please let me know if you’d like any help reviewing your engagement data or managing your inactive subscribers.

Hello again @sandyseoane ,

Thank you for reaching out and for taking the time to clarify your question about subscriber scores. You’re absolutely right in your understanding.

A score of “unknown” means that the subscriber hasn’t received enough newsletters yet for the system to calculate an engagement score. Once at least three newsletters have been sent to them, MailPoet begins tracking engagement based on their opens and clicks.

If after that period the subscriber still hasn’t engaged with any of your newsletters, their score will then show as “0.”

You’ve got it exactly right. The “unknown” status simply means there hasn’t been enough data collected yet to generate a score.

Cheers!

Hello again @sandyseoane ,

Thank you so much for following up and for explaining your findings so clearly. I completely understand your concern. If several long-time subscribers are still showing as “unknown,” it’s reasonable to question whether MailPoet is functioning as expected.

You’re right that normally, once a subscriber has received at least three emails and hasn’t engaged with any, their score should change from “unknown” to “0.” However, there are a few factors that can affect this behavior:

Due to recent updates in how email clients report “opens,” MailPoet no longer relies solely on that data. This means that if an email client blocks open tracking or uses “machine opens,” MailPoet might not have enough reliable engagement data to assign a score, so it remains “unknown.”

Can you confirm if a majority of these email addresses with “unknown” scores have the same email extension e.g @gmail.com, @hotmail.com ?

I completely understand your hesitation to delete those “unknown” subscribers just yet. It’s a good idea to segment them first and perhaps send a re-engagement email to verify which ones are still active before removing anyone.

Please let me know if you’d like some help setting up that re-engagement segment. I’ll be happy to walk you through it.

Cheers!

Hello again @sandyseoane,

Thank you for sharing those extra details and for taking the time to review your list so carefully. I completely understand your concern about those long-time subscribers still showing as “unknown.”

If those subscribers are now listed as Inactive, it means they haven’t engaged with any of your emails in the past 12 months. Based on our experience, less than 1% of inactive subscribers will typically respond to a re-engagement email to remain active.

That said, it can still be worthwhile to create a segment for these subscribers and send a re-engagement campaign to confirm whether any are still interested in hearing from you. This helps clean up your list while giving subscribers one last chance to stay connected.

I hope this is helpful.