If you’re running cold email campaigns and want to know what’s working (and what’s just noise), this guide is for you. Whether you’re a solo founder, a sales lead, or just tired of guessing if your emails are landing, we’ll break down how to actually use Mailivery’s campaign metrics to make smarter decisions. No fluff, no dashboards for the sake of dashboards—just solid advice for getting more emails where they belong: in the inbox.
Why Care About Email Campaign Metrics?
Look, if you’re not tracking what happens after you hit “send,” you’re flying blind. Email deliverability is a moving target. What worked last month can tank this month. Mailivery (mailivery.html) is built for folks who need to know if their emails are actually making it to real people, not just vanishing into spam folders.
But even with all the fancy charts, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or focus on the wrong numbers. Let’s cut through the noise and zero in on what actually matters.
Step 1: Know What Mailivery Measures (And What It Doesn’t)
Mailivery is a deliverability tool, not a full-blown CRM or campaign manager. Its bread and butter is showing you how your emails perform before you start worrying about replies, deals, or revenue.
Key metrics you’ll see: - Inbox rate: Percentage of test emails that land in the inbox. - Spam rate: Percentage of test emails that hit spam/junk. - Promotions tab rate: For Gmail, how often your emails go to Promotions. - Open rate: How often your test emails are opened (be wary—open rates aren’t always accurate due to privacy tools). - Reputation/score: Sometimes shown as a sender score or health meter.
What Mailivery doesn’t show: - Actual replies or conversions from your real prospects. - Engagement (clicks, forwards, etc.) from your live audience. - Deep reporting on A/B tests or creative performance.
Pro tip: Mailivery is best for diagnosing and fixing deliverability. If you want to track deals or pipeline, use something else.
Step 2: Set a Baseline Before You Start Tweaking
Before you change your subject lines, sender address, or warm-up routines, get a baseline. That means sending enough test emails to see what your “normal” looks like.
How to do it: - Run Mailivery for at least a week without major changes. - Look at your average inbox, spam, and promotions rates. - Note if you have big swings day-to-day (that can point to technical issues or blacklists).
If you’re already in the spam folder, don’t panic—most issues can be fixed. But don’t start making changes every day and expect to learn anything. Consistency is your friend here.
Step 3: Learn What “Good” Looks Like
There’s a lot of nonsense online about deliverability benchmarks. Here’s what’s realistic:
- Inbox rate: 85%+ is solid. 90%+ is great. If you’re below 70%, you’ve got issues.
- Spam rate: Under 10% is healthy. Over 20%? Something’s wrong.
- Promotions rate: For B2B, aim for as little as possible. For B2C, some promotions is normal.
- Open rate: Treat with skepticism—privacy features can inflate or deflate these.
Don’t obsess over hitting 100%. That’s not possible, especially at scale. Focus on trends, not single-day numbers.
Red flags: - Sudden drops in inbox rate. - Spam rates creeping up over a week. - Big differences between Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo results (could be a technical issue or content problem).
Step 4: Dig Into the Metrics—But Don’t Get Distracted
Now, open up your Mailivery dashboard and look for patterns, not just numbers. Here’s what to watch for:
Inbox, Spam, and Promotions Breakdown
- Are your emails showing up in spam more with one provider (e.g., Gmail vs. Outlook)?
- Did a new subject line or sender name tank your inbox rate?
- Are certain days worse than others (could be volume or blacklist-related)?
Reputation or Sender Score
- Dramatic drops usually mean something technical—think DNS, SPF, DKIM, or DMARC issues.
- If your sender score is fine but spam rates are rising, look at content and sending patterns.
Open Rate
- If open rates suddenly drop but inbox rates don’t, could be tracking issues—not a real deliverability problem.
- If both tank, your emails probably aren’t getting through.
What to ignore: - Micro-fluctuations (1–2%) day-to-day. Email is messy. - Vanity metrics (“engagement” with seed accounts isn’t your real audience).
Step 5: Make Data-Driven Changes (One at a Time)
You’ve found a problem—now what? Start small. Change one thing, watch the metrics, then move on to the next. This is the only way to know what worked.
Common fixes to test: - Authentication: Double-check SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Misconfigurations are the most common culprit for spam. - Sending volume: If you ramped up sending, try throttling back. Sudden spikes are a red flag for spam filters. - Content: Avoid spammy phrases, too many links, or weird formatting. Simple, plain-text emails often work best for deliverability. - From name and email: Be consistent. Don’t rotate sender names or emails too often. - List hygiene: (If using Mailivery for real campaigns) Remove bounced or unengaged addresses. Dirty lists kill deliverability.
Track each change for at least a few days. If things improve, great. If not, roll back and try something else. Don’t shotgun-blast five changes at once—you won’t know what helped.
Step 6: Use the Right Comparison Windows
Don’t compare today’s numbers to yesterday’s and call it a trend. Deliverability changes slowly (except in disaster scenarios).
Better approaches: - Compare week-over-week for bigger picture trends. - Bookmark “before and after” metrics every time you make a change. - If you see improvement, keep it. If not, try the next fix.
Step 7: Don’t Fall for Deliverability Myths
There’s a lot of bad advice out there. Here’s what doesn’t matter as much as you might think:
- “Warming up” forever: You don’t need to warm up forever. Once you’re stable, focus on maintaining good habits.
- Pixel-perfect HTML: Plain text often lands better. Over-designed emails can hurt, not help.
- Changing sending domains every month: If you’re not spamming or buying lists, stick with your domain and build its reputation.
- Subject line hacks: A clever subject line won’t save you if your tech setup is broken.
Step 8: Know When to Get Help
If you’ve tried the basics—authentication, content, volume, and list hygiene—and still can’t get out of spam, don’t bang your head against the wall. Sometimes blacklists or deeper technical issues are at play.
- Check if your domain or IP is on any major blacklists (MXToolbox can help).
- Reach out to Mailivery support or a deliverability expert if you’re truly stuck.
Summary: Keep It Simple, Keep Iterating
Don’t let dashboards become a full-time job. Pick the 2–3 metrics that matter most (inbox, spam, and reputation), check them weekly, and make changes one at a time. Most deliverability issues are fixable with a bit of patience and some methodical testing.
Your job isn’t to obsess over every dip or spike—it’s to keep your emails landing where they belong. Iterate, learn, and don’t let the hype distract you from what moves the needle.