While open rates and click-throughs are typically considered engagement metrics for email marketing campaigns, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) look at them as a test of deliverability. If recipients are not engaging with your emails, it could mean that they are no longer interested and haven’t taken the time to opt out of your list. ISPs are evaluating engagement in a way that essentially asks the question, are these emails valuable – and should we allow them in to inboxes?

You want to make sure that positive metrics, such as unique open rates, are looked at alongside the negative metrics, such as invalids (or hard bounces), and that spam complaints are all well within what is considered “reasonable;” otherwise your deliverability will suffer.

The metrics that you should be aiming for are:

• Unique open rate above 6 percent – the higher the better, as far as ISPs are concerned
• Invalid rate (hard bounces) below 1 percent – ideally below 0.25 percent
• Spam complaint rate below 0.1 percent – ideally below 0.05 percent

Segment your way to improved deliverability metrics

One of the best and easiest ways to improve deliverability metrics is to segment. Take a look at your master list: how many people do you think are actively engaged (have opened and/or clicked an email in the last three months)? Those should be the people you’re emailing. The ones who haven’t clicked or opened may be great candidates for a re-engagement campaign. The reason we generally suggest targeting a three-month time frame is because that segment will include your most engaged recipients. But, you can always start by casting a wider net, about six months, and see what the discrepancy is between the two segments.

Check your bounce reports. For hard bounces, check to see if the reason is because of invalid addresses. If you’re seeing repeatedly high invalids it means that your list needs to be scrubbed. For a high complaint rate, make sure you have an unsubscribe link at the top of your message and re-evaluate your sending practices. Are you sending too often? If you have multiple lists, with the possibility that John Doe is on more than one, include both a list-specific and a global unsubscribe in your emails.

Content, Content, Content

Of course, the key to high engagement metrics is relevancy. Your content has to be relevant and valuable to recipients or they simply won’t open. The more relevant your content, the better your metrics will be:

• Higher deliverability
• Lower list churn
• More engaged recipients
• Higher ROI

Know your audience and make sure they know you. Set expectations from the beginning; make sure you have a welcome message that is triggered immediately after people opt in to your list. Let them know how often you’ll be emailing them and what kind of content they can expect from you (and include an unsubscribe link). By setting these expectations up front, you are ensuring that recipients are aware of your sending practices and giving them the opportunity to opt out before getting to the point of identifying your email communications as spam.

Just remember that as much as you’re watching your metrics, ISPs are watching them, too. Build your reputation by providing relevant and valuable email content and your deliverability will see blue skies. Let your reputation start to deteriorate and you’ll be lost in space.

About the Author

Elyanna Snyder is Premier Customer Success Manager at Lyris