Many marketers often mistake the terms email deliverability and email delivery, using them interchangeably, when in fact they are two really different things.

This tends to cause some confusion when people analyze emailing reports, which means some marketers may not even be figuring their success rates correctly at all.

So what’s the big difference?

Email Deliverability: refers to the ability of any given email to be delivered properly. It goes about ensuring email messages are delivered to the inbox and aren’t blocked or rerouted by spam filters. Neglecting email deliverability is a surefire way to worsen the any campaign issues you might be having, because these messages could equally end up in the inbox, in someone’s junk folder, or just go nowhere. 

Email Delivery: is calculated by taking the total number of emails that you’ve sent and then subtracting the ones that bounced or were rejected – in other words – the number of emails that actually appeared in your subscribers’ inboxes compared to the number that you’ve sent.

Why does this matter to you as a marketer?

If you are just looking at high deliverability figures, you probably think that you’re already hitting the spot and that there is no need to improve your campaign.

But, if you knew you had an 80% email deliverability rate and your report shows 95% emails delivered (of the 80%), then you’d know you’re throwing money away on lost sends. If a message isn’t making it into the inbox then it’s not being read, making your email ROI drop.

So then, just ask yourself - do you want to put your head in the sand and believe that everything is great, or do you want to see the real numbers?

As an email marketer, you need to look closely at both metrics and figure out what clues these give you about how to improve your newsletter sends.

Email marketing campaigns are futile if you experience either delivery or deliverability issues. GraphicMail's email marketing services guarantee that you reach the optimal of both with every send.

GraphicMail offers a number of advanced tools to ensure reliable delivery of all your email campaigns. We boast some of the highest delivery rates in the industry: we’re 100% Anti-SPAM compliant, support double opt-in email marketing, have strong relationships with major ISP and are a member of ReturnPath.