Low Email Open Rates, Despite Solid Subject Lines and Delivery Rates? There Might be More Going on Behind the Scenes. 

It’s time to check in on your email health and make sure you’re getting the most out of your email marketing efforts. 

Benchmarking: What KPIs Matter? 

Typically, email marketers look at 5 key metrics: 

• Delivery rate (top of funnel)
• Open rate (top of funnel)
• Click-through rate (middle of funnel)
• Conversion rate (bottom of funnel)
• Revenue per email (bottom of funnel)

However, efforts to optimize top-of-funnel KPIs often overlook two highly important factors: 

• Email domain health 
• Email list health 

Email Deliverability: There’s More Beneath The Surface

Your delivery rate–or the percentage of emails reaching your recipients’ inboxes–should typically remain close to 100%. 

But a “healthy” delivery rate can be deceiving. Many email marketing platforms count an email that lands anywhere–including spam–as a successful delivery, when in reality, only a fraction of those are actually getting in front of people. 

A full deliverability report paints a bigger picture. Here’s an example of a report I recently ran on an unhealthy email domain: 

As you’ll see, 0% of emails sent by this domain are completely unreceived, so an email sending platform may report a deliverability rate of 100%. But that’s obviously far from the full picture. 

With 41% of this company’s emails winding up in spam, and another 23% landing in promotions, just over a third of their emails are truly hitting recipients’ inbox, driving their open rates down. 

Furthermore, this domain’s emails are being sent directly to spam by Gmail, GSuite, and Outlook–three of the most commonly used email clients. 

If your open rates are low but your delivery rate is reading as normal, it’s time to dig deeper with a more extensive deliverability test. 

Validate Your Contact List 

Email list validation is a necessary complement to testing your domain deliverability. 

Validating your contact list with a validation tool will provide a full overview of your marketing contacts. 

You’ll not only be able to see which emails on your list are completely invalid, but a breakdown of other categories that may be distorting your open rates or domain health, such as: 

• Catch-all email addresses that usually belong to former employees
• Generic, non-person addresses like info@company.com
• Spam traps that flag your emails 

Segment Contacts For Tailored Content

Sending out giant email blasts will likely trigger spam filters and risk blacklisting your domain on popular email clients like Google and Outlook. 

Segmenting your contacts into smaller lists narrows your sends down into persona-specific batches, boosting engagement along the way.

Grouping lists by demographics allows you to personalize your content for unique audiences based on lifestyle stage, interests, and more. 

Grow Your Newsletter Subscribers Organically 

Add newsletter sign-up CTAs to your website, social media, etc. 

Include sign-up incentives like discounts, free consultations, or exclusive content

Never purchase email lists for your newsletter. 

• First of all, there are usually legal issues involved with this. Recipients need to opt in to receive your content. 
• Even if you purchase a list that circumvents this with loopholes, you’ll be marketing to contacts whose inboxes are already inundated by promotions and who aren’t interested in your content. 

Don’t Be Afraid Of Unsubscribe Rates

People used to claim that unsubscribes are the death of your email health and campaign success. 

Unpopular opinion: Unsubscribes are NOT worth worrying about. In fact, unsubscribes are a positive thing when you’re implementing email best practices effectively. 

If your email address has a healthy open rate, you’ve validated your email list, segmented correctly, and regularly send out high-value emails, you’re already optimizing your email campaigns. 

So if people are unsubscribing from your newsletter list after all of that, they’re doing you a favor. When you weed out recipients who aren’t interested in your offerings, you’re getting closer to your goal of targeting leads with true potential. 

Adjust Regularly 

As email clients update their spam filters, inbox sorting, and security measures, your email campaigns need to evolve too. 

Run these reports regularly and follow best practices to maintain domain health. 

Need Help Improving Your Email Health?

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