Understanding the Engagement System

Learn how Tarvent’s contact engagement scoring works, why it matters for your email marketing, and how to use it to send smarter campaigns.

What you'll learn

What contact engagement scoring is and why it matters for your email marketing.
How to use engagement data to send smarter campaigns.
When to target different contact groups.
How engagement scoring helps protect your sender reputation and improve results.

What we'll cover

Overview
What is Engagement Scoring?
Why This Matters for Your Business
Understanding Engagement Levels
Understanding Lifecycle Stages
Using Smart Filters
Campaign Type Recommendations
Real-World Scenarios
Best Practices
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick Reference

1 Overview

Contact engagement scoring is like a health score for your email list. Instead of guessing who is interested in your emails, Tarvent analyzes contact behavior and turns it into clear scores, levels, lifecycle stages, and send recommendations you can use for targeting.

At a glance, you can see:

Who loves your emails and should get more.
Who is starting to drift away and needs reengagement.
Who is inactive and may hurt deliverability if you keep blasting them.
Who has never engaged and should not be in regular sends.

2 What is Contact Engagement Scoring?

Contact Engagement Scoring measures each contact's interest in your emails over time. Every contact receives:

Engagement Score (0–100): How engaged they are overall.
Engagement Level: Hot, Warm, Cold, or Inactive.
Lifecycle Stage: Where they are in their journey (including NeverEngaged).
Send Recommendation: Whether you should email them and how often.

How it works

Tarvent looks at engagement behavior such as:

Opens, clicks, and replies
Recency (how recently they engaged)
Consistency (how often they engage across multiple emails)
Email health signals like bounces and unsubscribes

Good to know: Engagement scoring includes activity from campaign emails and journey emails.

The simple version:

High score: They like what you send → keep sending.
Low score: They are not responding → slow down or stop.

3 Why This Matters for Your Business

The problem without engagement scoring

If you have a list of contacts and no engagement view, it’s easy to:

Email everyone the same way.
Annoy uninterested contacts who unsubscribe or mark messages as spam.
Spend money sending to people who never engage.
Miss chances to win back contacts who are drifting away.

The solution with engagement scoring

With engagement scoring, you can:

Send more to contacts who want to hear from you.
Reduce mail to high-risk or fatigued contacts.
Exclude NeverEngaged contacts from regular sends.
Run reengagement campaigns for contacts who are likely to respond.
Make clearer decisions about who to include in each campaign.

4 Understanding Engagement Levels

Every contact is categorized into one of four Engagement Levels.

🔥 Hot (Score: 70–100)

Who they are: Your superfans. They open often, click regularly, and engage consistently.

What to do:

Send them almost everything.
Launch new products and offers to them first.
Send a bit more frequently if your content stays valuable.

☀️ Warm (Score: 40–69)

Who they are: Interested and engaged, but not as intensely as Hot contacts.

What to do:

Include in most campaigns.
Send your best content and regular newsletters.

❄️ Cold (Score: 15–39)

Who they are: Low engagement. They rarely open or click but haven’t completely checked out.

What to do:

Be selective. Send only higher-value campaigns.
Consider targeted reengagement.

💤 Inactive (Score: 0–14)

Who they are: Not engaging recently.

What to do:

Do not include in regular campaigns.
Use a limited reengagement attempt if they were engaged in the past.

🆕 NEW Contacts (special case)

Who they are: Contacts who joined recently and are still building engagement history.

What happens:

They get an onboarding window so they are not treated as Cold or Inactive too quickly.
They appear as NEW in the lifecycle stage during that window.

What to do:

Welcome them with your best content.
Send consistently so expectations are clear.

5 Understanding Lifecycle Stages

Lifecycle stages show where contacts are in their marketing journey with you. These are based on time since last engagement and your send cadence (your typical sending frequency).

🆕 NEW: In the onboarding window and still building engagement history.
✅ ACTIVE: Engaging regularly.
⚠️ AT RISK: Previously engaged but has started to go quiet relative to your normal cadence.
💤 DORMANT: Quiet for a longer stretch and close to being lost.
❌ LOST: Not engaged for a long time after previously engaging. Stop regular sends.
🎉 REACTIVATED: Was Dormant or Lost but has started engaging again.
🚫 NEVERENGAGED: Has received emails but has never taken a positive engagement action. These should not be in regular sends.

Pro tip: Engagement Level shows current interest (Hot/Warm/Cold/Inactive), while Lifecycle Stage shows journey status (New/Active/At Risk/Dormant/Lost/Reactivated/NeverEngaged). A contact can be Warm but At Risk if they used to engage more consistently and have recently slowed down.

6 Using Smart Filters

Smart filters are pre-built targeting options that automatically find the right contacts for different types of campaigns. They save you from building complex rules by hand.

How to access smart filters

When creating a campaign or segment, open the targeting options.
Choose Smart Filters.
Select the filter that matches your goal.
Tarvent applies the matching engagement rules behind the scenes.

Smart filter examples

📈 Best Performers: Highly engaged contacts for launches and premium offers.
🔥 Hot Prospects: Recently active and likely to respond.
⚠️ At Risk: Previously engaged but now going quiet.
💤 Reengagement Targets: Dormant contacts still worth a winback attempt.
⭐ VIP Engaged: Top engaged contacts.
🚫 Never Engaged: Contacts who have never engaged and should be excluded from regular sends.
🚫 Do Not Send: High-risk contacts to exclude for deliverability protection.

7 Campaign Type Recommendations

When you choose a campaign purpose, Tarvent can recommend a targeting approach based on engagement.

📰 Newsletter

Send to: Warm + Hot contacts (exclude Do Not Send and NeverEngaged).
Tip: If you send often, watch fatigue and slow down for CautionSends.

🚀 Product Launch

Send to: VIP / Best Performers first, then Hot + Warm.
Tip: Keep Cold and Inactive limited unless you have a strong reason.

💰 Promotion

Send to: Warm + Hot, plus selective Cold contacts with a clear purchase signal.
Tip: Avoid blasting the full list repeatedly. That’s how fatigue happens.

🎯 Reengagement

Send to: At Risk + high-priority Dormant contacts.
Tip: NeverEngaged is usually not a "winback" group. If you try it, use one short "confirm interest" message, then suppress.

8 Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: First product launch

Goal: Maximize impact of a new product line.

Step 1: Send early access to VIP Engaged / Best Performers.
Step 2: Send main launch to Hot Prospects + Warm.
Skip: NeverEngaged and Do Not Send.

Scenario 2: Inactive list recovery

Goal: Recover safely after a long sending gap.

Exclude Do Not Send and NeverEngaged.
Start with At Risk and Warm contacts.
Use reengagement for Dormant, then keep only responders.

Scenario 3: Weekly newsletter routine

Goal: Keep a healthy, predictable newsletter program.

Target Warm + Hot contacts.
Exclude NeverEngaged and high-risk contacts.
Adjust if fatigue starts rising.

9 Best Practices

✅ Do

Send more often to engaged contacts (Hot + Warm).
Use smart filters for major campaigns to save time and improve targeting.
Act quickly on At Risk contacts with tailored reengagement.
Keep NeverEngaged out of regular sends.

❌ Don’t

Send regular campaigns to Do Not Send or NeverEngaged contacts.
Ignore lifecycle stages. At Risk, Dormant, Lost, and NeverEngaged need different playbooks.
Over-email Cold contacts. Send only the most important messages to them.

10 Frequently Asked Questions

General questions

Q: How often are engagement scores updated?
A: Contact-level scores refresh regularly for contacts with new activity. Audience-level summaries refresh on a daily schedule.

Q: Can contacts move between levels and stages?
A: Yes. Engagement is dynamic. Contacts can cool down when they stop engaging and improve when they start engaging again.

NeverEngaged

Q: What does NeverEngaged mean?
A: It means the contact has received emails but has never opened, clicked, replied, or taken another positive engagement action.

Q: How is NeverEngaged different from Lost?
A: Lost contacts engaged at some point in the past and then went quiet. NeverEngaged contacts have never engaged at all.

Q: Should I email NeverEngaged contacts?
A: Not in regular sends. If you try anything, use a single "confirm interest" message, then suppress anyone who still does not respond.

NEW contacts

Q: Why does a brand-new contact not look Cold right away?
A: NEW contacts get an onboarding window so they have time to receive emails and show their true behavior.

11 Quick Reference

Campaign type → Recommended targeting

Campaign type	Recommended approach
Newsletter	Warm + Hot (exclude Do Not Send and NeverEngaged)
Product Launch	VIP / Best Performers, then Hot + Warm
Promotion / Sale	Warm + Hot, plus selective Cold
Reengagement	At Risk + selected Dormant (exclude NeverEngaged)

Contact level → Action guide

Level	Who	Action
🔥 Hot	Engages often	Send most content and prioritize offers
☀️ Warm	Moderate engagement	Include in most campaigns
❄️ Cold	Low engagement	Be selective; consider reengagement
💤 Inactive	Not engaging recently	Stop regular campaigns; reengage only if it makes sense
🆕 NEW	Recently added	Send onboarding and best content

Lifecycle stage → Strategy

Stage	What it means	What to do
🆕 NEW	In onboarding window	Welcome series, expectations, and high-value content
✅ ACTIVE	Engaging regularly	Keep cadence and quality consistent
⚠️ AT RISK	Slowing down	Reengage quickly with tailored sends
💤 DORMANT	Quiet for longer	Run a focused winback attempt
❌ LOST	No engagement for a long time after past engagement	Stop regular sends; consider removing/suppressing
🎉 REACTIVATED	Returned after Dormant/Lost	Send great content and watch fatigue
🚫 NEVERENGAGED	Has never engaged at all	Exclude from regular sends; optional one-time confirm-interest message

Remember: the goal is not to email everyone all the time. It’s to email the right people at the right time with the right message. Engagement scoring in Tarvent helps you do exactly that.