What’s the difference between RFM and engagement scoring?

RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value) scoring measures purchase behavior. It evaluates when someone last bought, how often they buy, and how much they spend. It's transactional and commerce focused, designed to identify high value customers and reactivate lapsed buyers.

Engagement scoring measures email interaction. It tracks opens, clicks, replies, forwards, and time since last activity. It's about attention and interest, not transactions. Engagement scores identify active subscribers, flag those at risk of disengagement, and help with deliverability by isolating unresponsive contacts.

The two systems can overlap but serve different goals. A subscriber might have a high engagement score because they open every email but a low RFM score because they haven't purchased recently. Another might buy frequently but rarely open emails, showing high RFM but low engagement.

Use RFM for revenue optimization and engagement scoring for list health and deliverability. One tracks the cargo delivered. The other tracks which ships are still paying attention.