The Best Key Performance Indicators for good deliverability

Many companies have realized the importance of tracking metrics related to their business and becoming data-driven, making decisions based on the analysis and interpretation of data.

Measuring your actions enables you to make the right choices for an optimized ROI. The choice of the Key Performance Indicators to track is therefore essential for strategic goals, judicious management and increased efficiency.

KPIs linked to deliverability in email marketing

Email is an effective communication tool for exchanging information with your prospects and customers.

To optimize your campaigns, it’s crucial to create a email list of clean, double opt-in email addresses, i.e. a list of recipients who have explicitly given their consent. This list will enable you to plan targeted automatic mailings, whether for special occasions such as sponsorships and birthdays, for transactional follow-up such as account creation or order tracking, or for email campaigns in line with your pre-established marketing strategy.

After each mailing, it’s essential to evaluate performance within your email infrastructure. We recommend that you pay attention to certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and compare them with the averages in your sector to analyze your deliverability.

Deliverability rate (number of emails delivered / number of emails sent x 100)

This percentage reflects the proportion of e-mails actually received by your contacts, excluding bounces. On average, it’s around 98%.

Bounce rate (number of undelivered emails / number of emails sent x 100)

This calculation represents the proportion of mailboxes not reached by your campaign. This rate can be refined by separating hard bounces from soft bounces. The bounce rate must be less than 0.5% for hard bounces.

This calculation represents the proportion of mailboxes not reached by your campaign. This rate can be refined by distinguishing hard bounces from soft bounces. Ideally, the overall bounce rate should remain below 0.5%, specifically for hard bounces.

Soft bounce generally refers to temporary errors, such as a full inbox or a temporarily unreachable mail server.

By contrast, a hard bounce indicates a more serious and often irreversible problem, such as an incorrect email address or a non-existent domain. Ideally, the overall bounce rate should remain below 0.5%, specifically for hard bounces.

Spam reporting rate (number of complaints / number of emails delivered x 100)

This is the proportion of recipients who have reported your e-mail as spam. To maintain a good reputation, this rate should remain below 0.3%.

Unique open rate (number of emails opened / number of emails delivered x 100)

This is the proportion of contacts who opened the e-mail out of the total number of contacts who received it. On average, this rate is around 20%.

Unique click rate (number of emails opened with less than one click / number of emails delivered x 100)

This KPI measures the performance of the percentage of recipients who opened the email and clicked at least one link in the email, relative to the number of emails delivered. Typically, this rate is around 3%.

Unsubscribe rate (number of unsubscribes / number of emails delivered x 100)

It corresponds to the proportion of contacts who wished to unsubscribe from your communications.

Tools for optimizing deliverability in email marketing

To further optimize your deliverability, we recommend the use of 3 specific tools:

When preparing your campaign: GlockApps

When an e-mail is marked as spam, it’s still considered delivered. If the majority of ISPs (major Internet Service Providers) identify your marketing campaign as spam, your email may not land in the inbox, and your performance will suffer. To avoid this situation, we recommend using GlockApps.

This tool enables you to test whether the recipient has received your email, by determining whether it is heading for the inbox or the spam folder. If the email is marked as spam during the test, you should make improvements until the email is received in the inbox.

Every day: Google Postmaster

To fine-tune your performance on Gmail and Gsuite, we suggest you use Google Postmaster.

This tool gives you a daily view of the rate of spam reports, the reputation of your IP address, the reputation of your domain, and much more.

Day-to-day: Microsoft SNDS

Designed specifically for Microsoft mailboxes (whether BtoB or BtoC), the Microsoft SNDS tool lets you monitor your reputation and the health of your dedicated IP address.

Optimize your email placement for maximum yield

In short, identifying and rigorously monitoring your deliverability KPIs is essential to maximize the positioning of your emails and, consequently, optimize your return on investment.

These key indicators can be tracked using internal tools for metrics directly related to your mailings, as well as external tools to monitor your placements and reputation.

By focusing on these KPIs, you can develop more targeted and effective emailing strategies. A proactive approach, supported by specialized tools such as GlockApps, Google Postmaster and Microsoft SNDS, will enable you to maintain an impeccable reputation and ensure that your communications consistently reach your recipients’ inboxes. This will ensure high levels of engagement, increased customer satisfaction and lasting success in your email marketing strategy.

MailSoar agency specialized in email deliverability

If you’re looking to optimize your email positioning and maximize your return on investment, look no further. As experts in email deliverability, MailSoar can help you develop and implement tailor-made strategies to ensure your messages reach their target.