When it comes to email marketing success, email deliverability plays an important (if not the most) role. However, email deliverability itself is a complex beast with multiple factors affecting it.
Numbers don’t lie, and email marketing metrics are powerful indicators of your email deliverability. They tell a story about how well your emails are performing, if they’re being accepted by email service providers (ESPs), and where improvements are needed. Decoding these metrics gives marketers a gateway towards optimizing their campaigns, enhancing engagement, and improving their ROI.
This article explores the key email deliverability metrics you should be tracking, what each metric tells you about your email performance and what actionable steps you should take on how to improve them to ensure your emails land in inboxes.
Key email deliverability metrics you should track
Email marketing is not just about sending messages. It’s about ensuring they are successfully delivered in the inbox, and not the spam folder. Getting your emails in the inbox is the first obstacle. Once it’s there, it’s time for the subject line and email body to do their job in meeting your objectives—whether it’s a booked demo, a sales call appointment, or a conversion.
To achieve this, you need to keep an eye on the following metrics:
Open rates (the first impression)
Open rates measure the percentage of recipients who open your email out of the total number sent.
What it’s telling you:
- Low open rates often suggest that your subject lines are not attractive enough. Your emails may be landing in the inbox, but for some reason, they’re not being opened.
- Spam folders are another culprit for low open rates. If your email service provider is blocking your emails, they will never make it to the inbox. As a result, open rates are low because your emails aren’t being given a chance to be opened.
What you should do:
- Create compelling, personalized subject lines that will get your recipients to open your emails.
- A/B test subject lines regularly to determine what works best for your audience.
- Check your sender reputation using tools like Warmy’s email deliverability test to check the percentage of emails landing in the inboxes.
- You can also run an email deliverability test through InboxArmy’s tool, to identify inbox placement issues across major providers and pinpoint whether authentication, content, or reputation factors are affecting visibility.
Bounce rates (the roadblocks)
Bounce rates reflect the percentage of emails that couldn’t be delivered to the recipient’s inbox. A hard bounce occurs when an email is permanently rejected, while a soft bounce happens when an email is temporarily undeliverable (e.g., the recipient’s mailbox is full).
What it’s telling you:
- There may be issues with your email list. If you are sending to outdated or invalid email addresses, your emails will definitely bounce.
- The more often you send to outdated or invalid email addresses, the faster your bounce rates will increase. High bounce rates also lead to a poor sender reputation in the long run.
- There may be problems with your domain’s health or that your emails are being blocked by ESPs.
What you should do:
- Clean your email list regularly to remove invalid or inactive addresses.
- Ensure your domain authentication settings (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are correctly configured. For example, using a DMARC checker tool can help you quickly verify whether any misconfigurations are contributing to bounce issues. Improper settings can also contribute to high bounce rates as email service providers (ESPs) may think senders are suspicious.
Spam complaints (the red flags)
Spam complaints are the number of recipients who voluntarily mark your email as spam or junk.
What it’s telling you:
- Your emails are not resonating with recipients, or they’re perceiving your content as unwanted.
- It may also indicate poor list management practices, such as not obtaining proper opt-ins or not providing a clear unsubscribe option.
- This metric directly affects your sender reputation, and a high complaint rate can lead to your emails being blocked by ESPs altogether.
What you should do:
- Ensure all recipients have opted in to receive your emails. Double opt-ins can help confirm that your audience truly wants to hear from you.
- Provide an easy and clear unsubscribe option in every email.
- Segment your contact list according to various criteria (preferences, behavior, demographics). Tailor your content specifically to each segment to ensure relevancy.
- Regularly monitor your spam complaint rates and adjust your email frequency, content, and targeting to avoid triggering spam filters.
Click-through rates (the action)
Click-through rates measure the percentage of recipients who click on a link within your email.
What it’s telling you:
- Low CTR indicates that the content of your email or your call-to-action (CTA) might not be appealing or compelling enough to encourage clicks.
- It can also signal that your emails aren’t properly reaching the inbox or are being ignored, which negatively impacts engagement. Often, low open rates translate to low click-through rates. After all, if your emails don’t get opened, they won’t be clicked either.
What you should do:
- Make sure your CTAs are clear, actionable, and aligned with the recipient’s interests.Personalize your email content to match the preferences and needs of your audience.
- Test different versions of your emails to see which elements (e.g., images, CTAs, content) improve engagement.
- Track your email deliverability and ensure that your emails are actually reaching the intended audience.
- Explore with email sign offs. It’s often underestimated, but it is the one that leaves a lasting impression.
Unsubscribe rates (the exit)
How often do people opt out of your emails? Unsubscribe rates reflect the percentage of recipients who opt out of your email list.
What it’s telling you:
- A high unsubscribe rate usually means that recipients do not find your emails relevant or valuable. Maybe you’re also sending emails too frequently, or your content doesn’t match their expectations.
- It’s also possible that your emails are becoming too sales-focused, leading to audience fatigue.
What you should do:
- Regularly segment your email list to send more personalized content that matches recipients’ preferences and interests.
- Limit the frequency of your emails and avoid bombarding your audience with too many messages.
Deliverability rate (the gatekeeper)
Are your emails actually getting through to the inbox? The deliverability rate measures the percentage of emails successfully delivered to recipients’ inboxes.
Take note: This is different from delivery. If an email lands in the spam, it still counts as a delivered email. However, deliverability specifically pertains to those that make it to the inbox.
What it’s telling you:
- A low delivery rate means that your emails aren’t reaching the inbox. There could be issues with your domain health, ESP reputation, or improper email authentication.
- This metric is directly tied to bounce rates, spam complaints, and sender reputation.
What you should do:
- Set up proper email authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to improve deliverability.
- Monitor your delivery rate regularly to ensure your emails are landing where they should.
- Run regular inbox placement tests to know where you stand.
How to improve email deliverability based on these metrics
Tracking and understanding your email deliverability metrics is key to success. Here are some steps to improve your email deliverability based on the metrics discussed:
- Stay consistent: Regularly track and analyze your metrics to understand where you stand. Make adjustments accordingly to improve engagement and ensure inbox placement.
- Test and optimize: A/B test various aspects of your emails, including subject lines, CTAs, and content, to see what works best with your audience.
- Focus on quality over quantity: Instead of sending mass emails, focus on sending targeted, relevant messages to the right audience.
- Use tools for automation: Automate your email warmup process with tools like Warmy to ensure that your emails are consistently reaching the inbox and your sender reputation remains intact.
Use data to your advantage
Email deliverability is crucial for successful email marketing campaigns—and numbers hold they key to cracking the code.
Tracking metrics like open rates, bounce rates, spam complaints, and others, helps senders gain valuable insights into what’s really happening behind the scenes. These metrics not only reveal how well your emails are performing but also guide you toward actionable improvements.
Use tools like Warmy’s free email deliverability test to get a comprehensive view and understanding of your metrics. This will help you take data-driven actions to significantly improve your email deliverability.