How can I effectively use SparkPost's delivery index and other KPIs to measure and improve email marketing health and deliverability?

Key findings

• Correlational tool: The Delivery Index likely correlates positively with factors influencing email delivery, but the strength of this correlation may vary significantly across different recipient Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
• Diagnostic utility: It can be a valuable tool for spotting potential areas for improvement in an email program, acting as an early warning system for deliverability fluctuations. For a broader understanding of how email deliverability works, consider reviewing foundational principles.
• Beyond acceptance: The index highlights that an email being accepted by an ISP does not automatically mean it reached the inbox, emphasizing the importance of actual inbox placement.
• Industry challenge: SparkPost notes that over 20% of marketing emails typically land in spam or junk folders, underscoring the ongoing challenge of achieving high deliverability.

Key considerations

• Optimization caution: While useful for monitoring, optimizing solely for the Delivery Index as a metric could be misleading. A more holistic approach is often required.
• ISP variations: Different ISPs employ diverse filtering behaviors based on content and sender reputation, meaning a single index may not accurately reflect performance across all providers.
• Broader KPI strategy: The Delivery Index should be part of a broader Key Performance Indicator (KPI) strategy that includes engagement metrics and business outcomes. Understanding essential tools and practices for email deliverability can provide a more comprehensive view.
• Holistic view: For a robust understanding of email marketing health, it's crucial to consider a comprehensive set of metrics, as highlighted in articles discussing essential email marketing KPIs.

Key opinions

• Indicator of trends: Some marketers believe that the Delivery Index can show correlation with their efforts and deliverability scores over time, indicating its potential as a trend monitor.
• Seeking benchmarks: There's a strong desire among marketers to identify clear KPIs that reliably indicate deliverability success, moving beyond absolute numbers like total opens.
• Trust in ESPs: A general trust exists in reputable ESPs (Email Service Providers) like SparkPost to provide meaningful data, assuming they wouldn't offer a useless tool.
• Beyond open rates: Marketers recognize that absolute open rates alone are not sufficient indicators of email health, especially with privacy changes affecting open tracking.

Key considerations

• No single benchmark: There isn't one universal benchmark for email health; marketers often look for a combination of metrics that reflect their specific business objectives.
• Focus on changes: Monitoring changes in metrics like opens and clicks over several mailings, rather than absolute numbers, provides more meaningful insights. Understanding good engagement thresholds can help define these benchmarks.
• Correlation with business value: The true measure of email marketing health often boils down to business value, such as revenue or ROI, tracked back to email efforts. Other metrics are indicators that should correlate with this ultimate goal. To deepen this understanding, explore how to improve email IP and domain reputation.
• Comprehensive metric analysis: Successful marketers track a variety of metrics including click rates, active on site, and conversion rates to get a holistic view of their email campaign performance.

Key opinions

• Positive correlation: Experts suggest that the Delivery Index likely correlates positively with factors affecting actual email delivery, implying it's not entirely without merit.
• Risk of over-optimization: Treating such an index as the primary metric to optimize can be a mistake, as it might not fully capture the diverse behaviors of recipient ISPs.
• Business value as ultimate measure: The most meaningful measure of email health is the revenue or ROI directly attributable to email marketing, rather than a proprietary score. This aligns with broader troubleshooting advice for deliverability issues.
• Importance of trend analysis: Smoothed changes in opens and clicks over multiple mailings are considered more meaningful for assessing deliverability success than absolute instantaneous numbers.

Key considerations

• ISP-specific behavior: Recipient ISPs have highly varied behaviors influenced by content and mail stream reputation, making a single, aggregated measure less precise for detailed analysis.
• Data granularity: When metrics show concerning trends (e.g., opens dropping while clicks stay the same), breaking down data by recipient ISP is a crucial first step for deeper investigation.
• Metrics inform business value: While business value is paramount, other metrics serve as indicators that, over time, can be evaluated for how well they correlate to that actual business value. For comprehensive guidance, consult expert guides on improving email deliverability.
• Holistic deliverability monitoring: Experts recommend a multi-faceted approach to deliverability monitoring, including understanding factors influencing deliverability and sender reputation.

Key findings

• Holistic health measure: The Delivery Index is designed to function like a fitness tracker for an email marketing program, measuring its overall health and performance.
• Inbox vs. spam: Genuine deliverability, as defined by the documentation, is about messages reaching the inbox, not just being accepted. This is a crucial distinction for understanding email success.
• Significant spam rates: Documentation often cites that, on average, a substantial portion (e.g., over 20%) of marketing emails are filtered into spam or junk folders, indicating a common industry challenge.
• Simplified insight: The purpose of such an index is to simplify complex deliverability data into a single, understandable score, making it easier for users to grasp their performance at a glance.

Key considerations

• Actionable insights: The index aims to help users identify if a significant portion of their recipients are missing messages due to spam filtering, prompting action.
• Integration with ESP data: Such indices leverage the ESP's (Email Service Provider's) internal data, including domains, campaigns, and engagement by ISP, to construct their scores. This highlights the importance of ESP capabilities for deliverability insights.
• Impact on campaign reach: The primary question posed by the documentation is whether marketers can afford to have a large percentage of their messages unseen, emphasizing the financial and engagement cost of poor deliverability. Regular monitoring of ISP engagement patterns can help mitigate this risk.
• Educational purpose: The documentation serves to educate users on why traditional delivery metrics (like accepted rate) are insufficient and why a more sophisticated index is necessary for true deliverability understanding.