What is a safe delivery rate threshold for email deliverability?
Summary
What email marketers say15Marketer opinions
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests reviewing bounce error logs for solvable issues and states spam complaints are from users clicking the spam button with mailbox providers with FBLs. Complaints should be lower than 0.1%.
Email marketer from Neil Patel shares that improving email deliverability involves list segmentation, personalization, and avoiding spam trigger words. Regularly cleaning your email list and removing inactive subscribers is also crucial. Patel doesn't provide a specific rate but emphasizes consistent list maintenance and engagement.
Email marketer from Litmus explains that best practices involve using double opt-in, authenticating your email, and monitoring your sender reputation. Maintaining consistent sending volume and engaging content contribute to healthy deliverability. They emphasize avoiding spam traps.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests aiming for a 0% hard bounce rate, considering below 0.5% as normal, but emphasizing that rates above 3% require investigation.
Email marketer from Reddit responds that a hard bounce rate should ideally stay below 2-3%. High bounce rates impact sender reputation. Regular list cleaning is crucial to remove invalid addresses.
Email marketer from GlockApps shares that email deliverability is not only about the rate of emails reaching inboxes but also avoiding the spam folder. Spam complaints and blocklists are critical factors affecting your success. Suggests regularly testing deliverability.
Marketer from Email Geeks recommends defining delivery, complaint, and bounce metrics for your organization. Then exporting raw ESP data to calculate metrics according to those formulas, as ESP calculations can be opaque and subject to change.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that a strong email campaign should see close to 99% of emails accepted by email servers and not bounced. Increasing rejections or bounces after acceptance indicates a need to review rejection reasons and bounce message content.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares that benchmarks vary by industry but generally a deliverability rate above 90% is considered acceptable, while higher than 95% is ideal. They also focus on open rates and click-through rates as engagement metrics impacting deliverability.
Email marketer from HubSpot answers that a good email deliverability rate is generally considered to be above 95%. They emphasize monitoring bounce rates (aiming for under 2%) and spam complaints (keeping them below 0.1%) as indicators of deliverability health. Good sender reputation is paramount.
Marketer from Email Geeks advises that the hard bounce rate should be 3% or lower, defining hard bounces as permanent errors like non-existent email addresses. This is based on what stricter ESPs will tolerate.
Email marketer from EmailGeek forum discusses that there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Factors like list quality, industry, and sending practices matter. Suggests monitoring trends specific to your sending profile and aiming for a rate that's consistently high compared to your own historical data. Mentions targeting 99% as a good goal.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that relying on one single metric to determine deliverability is flawed and suggests monitoring complaints and bounces in addition to delivery rate. No single metric tells the full story.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce states that email list validation is crucial for maintaining high deliverability. Validating email addresses removes invalid and risky addresses, improving sender reputation and reducing bounce rates.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that business strategy impacts delivery rate. Quantity-based strategies have lower delivery rates than quality-focused, organic lead strategies. Deliverability varies across countries due to different opt-in laws and marketing plans.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that focusing solely on delivery rates is misleading. They emphasize monitoring inbox placement, engagement metrics (opens, clicks), and reputation metrics (complaints, spam traps) to gauge true deliverability success. Aiming for high delivery, avoiding the spam folder and high engagement are key
Expert from Email Geeks cautions that very low spam complaint rates can be misleading, especially with Gmail-heavy lists, as Gmail's complaint rate calculations can skew the results or if mail is going to bulk.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that many factors affect deliverability, including sender reputation, authentication, list hygiene, and content quality. Senders need to monitor various metrics rather than focusing on a single deliverability rate.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests removing Gmail addresses from the total to improve complaint rate approximation.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from SendGrid explains that a good sender reputation is crucial. They recommend monitoring sender score, maintaining low bounce rates (under 2%), and keeping spam complaints below 0.1% to ensure optimal deliverability. They do not specify a target delivery rate but emphasize maintaining positive metrics.
Documentation from SparkPost explains that deliverability depends on authentication (SPF, DKIM), engagement, and reputation. Maintaining a clean list, using double opt-in, and promptly processing unsubscribe requests are crucial. They also recommend closely monitoring bounce rates, and spam complaints.
Documentation from Mailchimp explains that deliverability is affected by factors like authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list hygiene, and content quality. They mention maintaining a healthy list by regularly removing unengaged subscribers and validating email addresses. They do not provide a specific delivery rate threshold, but recommend focusing on sender reputation.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that using Postmaster Tools allows senders to monitor their email deliverability to Gmail users. Metrics include spam rate, IP reputation, and feedback loop complaints. The documentation does not define a single safe delivery rate, instead focuses on keeping spam rates low and maintaining a good IP reputation.