What are the metrics for email deliverability

Using ListFit Data to Detect Fraudulent Emails

What Are The Metrics For Email Deliverability?

Apr 28, 2024

Marketing

Back to all posts

What Are The Key Metrics For Email Deliverability?

Understanding the key metrics for email deliverability is crucial for any email marketing strategy, but what is email deliverability? These metrics indicate whether your emails are reaching the intended inboxes and reflect the quality and efficiency of your email campaigns. Here are the fundamental indicators you should be monitoring:

Inbox Placement Rate

The Inbox Placement Rate goes beyond the basic delivery rate by showing the percentage of emails in the recipient’s main inbox instead of spam or junk folders. Tools like AudiencePoint’s inbox placement can provide insights into this metric, helping you fine-tune your strategies to improve placements.

Delivery Rate

The Delivery Rate indicates the proportion of emails successfully delivered to recipients’ email servers. It is calculated by dividing the number of emails delivered by the total emails sent and multiplying by 100. Ensuring high delivery rates means your emails are technically reaching the recipients.

Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate represents the percentage of emails that were not delivered. There are two types of bounces: hard bounces, due to permanent issues like invalid email addresses, and soft bounces, caused by temporary problems such as full inboxes. Keeping this rate low and using an email bounce checker is essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation.

Spam Complaint Rate

Spam Complaint Rate measures the number of recipients who marked your email as spam. A high complaint rate can seriously damage your sender reputation and affect future deliverability negatively. Monitoring and reducing complaints is critical for sustained email marketing success.

Open Rate

Open Rate denotes the percentage of recipients who opened your email. A higher open rate often correlates with a good sender reputation and effective subject lines. Tracking this metric helps gauge the interest your emails generate among subscribers.

Click-Through Rate

Click-Through Rate (CTR) measures the percentage of email recipients who clicked on one or more links within your email. This metric is crucial for assessing the effectiveness of your email content and its relevance to the audience. Analyzing CTR can help you refine your content strategy to better engage recipients.

By closely monitoring these email marketing KPIs, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize your email campaigns for better performance.

How Do You Measure Email Delivery Rate?

Measuring the email delivery rate is fundamental for any effective email marketing campaign but how do you measure email deliverability? It gives a snapshot of how well your emails reach your recipients’ inboxes, making it a critical email marketing metric to track.

Define Email Delivery Rate

The email delivery rate is the percentage of emails successfully delivered to the recipient’s inbox out of the total number of emails sent. This metric does not account for whether the email reached the inbox or was filtered into the spam folder; it measures delivery instead of bouncing.

The Formula for Email Delivery Rate

The basic formula to calculate the email delivery rate is:

Email Delivery Rate (%) = (Total Emails Delivered / Total Emails Sent) * 100

For instance, if you send out 10,000 emails and 9,800 are successfully delivered, your delivery rate would be:

Email Delivery Rate (%) = (9,800 / 10,000) * 100 = 98%

Factors Influencing Delivery Rate

Several factors can influence your email delivery rate. These include the quality of your email list, the reputation of your sending domain, and your email content. Maintaining good list hygiene, ensuring proper authentication protocols like SPF, D

KIM, and DMARC, and avoiding spammy content can significantly improve your rates.

Example Calculations

What is the average email delivery rate? Let’s consider another example. Suppose you send out an email campaign to 5,000 recipients. During the process, 200 emails bounced. To determine your email delivery rate:

Total Emails Sent: 5,000

Total Emails Bounced: 200

Total Emails Delivered: 5,000 – 200 = 4,800

Applying the formula:

Email Delivery Rate (%) = (4,800 / 5,000) * 100 = 96%

By understanding this metric thoroughly and continually working to optimize it, marketers can ensure higher inbox placement rates and, consequently, better engagement from their email campaigns.

What Is A Good Benchmark For Email Marketing Metrics?

Understanding what constitutes a good benchmark for email marketing metrics is crucial for any email marketer. Benchmarks provide a point of reference that allows you to gauge the performance of your campaigns compared to industry standards. This insight can inform your strategy, optimizations, and performance targets.

Industry Standards

Benchmarks often vary by industry, as engagement and performance metrics differ significantly. For instance, e-commerce often has different standards for open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates than industries like B2B services or non-profits. Identifying benchmarks relevant to your specific industry is essential to ensure that you’re making a fair comparison.

KPIs by Industry

Industry-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are critical in email marketing. According to various studies, the average open rate for the health and wellness industry can exceed 20%, while the retail sector might hover around 15%. Similarly, average CTRs can range from 2% in B2B sectors to 4% in travel and hospitality. Recognizing these variations can help in setting realistic goals and expectations.

Global Email Marketing Benchmark

Setting benchmarks also involves looking at global data. According to recent reports, the global average open rate for email marketing campaigns hovers around 18-20%, while the average CTR is typically around 2.5%. These global benchmarks are essential when setting initial performance targets or evaluating campaigns’ effectiveness across multiple regions.

How to Use Benchmarks

Effectively using benchmarks involves regularly comparing your email metrics against the industry and global standards. This means not just looking at your open and click-through rates once but tracking them consistently over time. An email metrics dashboard can simplify this process by providing a visual performance overview against benchmarks. Ensure you look at relevant metrics and adjust your strategies to align closer to industry standards. This ongoing comparison can reveal areas for improvement and highlight successful strategies worthy of replication.

How To Improve Email Deliverability Metrics?

Improving your email deliverability metrics is crucial for the success of your email marketing campaigns. These metrics indicate how well your emails are reaching your audience and impact your overall campaign performance and ROI. Here are four key strategies to consider:

List Hygiene

Maintaining a clean and updated email list is essential. Remove inactive subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails for long. Use double opt-in methods to ensure your subscribers are genuinely interested in your content. Regularly cleaning your list can significantly reduce bounce rates and enhance deliverability.

Authentication Protocols

Email authentication protocols like SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) are critical. These protocols help verify that your emails are coming from you, which boosts your credibility and reduces the chances of your emails being marked as spam. Proper authentication can improve your email marketing KPIs, such as delivery and inbox placement rates.

Content Optimization

Quality content is key to engaging your audience and avoiding spam filters. Create emails that are relevant, personalized, and valuable to your subscribers. Avoid excessive spam-triggering words and ensure your email template is responsive. Well-optimized content can increase open and click-through rates, improving your email metrics.

Engagement Tactics

Encouraging interaction from your subscribers can greatly benefit your deliverability metrics. Personalized and segmented email campaigns are highly effective. Use A/B testing to determine which content resonates best with your audience. Additionally, make it easy for subscribers to whitelist your email address by including a ‘mark as safe’ button or similar instructions in your welcome emails.

Transform your email engagement and amplify your revenue with the premier Email Engagement Platform. AudiencePoint grants you exceptional insight into your subscribers’ email habits, utilizing 85 trillion tracked events and a second-party data pool to fine-tune re-engagement campaigns, improve deliverability, and enhance ROI. Request a demo today and see how AudiencePoint can revolutionize your email marketing strategy. Request a demo now and see how Audience Point can take your email marketing to the next level.