How to Monitor Email Deliverability?

How to Monitor Email Deliverability?

Monitor email deliverability by tracking bounce rates, open rates, click rates, spam complaints, DMARC reports, sender reputation scores, and inbox placement rates. Use email service provider analytics, deliverability monitoring tools, DMARC aggregate reports, and pre-send testing tools like MailMoxie to identify issues early.

Quick Answer

Monitor email deliverability by tracking bounce rates, open rates, click rates, spam complaints, DMARC reports, sender reputation scores, and inbox placement rates. Use email service provider analytics, deliverability monitoring tools, DMARC aggregate reports, and pre-send testing tools like MailMoxie to test every email before sending for DNS, headers, content, formatting, and other deliverability issues.

Understanding Email Deliverability Monitoring

Monitoring email deliverability is essential for maintaining good inbox placement and identifying issues before they significantly impact your campaigns. Regular monitoring helps you understand how well your emails are performing, identify problems early, and make data-driven improvements to your email program. Pre-send testing allows you to catch and fix deliverability issues before emails reach recipients, preventing problems that could damage your sender reputation.

Key Metrics to Monitor

Bounce Rates

What it measures: Percentage of emails that can't be delivered to recipients

Types of bounces:

• Hard bounces: Permanent failures (invalid addresses, domain doesn't exist)
• Soft bounces: Temporary failures (mailbox full, server temporarily unavailable)

Target rates:

• Overall bounce rate: Under 2%
• Hard bounce rate: 0% (remove immediately)
• Soft bounce rate: Under 2%

How to monitor:

• Check email service provider analytics
• Review bounce reports after each campaign
• Set up alerts for high bounce rates

Why it matters: High bounce rates hurt sender reputation and can lead to blacklisting. Hard bounces should be removed immediately.

Open Rates

What it measures: Percentage of recipients who open your emails

Industry averages:

• Marketing emails: 15-25% (varies by industry)
• Transactional emails: Higher (often 40%+)
• Newsletter emails: 20-30%

How to monitor:

• Track open rates per campaign
• Compare to industry benchmarks
• Monitor trends over time (not just absolute numbers)

Why it matters: Low open rates can signal deliverability issues or content problems. Declining open rates may indicate filtering.

Click Rates

What it measures: Percentage of recipients who click links in your emails

Industry averages:

• Marketing emails: 2-5% (varies by industry)
• Transactional emails: Higher (often 10%+)
• Newsletter emails: 3-6%

How to monitor:

• Track click rates per campaign
• Identify which content performs best
• Monitor click-to-open ratios

Why it matters: Click rates indicate engagement. Low clicks relative to opens may indicate content issues.

Spam Complaint Rates

What it measures: Percentage of recipients who mark emails as spam

Target rate: Under 0.1% (1 complaint per 1,000 emails)

How to monitor:

• Check email service provider complaint reports
• Review feedback loops from ISPs
• Set up alerts for high complaint rates

Why it matters: High complaint rates severely damage sender reputation. Complaints are a strong negative signal to receiving servers.

Unsubscribe Rates

What it measures: Percentage of recipients who unsubscribe

Target rate: Under 0.5% per campaign

How to monitor:

• Track unsubscribe rates per campaign
• Monitor trends over time
• Review reasons for unsubscribing (if collected)

Why it matters: High unsubscribe rates may indicate content, frequency, or relevance issues.

DMARC Reports

Aggregate Reports (RUA)

What they contain:

• Authentication results (SPF, DKIM pass/fail)
• Source IP addresses
• Sending domains
• Message counts
• Policy applied (none, quarantine, reject)

How to access:

• Set up rua= in your DMARC record
• Reports are sent to the email address you specify
• Usually sent daily or weekly by receiving servers

What to look for:

• Authentication pass rates (should be high, ideally 95%+)
• Sources of authentication failures
• Unauthorized sending (spoofing attempts)
• Policy compliance

How to use:

• Review reports weekly or monthly
• Investigate authentication failures
• Identify and stop spoofing attempts
• Adjust DMARC policy based on results

Forensic Reports (RUF)

What they contain:

• Detailed information about individual emails
• Full email headers
• Authentication failure details
• More granular than aggregate reports

How to access:

• Set up ruf= in your DMARC record
• Reports are sent for individual authentication failures
• Not all ISPs send forensic reports

What to look for:

• Specific emails that failed authentication
• Patterns in failures
• Spoofing attempts

How to use:

• Investigate specific failures
• Identify spoofing patterns
• Fix authentication issues

Sender Reputation Monitoring

IP Reputation

What it measures: Reputation score for your sending IP address

Tools:

• Sender Score (Return Path)
• Google Postmaster Tools
• Microsoft SNDS (Smart Network Data Services)

What to monitor:

• Reputation scores (typically 0-100, higher is better)
• Changes in reputation over time
• Factors affecting reputation

Target: Scores above 80 are generally good, but focus on trends rather than absolute numbers.

Domain Reputation

What it measures: Reputation score for your sending domain

Tools:

• Google Postmaster Tools
• Microsoft SNDS
• Domain reputation services

What to monitor:

• Domain reputation scores
• Changes over time
• Comparison to IP reputation

Why it matters: Domain reputation is increasingly important and can override IP reputation.

Google Postmaster Tools

What it provides:

• Domain and IP reputation
• Spam rate
• Feedback loop data
• Authentication results

How to set up:

1. Verify domain ownership in Google Postmaster Tools
2. Add DNS verification record
3. Wait for data to populate (takes time)

What to monitor:

• Reputation scores
• Spam rates
• Authentication pass rates
• User feedback

Microsoft SNDS

What it provides:

• IP reputation data
• Complaint rates
• Trap hits
• Volume data

How to set up:

1. Register IP addresses in SNDS
2. Verify ownership
3. Access dashboard for data

What to monitor:

• Reputation status (Green, Yellow, Red)
• Complaint rates
• Trap hits (indicate spam trap issues)

Inbox Placement Testing

What It Is

Inbox placement testing: Sending test emails to seed lists at major ISPs to see where emails land (inbox vs. spam folder)

Benefits:

• Direct measurement of deliverability
• Identify provider-specific issues
• Test before sending campaigns

Pre-Send Testing with MailMoxie

MailMoxie Pre-Send Testing allows you to test every email before sending it to identify deliverability issues proactively.

What it tests:

• DNS records: SPF, DKIM, DMARC configuration and validity
• Email headers: Proper header formatting, authentication headers, and header best practices
• Content analysis: Spam trigger words, content quality, formatting issues
• Formatting: HTML structure, text-to-image ratios, link formatting
• Authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC alignment verification
• Other deliverability factors: Missing elements, best practice violations, potential spam filters

Benefits:

• Catch issues before they reach recipients
• Prevent deliverability problems that could damage sender reputation
• Fix problems proactively rather than reactively
• Test every email campaign before sending
• Get detailed reports on what needs to be fixed

How to use:

1. Test emails before every campaign
2. Review test results and fix identified issues
3. Re-test after making changes to verify fixes
4. Use as part of your regular email quality assurance process

Post-Send Testing Tools

MailMoxie Deliverability Testing

• Test emails to major providers
• Inbox placement rates
• Authentication verification
• DNS records testing
• Content and formatting checks
• Subject line checks
• Common spam trigger words and phrases

How to Use

1. Before campaigns: Use pre-send testing to catch issues before sending, then use post-send testing to verify inbox placement
2. Regular testing: Test monthly or quarterly to monitor trends
3. After changes: Test after making changes (authentication, content, etc.)
4. Provider-specific: Test to specific providers if you have issues

What to Look For

• Inbox placement rates (target: 95%+)
• Provider-specific issues (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo)
• Changes over time
• Impact of changes you make
• Pre-send test results: DNS issues, header problems, content warnings, formatting errors

Email Service Provider Analytics

Built-In Analytics

What most providers offer:

• Bounce rates (hard and soft)
• Open rates
• Click rates
• Spam complaint rates
• Unsubscribe rates
• Delivery rates

How to use:

• Review after each campaign
• Track trends over time
• Set up dashboards for key metrics
• Compare campaigns

Custom Reports

Create reports for:

• Weekly or monthly summaries
• Campaign comparisons
• Segment performance
• Trend analysis

Benefits:

• Regular visibility into performance
• Easy identification of issues
• Data-driven decision making

Setting Up Monitoring

Step 1: Configure DMARC Reporting

1. Set up DMARC record with rua= for aggregate reports
2. Optionally set up ruf= for forensic reports
3. Use a dedicated email address for reports
4. Set up email filters to organize reports

Step 2: Set Up Reputation Monitoring

1. Register in Google Postmaster Tools
2. Register IPs in Microsoft SNDS
3. Set up Sender Score monitoring
4. Create dashboards for reputation scores

Step 3: Set Up Pre-Send Testing

1. Use MailMoxie or similar tools to test emails before sending
2. Test DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) for proper configuration
3. Test email headers for proper formatting and authentication
4. Test content and formatting for spam triggers and best practices
5. Make testing part of your email workflow before every campaign

Step 4: Configure Analytics

1. Set up email service provider analytics
2. Create custom reports
3. Set up alerts for key metrics
4. Schedule regular reviews

Step 5: Set Up Alerts

Alert on:

• High bounce rates (>2%)
• High complaint rates (>0.1%)
• Reputation score drops
• Authentication failures
• Sudden metric changes

How to set up:

• Use email service provider alert features
• Set up custom alerts in monitoring tools
• Use notification services

Regular Monitoring Schedule

Daily

• Test emails with pre-send testing before campaigns
• Check bounce rates after campaigns
• Review complaint rates
• Monitor for urgent issues

Weekly

• Review campaign metrics
• Check DMARC aggregate reports
• Review reputation scores
• Identify trends

Monthly

• Comprehensive metric review
• DMARC report analysis
• Inbox placement testing
• Compare to previous months
• Identify areas for improvement

Identifying and Addressing Issues

Signs of Deliverability Problems

High bounce rates:

• Check for list quality issues
• Remove hard bounces immediately
• Investigate soft bounce patterns

Low open rates:

• May indicate filtering
• Check content and subject lines
• Test inbox placement

High complaint rates:

• Review content and frequency
• Check list quality
• Address immediately

Authentication failures:

• Fix SPF, DKIM, or DMARC issues
• Verify DNS records
• Review DMARC reports
• Use pre-send testing to catch authentication issues before sending

Reputation drops:

• Identify cause (complaints, bounces, etc.)
• Reduce sending volume if needed
• Improve practices

Taking Action

1. Identify the issue: Use monitoring data to pinpoint problems
2. Investigate: Dig deeper into specific metrics or reports
3. Fix immediately: Address critical issues (authentication, high complaints)
4. Monitor results: Track improvements after fixes
5. Adjust practices: Make long-term improvements based on data

Common Questions

Q: How often should I monitor email deliverability?

A: Daily for critical metrics (bounces, complaints), weekly for campaign metrics, and monthly for comprehensive reviews. Set up alerts for urgent issues.

Q: What's the most important metric to monitor?

A: All metrics matter, but bounce rates and complaint rates are critical because they directly impact sender reputation. However, monitor all metrics together for a complete picture.

Q: Do I need to monitor DMARC reports if my authentication is working?

A: Yes, DMARC reports provide valuable insights into authentication performance, identify spoofing attempts, and help you optimize your DMARC policy over time.

Q: How do I know if my deliverability is good or bad?

A: Compare your metrics to industry benchmarks and track trends over time. Good deliverability typically means: bounce rates under 2%, complaint rates under 0.1%, good engagement, and high inbox placement (95%+).

Q: Can I monitor deliverability without special tools?

A: Yes, email service provider analytics provide basic metrics. However, DMARC reports, reputation monitoring, inbox placement testing, and pre-send testing tools like MailMoxie provide deeper insights that help identify and fix issues before they impact your campaigns.

Q: What is pre-send testing and why is it important?

A: Pre-send testing allows you to test emails before sending them to identify DNS, header, content, formatting, and other deliverability issues. Tools like MailMoxie can test every email before you send it, helping you catch and fix problems proactively rather than after they've already impacted your sender reputation.

Q: What should I do if I see a sudden drop in metrics?

A: Investigate immediately. Check for authentication issues, review recent changes, check for complaints or bounces, reduce sending volume if needed, and address the root cause.

Q: How do I interpret DMARC reports?

A: Look for authentication pass rates (should be high), identify sources of failures, check for unauthorized sending, and use the data to adjust your DMARC policy. Most email service providers offer tools to parse DMARC reports.

Q: Do I need to monitor reputation if my metrics are good?

A: Yes, reputation monitoring helps you catch issues early before they impact metrics. It also provides insights into factors affecting deliverability that may not show up in campaign metrics immediately.

Q: How do I set up monitoring if I'm new to email marketing?

A: Start with email service provider analytics, set up DMARC reporting, use pre-send testing tools like MailMoxie to test emails before sending, and gradually add reputation monitoring and inbox placement testing as you grow. Focus on key metrics first: bounces, opens, clicks, complaints.

Q: What's the difference between delivery rate and deliverability?

A: Delivery rate measures whether emails were accepted by mail servers. Deliverability measures whether emails reached the inbox (not spam folder). Monitor both, but deliverability is what matters most.

Key Takeaways

• Monitor key metrics regularly: bounce rates, open rates, click rates, spam complaints, and unsubscribe rates
• Use pre-send testing tools like MailMoxie to test every email before sending for DNS, headers, content, formatting, and other deliverability issues
• Set up DMARC reporting to track authentication performance and identify spoofing attempts
• Monitor sender reputation (IP and domain) using tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS
• Use inbox placement testing to directly measure deliverability to major ISPs
• Review email service provider analytics after each campaign and track trends over time
• Set up alerts for critical metrics (high bounces, complaints, reputation drops) to catch issues early
• Test emails before every campaign to catch issues proactively and prevent reputation damage
• Monitor daily for urgent issues, weekly for campaign metrics, and monthly for comprehensive reviews
• Use monitoring data to identify problems, investigate causes, and make data-driven improvements
• Compare metrics to industry benchmarks and focus on trends rather than just absolute numbers
• Regular monitoring and pre-send testing help maintain good deliverability and catch issues before they significantly impact campaigns