Data. Why does it matter when sending marketing email? Without understanding your marketing email data you will have no idea how your email is performing. Good marketing is all about measuring metrics. Great marketing is all about understanding those metrics.
SendGrid's Marketing Email product offers you many different stats to use so you can understand how your marketing email is performing. We've recently added a new data point called Total Click Through Rate (TCTR). Below is an overview of the stats SendGrid provides you. If you are a developer all of these stats are available in our APIs.
Unsubscribes = Unsubscribes/Delivered (Opt Out Rate)
Bounces = Bounces/Requests
Repeat Bounces = Repeat Bounces/Requests
Invalid Emails = Invalid/Requests
So you may be asking yourself what do these metrics actually mean and why should you care? Here is a overview to help you better understand the data SendGrid provides you. For more technical details check out our Documentation on Delivery Metrics Index.
What you should think about: This is how many of those actual requests were delivered by SendGrid. Not every request makes it to the inbox unfortunately. However SendGrid prides itself on deliverability and getting your email to the inbox of your recipients. Keep in mind delivered means the message was accepted by the receiving server, but that does not necessarily mean the message reached the recipient's inbox. If your delivered rate is lower, then you may be sending emails that are getting flagged as spam at the ISP, (Internet Service Provider) or your recipient lists may have bad email addresses causing bounces, or the emails are getting "stuck" at the ISP for some other reason. This problem is a tricky one to solve as ISPs are very complex. Luckily, SendGrid has great relationships with all the major ISPs! If you find this is a problem for you, contact SendGrid Support to assist you in determining what could be wrong.
What you should think about: This is how many of those emails delivered were opened by a recipient. With this stat, if a recipient opened your email 3 times, we'd count it 3 times. If your total open rate list is low, perhaps your subject line is poor and needs improving. If the total open rate is high, perhaps the content is interesting causing users to open the email more then once. You also probably have a great deliverability rating!
What you should think about: How many of those emails delivered were opened by a unique recipient. With this stat, if one recipient opened your email 3 times, we'd count it only 1 time. If your unique open rate is low, perhaps your subject line is poor and needs improving. Look at the same engagement factors as you would for opens, above (i.e. content, relevancy of your messaging, frequency of your sends, etc.).
What you should think about: This is how many total clicks occurred within your email on links. If your total clicks are low you may have too many links in your emails, or the links aren't interesting to the recipient. If your total clicks are high then your content is interesting and it's causing recipients to want to click through.
What you should think about: This is how many unique clicks occurred within you email on links. Follow the same logic when evaluating unique click rates as you would for clicks, above.
What you should think about: This is your unique clicks divided by your unique opens.If your click through rate is low you should check your subject lines and content of your emails. If your CTR is high...congrats you are awesome!
What you should think about: This is your total clicks divided by total opens. A high TCTR means users are repeatedly opening and clicking links in your emails.
What you should think about: A high rate means many of your emails are getting flagged as SPAM by a recipient. Be sure to check your content and subject lines and follow CAN-SPAM best practices when sending email and check out some of our blogs on the subject of SPAM.
What you should think about: A high rate means many of you emails are getting flagged as SPAM by a single recipient multiple times. Why would they do this? Perhaps they think your company is sending SPAM email and they want to be removed from all your emails. Perhaps you are emailing them too much. Also, be sure to check your content and subject lines and follow CAN-SPAM best practices when sending email.
What you should think about: When your IP address has been added to a block list or deny list, it has been blocked by an ISP or messaging organization, the affected email shows up on this list. Typically it is possible to have your IP address removed from a block list, and some lists automatically do this after a period of time. If this rate is high, it's definitely a red flag about your sending IP's rating with ISPs. Again, ISPs are complex. Luckily SendGrid has great relationships with all the major ISPs! If you find this is a problem for you contact SendGrid Support to assist you in determining what could be wrong.
What you should think about: A high rate of unsubscribes means people aren't interested in the emails you are sending them. If this is happening to you think about the 3 Ws.
What you should think about: A bounce means an ISP couldn't deliver the message to a recipient. Higher bounce rates can lead to IPs being added to a deny list, so you want to be cautious with this stat. Bounces can happen for several reasons. Below are some of the more traditional bounce codes.
What you should think about: A repeat bounce means an ISP couldn't deliver the message to a recipient more then once, or you are sending multiple emails to a single recipient that are getting bounced. Higher bounce rates can lead to IPs being added to deny lists so you want to be cautious with this stat. Bounces can happen for several reasons. Below are some of the more traditional bounce codes.
Traditional Bounce Codes
Keep in mind bounce codes can differ by ISP. These are just examples.
Code
Explanation
421
<domain> Service not available, closing transmission channel
450
Requested mail action not taken: mailbox unavailable (e.g., mailbox busy)
451
Requested action aborted: error in processing
452
Requested action not taken: insufficient system storage
500
The server could not recognize the command due to a syntax error.
501
A syntax error was encountered in command arguments.
502
This command is not implemented.
503
The server has encountered a bad sequence of commands.
504
A command parameter is not implemented.
550
User’s mailbox was unavailable (such as not found)
551
The recipient is not local to the server.
552
The action was aborted due to exceeded storage allocation.
553
The command was aborted because the mailbox name is invalid.
What you should think about: If this rate is high then an ISP reports back to us that the email supplied is invalid or we discover with our own algorithm that the email you are sending to is invalid. Double check your recipient lists to verify you are sending to legitimate email addresses.
At SendGrid we know how complicated sending marketing email can be. There are many variables that go into email deliverability and we pride ourselves on being experts on the subject. If you have an questions about email data and email statistics, please let us know! Also, if you aren't happy with your current email provider's deliverability, we are here to help! Try us out for free and see if SendGrid is a good fit for you.
