Your email campaigns could be losing you money without you even knowing it. Did you know that 22% of email marketers don't track deliverability? And with email marketing offering an average return of $36 for every $1 spent, poor email health can quickly eat into your profits.
Here are the 6 key email health metrics you need to monitor to keep your campaigns on track:
Quick Fixes:
Bounce rate reflects the percentage of emails that fail to reach recipients due to either temporary (soft) or permanent (hard) issues. Hard bounces happen when emails hit obstacles like invalid addresses, non-existent domains, or blocked senders. Soft bounces, on the other hand, stem from temporary problems like full inboxes, server errors, or messages that exceed size limits. While soft bounces might resolve themselves, hard bounces demand immediate action to maintain email list hygiene.
Your bounce rate plays a critical role in how Internet Service Providers (ISPs) perceive your email practices. High hard bounce rates signal poor list management, which can harm your sender reputation. ISPs may interpret this as spam-like behavior, leading to emails being flagged or blocked entirely. Over time, even valid emails may end up in spam folders, further reducing your overall deliverability.
Knowing how your bounce rate stacks up against industry norms is essential for assessing your email campaign's health. Typically, a bounce rate under 2% is considered healthy, with rates closer to 1% or below indicating a well-maintained list. For example, data from MailerLite shows that the average bounce rate across industries is just 0.55%. However, bounce rates can vary depending on the sector:
| Industry | Average Bounce Rate |
|---|---|
| E-commerce | 0.39% |
| Real Estate | 0.34% |
| Marketing and Advertising | 0.36% |
| Construction | 1.89% |
| Animal Care and Veterinary | 1.85% |
| Non-profit | 0.47% |
| Software and Web App | 0.67% |
| Travel and Transportation | 0.57% |
If your bounce rate falls between 2% and 5%, it's a warning sign that action is needed. A rate above 5% represents a serious issue that could significantly harm your email campaigns.
"A bounce rate above 2 percent is concerning, and over 5 percent is problematic. Reduce it by using verified lists, authenticating domain records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), and cleaning invalid addresses to avoid landing in junk boxes." - Christy Saia-Owenby, Founder and CEO of MOXY Company
By staying mindful of these benchmarks, you can take proactive steps to keep your bounce rate in check.
Email lists naturally degrade over time, with up to 20% to 30% of addresses becoming invalid annually. Regular maintenance is essential to keep your list effective. Here are some actionable strategies to lower your bounce rate:
"Keep an eye on email addresses that consistently bounce. High bounce rates can harm your sender reputation, so it's crucial to manage and update your list accordingly." - Natalie Sullivan, Former Retention Marketing Manager at Avex Designs
After analyzing bounce rates, keeping an eye on spam complaint rates is just as important for ensuring your emails are well-received. Spam complaint rate measures how often recipients mark your emails as spam. Unlike bounce rates, which typically point to technical issues, spam complaints are a clear signal from recipients that they don’t want your emails. This could stem from dissatisfaction with your content, frequency, or how you obtained their email address.
Spam complaints can wreak havoc on your email program, both immediately and over time. When recipients hit the spam button, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) see it as a red flag that your emails are unwanted. A high spam complaint rate can lead to ISPs blocking your messages, even for subscribers who want to hear from you. Over time, this damages your sender reputation, making it harder for your future emails to land in inboxes. Fixing these issues can take months, dragging down the effectiveness of your entire email marketing strategy.
"The likelihood of your emails reaching the intended inboxes is greatly reduced. If the emails aren't opened, all your effort in creating them is for nothing. This affects your conversion rates and wastes valuable marketing resources."
- Marcus Biel, Founder at Maildroppa
The industry standard for spam complaints is less than 0.1% - roughly one complaint per 1,000 recipients. However, top-tier email marketers aim for even lower rates, ideally under 0.02% to 0.03%, or about one complaint for every 5,000 recipients. Recommendations from email service providers vary: Klaviyo suggests keeping spam rates below 0.05%. Gmail and Yahoo, as of February 2024, flag spam complaint rates above 0.3% as a warning level rather than a target. Keeping your rates low is crucial, especially given that over 56% of emails sent in 2022 were marked as spam, costing businesses more than $20.5 billion in related losses.
To minimize spam complaints, focus on gaining consent and keeping your audience engaged. Here are some strategies:
Authentication and Technical Setup:
Make sure your emails are properly authenticated with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC protocols. Stick to consistent branding and send emails from the same domain where your contacts signed up to build trust.
List Management Practices:
Use double opt-in and CAPTCHA to confirm subscribers are genuine and not bots. Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers, and avoid purchasing or sharing email lists. Sending welcome emails or onboarding sequences can also help establish a positive relationship early on.
Content and Frequency Optimization:
Segment your audience to send targeted, relevant content instead of generic mass emails. Use clear and honest subject lines to set expectations, and find a sending frequency that doesn’t overwhelm your subscribers.
Easy Exit Options:
Make sure your unsubscribe link is easy to find - placing it at the top of your email can help. Offering a global unsubscribe option and reminding recipients how they joined your list can further reduce frustration and prevent complaints.
"You can't pull a lever and make complaints go away, but you can make an email program so strong that no one on your list wants to report your mail as being junk!"
- Alison Gootee, Compliance and Deliverability Enablement Principal II at Braze
Keep a close eye on your spam complaint rates using your email service provider’s dashboard. If you notice an increase, take action immediately. Building a strong email program that prioritizes value for your audience is far more effective than simply trying to avoid complaints. Up next, we’ll examine how sender reputation plays into email deliverability.
Think of your sender reputation like a credit score for your email campaigns. It determines whether Internet Service Providers (ISPs) deliver your messages to inboxes or dump them in spam. Unlike other metrics, this score pulls together various factors - like your IP and domain history - into one measure of how trustworthy your sending practices are. And yes, it directly affects whether your emails make it to your audience or vanish into the void.
Your sender reputation plays a huge role in whether your emails land where they’re supposed to. A strong reputation means more emails in inboxes, while a weak one can send your messages straight to spam or, worse, block them entirely. This score is shaped by two major elements: IP reputation and domain reputation, both of which ISPs track over time.
ISPs are strict when it comes to email authentication. It’s estimated that 45% of global email traffic gets flagged as spam. For instance, failing SPF (Sender Policy Framework) can increase the chance of being marked as spam by 30%. On the flip side, implementing DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) can boost email conversion rates by up to 10%.
"An IP reputation is hard to build, easy to lose, and hard to regain. Therefore, ensuring you are sending the best emails before they are sent will limit the damage caused, and monitoring, post-send, will allow fine-tuning - and it will allow you to know when further action needs to be taken to protect or improve your IP status."
- Rob Pellow, Digital Experience Director at Armadillo
A SenderScore of 80 or higher is considered a strong benchmark for reliable deliverability. But your reputation isn’t just about that one number. It’s influenced by several factors, including the quality of your email content, how often people complain about your emails, how clean your email list is, and your sending history.
Here’s another challenge: email lists naturally degrade by around 22.5% every year. That means managing your sender reputation isn’t a one-and-done task - it’s an ongoing process.
"When introduced to the concept, people tend to think that 'sender reputation' is an alpha or numeric score assigned by the Internet, easily calculated and cataloged. Both much simpler and much more complicated, sender reputation is the email-specific outcome of what people really think about your brand."
- Alison Gootee, Compliance and Deliverability Enablement Principal at Braze
Knowing these benchmarks can help you zero in on the areas that need attention and take actionable steps to improve your reputation.
Keeping tabs on your sender reputation is crucial, and there are plenty of tools to help you do just that. Platforms like Sender Score, Barracuda Central, Google Postmaster Tools, Microsoft SNDS, MXToolbox, Spamhaus Project, and Talos Intelligence provide insights into things like spam complaints, bounce rates, and whether you’re on any blocklists.
Here are some proven strategies to boost and maintain a solid sender reputation:
For instance, Workvivo improved its sender reputation from 70% to 94% in just 16 days, resulting in a 200–300% increase in reply rates.
If you’re using Warmforge, these strategies are built right into the platform. Warmforge automates key tasks like DNS and MX record health checks, blacklist scanning, and deliverability monitoring. Its automated warm-up process helps create legitimate sending patterns that ISPs trust, ensuring your emails consistently reach inboxes.
Open rates tell you whether your emails are being opened and provide a glimpse into how engaged your audience is. They’re also a key signal for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Much like monitoring bounce and spam complaint rates, keeping an eye on open rates is crucial for maintaining healthy email performance and safeguarding your sender reputation. When someone opens your email, it sends a positive message to ISPs that your content is relevant. On the flip side, a drop in open rates might indicate your emails are heading to spam or that your audience is losing interest. Essentially, open rates act as an early warning system for potential email deliverability issues.
Your sender reputation is closely tied to your open rates. If open rates are low, ISPs might interpret this as a lack of interest from your recipients, which could hurt your inbox placement over time. Low engagement can also point to broader issues, such as irrelevant content or subscriber fatigue.
"Opens may no longer serve as an absolute measure of engagement, but when looked at alongside click-thru and conversion data, they can still help to paint the larger picture of how your campaigns are performing and indicate how your reputation as a sender is viewed by mailbox providers."
Even though open rates aren’t a perfect metric, they’re still useful for gauging inbox placement. For example, Braze notes that a unique open rate above 25% (excluding machine opens) typically reflects solid inbox placement, assuming your delivery rate is high. However, persistently low open rates can signal deliverability problems, which may further harm your sender reputation.
To understand how your email campaigns stack up, it’s helpful to compare your open rates to industry averages. As of 2025, the overall average email open rate across industries is 42.35%. Here’s a breakdown of average open rates by sector:
| Industry | Average Open Rate |
|---|---|
| Health and Fitness | 48.9% |
| Online Courses | 43.81% |
| Entertainment and Events | 43.79% |
| Restaurant | 43.69% |
| Higher Education | 43.37% |
| Marketing and Advertising | 39.05% |
| Agencies | 38.89% |
| Software and Web Apps | 38.14% |
| Retail | 37.5% |
It’s worth noting that Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) can skew open rate data. Rather than reacting to sudden fluctuations, focus on long-term trends to get a clearer picture of engagement.
"Open rates definitely matter because they give you that initial insight into how effective your subject lines are. If people are opening your emails, it means your subject line caught their attention, which is a good start. Plus, open rates can hint at deliverability issues. If they're consistently low, your emails might be landing in spam folders or getting blocked."
- Swapnil Kumar, Growth and Marketing Manager, Smartlead
Boosting your open rates requires a mix of smart tactics and consistent effort. Here are some strategies to help improve engagement:
For a streamlined approach, platforms like Warmforge automate warm-up processes and provide real-time monitoring to ensure your optimized campaigns reach their audience effectively. By combining these strategies, you can significantly improve your email open rates and, by extension, your overall campaign performance.
Click-through rate (CTR) is a key metric in email marketing. It measures the percentage of recipients who click on links within your emails, providing a clear picture of how well your content encourages action. Beyond just tracking engagement, CTR plays a vital role in your campaign's success by influencing deliverability and signaling to email service providers that your content resonates with subscribers.
CTR directly affects your sender reputation. High click-through rates indicate strong subscriber interest, sending positive signals to inbox providers and improving your chances of landing in the primary inbox. On the flip side, low CTRs can suggest that your subject lines, preheaders, offers, or overall messaging aren’t hitting the mark. This can harm your brand image and reduce engagement signals, making it harder for your emails to bypass spam filters. Simply put, every unopened or unclicked email is a missed chance to demonstrate your value and boost conversions.
Knowing how your CTR compares to industry standards helps you evaluate your campaign's effectiveness. The average CTR across all industries is 3.25%, but results vary depending on the sector and type of campaign.
For example, cold email campaigns typically see an average CTR of 3.67%, with personalized emails performing 41% better than generic ones. HubSpot research also shows that targeted campaigns achieve a CTR that's more than double that of non-targeted efforts.
Here’s a breakdown of average CTRs by industry:
| Industry | Click Rate Benchmark |
|---|---|
| Hobbies | 4.36% |
| Government | 4.31% |
| Media | 4.02% |
| Artist | 3.24% |
| Non-profit | 3.25% |
| Higher Education | 2.80% |
| Author | 2.73% |
| Music and Musicians | 2.58% |
| Recruitment and Staffing | 2.45% |
| Agriculture and Food | 2.34% |
| Software and Web Apps | 2.04% |
| Online Courses | 2.00% |
| Health and Fitness | 1.74% |
| Entertainment and Events | 1.72% |
| Beauty and Personal Care | 1.46% |
| Retail | 1.50% |
| Marketing and Advertising | 1.11% |
| E-commerce | 1.19% |
| Travel and Transportation | 0.77% |
Expert opinions shed additional light on CTR performance:
"CTR reveals whether your emails energize or disengage your audience." - Amber Gaige, Chief Marketing Advisor at Far Beyond Marketing
"In general, I'd say a click rate below 2% is low, but again, there's a lot of 'it depends' at play here. Each sender should use their own average click rate as a baseline to determine what 'low' looks like to them." - Alyssa Dulin, Manager of Creator Growth at Kit
Geography also plays a role. Emails sent in Australia, for instance, achieve the highest click rates at 2.35%, while those in Latin America see the lowest at 1.09%. Keeping these benchmarks in mind can guide you toward improving your CTR.
Boosting your CTR requires a mix of thoughtful strategies and technical know-how. Here are some proven approaches:
Platforms like Warmforge can also help by offering automated monitoring tools to track performance and identify areas for improvement. Keeping a close eye on your metrics ensures you can fine-tune your campaigns for maximum impact.
Inbox placement rate testing plays a vital role in determining the success of your email campaigns. Deliverability only tells you if your messages reach the server, but inbox placement reveals whether they land in the primary inbox or get lost in the spam folder. This distinction is crucial for ensuring your emails actually get noticed.
Getting your emails into the inbox is essential if you want your audience to engage with them. On average, successful campaigns achieve a 77% inbox placement rate, while top performers push this number to over 90%, sometimes even hitting 98%. For cold email campaigns, aiming for an inbox placement rate above 90% is a must. If your rate dips below 80%, it's often a warning sign of deliverability issues that need immediate attention. When emails consistently end up in spam folders, engagement plummets - about 33% of recipients express frustration when marketing emails miss their primary inbox.
Despite its importance, inbox placement often goes unchecked. Shockingly, only 13% of senders actively test inbox placement, and 22% of email professionals admit they either don’t measure it or are unsure if they do. Regular monitoring can uncover early signs of deliverability problems, such as spam filtering patterns or technical email server issues. This data not only helps track spam rates but also provides insights into how your audience responds to your campaigns. With this information, you can fine-tune your email lists and safeguard your sender reputation. For sales teams, keeping tabs on inbox placement is especially useful when onboarding new SDRs or scaling outreach efforts.
Comparing your inbox placement rate to industry benchmarks can help you measure success. Research shows that around 70% of emails analyzed contain at least one spam-related issue. For cold email campaigns, maintaining a rate above 90% is directly tied to higher engagement and fewer deliverability challenges. While specific regional benchmarks are harder to come by, setting your own baseline and striving for improvement is key.
Improving inbox placement requires a mix of effective tools and thoughtful strategies. Here are some approaches to consider:
For example, Warmforge includes automated inbox placement monitoring as part of its email warm-up service, offering one free placement test per month to help you track performance without extra costs.
In addition to these tools, adopting strategic practices can significantly improve your inbox placement:
"When it comes to spam filters, it's much more about user behavior. Yes, you want to get your authentication right, and you want to make sure you're sending great emails, but it also comes back to what's relevant to your subscribers, and what they're going to engage with."
- Jaina Mistry, Director Brand and Content Marketing
To fine-tune your email campaigns, it’s helpful to measure them against industry benchmarks. Below is a table summarizing key email metrics for US-based campaigns, providing a snapshot of what’s considered excellent, good, acceptable, or poor performance. Keep in mind that some metrics, like Sender Reputation and Inbox Placement Rate, lack standardized numerical benchmarks and are marked as N/A.
| Metric | Excellent | Good | Acceptable | Poor | Industry Average (US) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bounce Rate | Below 1% | 1–2% | 2–3% | Above 3% | 2.70% |
| Spam Complaint Rate | Below 0.01% | 0.01–0.1% | 0.1–0.3% | Above 0.3% | 0.01% |
| Sender Reputation | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Open Rate | Above 45% | 35–45% | 20–35% | Below 20% | 45.62% |
| Click-Through Rate | Above 5% | 3–5% | 2–3% | Below 2% | 4.34% |
| Inbox Placement Rate | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
There are notable differences across industries. For example, construction businesses often see bounce rates around 1.89%, while e-commerce companies typically enjoy much lower rates, averaging 0.39%. Non-profits tend to perform well, with bounce rates near 0.8%, while the computers and electronics sector averages closer to 1.4%.
Tracking and improving email metrics requires the right tools. Here are three standout platforms to consider:
Each tool has its strengths. Warmforge is a budget-friendly option for businesses focused on deliverability, Mailgun suits developers needing advanced API functions, and HubSpot is a great fit for companies already using its CRM.
Email campaigns in the US tend to outperform global averages. For instance, North American campaigns boast an average open rate of 45.30% and a click-through rate of 4.77%, both higher than worldwide benchmarks. US campaigns often surpass even these numbers, making it crucial to aim high and continuously monitor your performance.
Ultimately, your success depends on establishing a baseline for your specific industry, audience, and campaign goals. Regular monitoring and adjustments will help ensure long-term improvements.
Keeping an eye on your email health metrics isn't just a helpful practice - it's a must for ensuring long-term success. As mentioned earlier, regularly checking on your domain, IP reputation, and authentication is as crucial as getting an annual health check-up.
The data supports this approach. Campaigns that incorporate active monitoring show a 22% improvement in success rates, largely because they help keep key metrics within acceptable limits and prevent issues like high spam complaints. Staying proactive is critical, especially with strict ISP policies that demand low spam complaint rates.
Here’s a quick recap of the steps you can take to maintain strong email health: monitor bounce rates, spam complaints, and inbox placement consistently. Also, make it a habit to clean your email list. While this might reduce the size of your list, it significantly enhances engagement and overall value:
"Yes, your list sizes might go down as you clean up your email list. But your engagement will go up. Instead of sending to 60,000 people that may or may not care what you have to say, you're going to send to 30,000 people that definitely want to hear from you, and that's super valuable."
Leverage automated tools to receive real-time alerts and adjust your strategies as needed. By adopting these practices, you’re transforming data into actionable insights that drive growth.
As highlighted throughout this discussion, staying vigilant about these six critical metrics isn’t just about avoiding deliverability issues - it’s about setting the stage for meaningful growth and stronger, more engaged customer relationships.
Improving your email sender reputation is crucial for ensuring your messages make it to your recipients' inboxes. To start, make sure to authenticate your emails using protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These tools verify your identity, helping email providers trust your messages.
Another important step is to keep your email list clean. Regularly remove inactive subscribers and use double opt-in methods to confirm that recipients genuinely want to hear from you. This reduces the chances of your emails being flagged as spam.
Steer clear of purchasing email lists. These lists often result in higher bounce rates and more spam complaints, which can damage your reputation. Instead, focus on sending consistently and creating engaging content that keeps your audience interested. Keep an eye on key metrics like bounce rates and open rates, and aim to keep spam complaint rates below 0.3%. These practices will help you maintain a strong sender reputation and improve your email deliverability.
To keep your email list healthy and reduce your bounce rate, prioritize list hygiene and regular upkeep. Start by removing invalid or outdated email addresses - these often result from typos, expired accounts, or disposable email domains. It’s also important to eliminate duplicate entries and flag inactive subscribers who haven’t interacted with your emails in a long time.
Consider running re-engagement campaigns to win back these inactive subscribers. These campaigns can help you figure out who’s still interested in your content. If some users remain unresponsive, it’s better to remove them from your list. This not only protects your sender reputation but also ensures your emails are reaching engaged audiences. Lastly, partnering with a reliable email service provider can boost deliverability by helping your emails meet technical standards and steer clear of spam filters.
The spam complaint rate tracks how often recipients label your emails as spam. A high rate can seriously damage your sender reputation, pushing your emails straight into spam folders and cutting down engagement. If your rate goes above 0.1%, email providers might flag your account, leading to ongoing deliverability issues.
To keep your spam complaint rate low, focus on sending content that's relevant and expected. Implement double opt-in methods to confirm that subscribers genuinely want your emails, and ensure your branding stays consistent across all messages. Also, make unsubscribing simple and straightforward - this reduces frustration and helps prevent unnecessary complaints.