Email Marketing Glossary Terms: Delivery Rate

The delivery rate of an email marketing campaign is the number of emails sent that are successfully delivered to the intended recipients email Inbox. This is obviously an important factor in any email marketing campaign because it can identify how effective a lead database is, it can be used to rationalise that database, and it can also be used to help improve any further email marketing campaigns that you embark upon.

Measuring the delivery rate can, at its most basic, be conducted using standard desktop email software as long as delivery receipts are enabled. However, this can throw up spurious results and for this reason, many email marketing services will use more advanced techniques of tracking the delivery rate.

When buying or renting lists, the delivery rate can help identify list sources that are effective and those that are less than effective. A consistently low delivery rate tends to mean that the list is either out of date or that list members have used false email addresses. Lists with high delivery rates are very desirable and can be worth the extra money to get them.

The delivery rate of an email marketing campaign is one measurable figure that should be tracked with every run of emails sent. While it is only one of many sets of data it is certainly one of the easiest and most beneficial to track with options ranging from the addition of tracking code to the use of email tracking software to help identify whether an email has been delivered properly or not (i.e. did it 'bounce'?).