If you’re sending cold emails or running outreach with your team, staring at a Saleshandy campaign report can feel like reading tea leaves. Open rates, replies, bounces, click-throughs—lots of numbers, but what actually matters? And what should you do about it?
This guide is for folks who want to get real value from their Saleshandy reports. Whether you’re trying to boost reply rates, clean up your lists, or just figure out if your emails are working at all, I’ll walk you through what to look for, what actually deserves your attention, and how to pull out insights you can use.
Step 1: Get Clear on Your Real Goal
Before you even open a report, ask yourself: What are you actually trying to achieve? This sounds basic, but it’s where most people go wrong.
- Are you aiming for booked calls?
- Just hoping for replies, any replies?
- Building brand awareness (even if nobody writes back)?
The numbers you care about will depend on your real goal. If you just want meetings, don’t obsess over open rates. If you’re testing subject lines, opens matter more.
Pro tip: Decide on one or two numbers that matter for this campaign. Ignore the rest (for now).
Step 2: Know What Each Metric Really Means
Saleshandy gives you a bunch of data. Here’s what’s worth your time, and what’s mostly noise:
The Big Four Metrics
- Open Rate: % of people who opened your email.
Useful for: Testing subject lines, deliverability. - Reply Rate: % of people who replied.
Useful for: Judging if your message actually lands. - Click Rate: % who clicked a link.
Useful for: Campaigns with a clear CTA (like booking a demo). - Bounce Rate: % of emails that didn’t get delivered.
Useful for: List health.
What to Ignore (Most of the Time)
- Unsubscribe Rate: Usually low for cold outreach. Only worry if it suddenly spikes.
- Out-of-Office Replies: Don’t count these as “real” replies.
- Open Tracking Errors: Apple Mail and others mess with open rates now. Don’t obsess over minor changes.
Honest take: If you’re running simple outreach (no fancy links or tracking pixels), opens and replies are your bread and butter. The rest can distract you.
Step 3: Look for Patterns, Not One-Offs
One campaign’s numbers don’t tell you much. Trends over time—or across campaigns—are what matter.
- Compare to past campaigns. Are open rates dropping? Maybe your subject lines are stale or you’re hitting spam.
- Segment by audience. Does one industry reply more? Are certain job titles ghosting you?
- Spot drop-offs. Did reply rates tank after a specific email step? Time to rewrite that message.
Pro tip: Download your reports and make a simple spreadsheet. Seeing weeks or campaigns side by side makes patterns jump out.
Step 4: Dig Into Outliers
If something looks weird, don’t just shrug—poke at it.
- Suddenly high bounce rate? Your list is probably out of date, or your domain is blacklisted.
- Sky-high opens, low replies? Your subject line is good, but your message isn’t connecting. Or your “from” address looks sketchy.
- Lots of clicks, no responses? Maybe your CTA is too aggressive, or your link looks spammy.
Ask “what changed?”—did you switch lists, change your sender domain, or try a new template? Track down the cause before you send another batch.
Step 5: Turn Data Into Real Actions
The whole point of analyzing reports is to do something smarter next time. Here’s how to turn your findings into actions:
If Open Rates Are Low (<30%)
- Try different subject lines (shorter, less salesy, more curiosity).
- Check your deliverability—are your emails landing in spam?
- Warm up your sending domain (Google “email warm-up” if this is news to you).
- Double-check your contact list quality.
If Reply Rates Are Low (<5%)
- Rewrite your opening line. Is it too generic or “pitchy”?
- Test a softer call to action ("Worth a chat?" beats "Book a demo now!").
- Personalize more (even if it’s just by job title or industry).
- Make sure you’re targeting the right people.
If Bounce Rate Is High (>5%)
- Clean your list with a verification tool before uploading.
- Don’t buy lists off random websites (seriously, just don’t).
- Use a professional sending domain—never your main company email.
If Click Rate Is High, Replies Are Not
- Your link might be triggering spam filters, or people are curious but not interested.
- Try moving the link further down in your email, or making your ask less aggressive.
Don’t try to fix everything at once. Change one thing, run another batch, see what happens. Rinse and repeat.
Step 6: Use Filters and Segmentation (But Don’t Go Overboard)
Saleshandy lets you slice and dice your data by sequence step, time, sender, and more.
- By sequence step: Which email in your sequence actually gets replies? Often, it’s not the first one.
- By sender: Is one rep getting better results? Maybe their style is working better—or their lists are cleaner.
- By day/time: If you’re sending at 5 PM on Fridays, stop.
But—don’t get lost in the weeds. If you have 500 contacts, you’re not Amazon. Look for big signals, not tiny differences.
Step 7: Share and Act on the Right Takeaways
If you’re part of a team, don’t just forward a Saleshandy report and call it a day. Pull out the 2-3 insights that actually matter.
- “We get double the replies from VPs than Directors. Let’s focus there.”
- “Our follow-up email works better than the first one. Let’s swap the order.”
- “Our bounce rate jumped this week—we need to clean our list before next send.”
Keep it simple. Nobody wants a Slack message with 10 screenshots and no clear next step.
What’s Actually Worth Testing?
There’s a lot of advice out there, but here’s what actually moves the needle in cold email:
- Subject line: If opens are low, this is the first thing to try.
- First two sentences: If replies are low, rewrite your opener.
- Call to action: Too pushy? Too vague? Try new wording.
- Targeting: Are you emailing the right people, or just whoever you can find?
Don’t waste time obsessing over fancy merge tags, emojis, or perfectly-timed send schedules. If your core message is off, nothing else matters.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- Chasing vanity metrics: 80% opens feel good, but if nobody replies, who cares?
- Overcomplicating: More filters and charts don’t mean more insight.
- Ignoring deliverability: If your emails go to spam, it’s all for nothing.
- Making big changes all at once: You’ll never know what actually worked.
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
You don’t need to be a data scientist to get value from your Saleshandy reports. Focus on your real goal, track the numbers that matter, and change one thing at a time. Most importantly, don’t get paralyzed by analysis—use the data to make your next campaign a little bit better. That’s how you actually win.
Now, go run your next campaign—and don’t forget to check if your emails are actually landing where you want them to.