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One of our <a href="https://convertkit.com/mission" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">values</a> at ConvertKit is to work in public. We strive for transparency, which is why we share information that is typically kept private, such as our <a href="https://convertkit.baremetrics.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">finances</a>.
One commonly asked question by creators looking for a new email marketing platform is, “How is your email deliverability?”
Here is our monthly deliverability report to answer that question:
If you missed previous Deliverability reports, you can check them out below:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://convertkit.com/resources/blog/november-deliverability-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">November 2019</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>In February, ConvertKit sent over 880 million messages.</h2>
When messages are sent, they can be delivered or they can bounce. For more details on how email deliverability operates, check out our blog post <a href="https://convertkit.com/resources/blog/email-deliverability" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. But for a little TLDR- The more messages delivered, the better!
It is inevitable for some messages to bounce due to invalid addresses, full mailboxes, etc., but a good delivery rate indicates healthy deliverability for ConvertKit. We consider a system-wide delivery rate of 98% and above to be very healthy.
<h2>In February, our system-wide delivery rate was 98.95%</h2>
<img class="size-full wp-image-23753 aligncenter lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/O8xGTELY-FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate" width="750" height="508" srcset="https://media.convertkit.com/post/O8xGTELY-FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=406&amp;w=600 600w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/O8xGTELY-FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=400&amp;w=590 590w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/O8xGTELY-FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=240&amp;w=354 354w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/O8xGTELY-FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=694&amp;w=1024 1024w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/O8xGTELY-FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1040&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/O8xGTELY-FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1387&amp;w=2048 2048w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/O8xGTELY-FEB-20-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fm=pjpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />
This high delivery rate indicates a healthy reputation for ConvertKit, which gives our customers a solid foundation for their email deliverability. To get even more detailed about how well we’re performing, it helps to filter down by mailbox provider.
Here are the top 5 domains ConvertKit sends to in terms of volume:
1. Gmail.com 
Volume: 485 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.54%
2. Yahoo.com 
Volume: 94 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.82%
3. Hotmail.com 
Volume: 78 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.86%
4. AOL.com 
Volume: 22 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.9%
5. Outlook.com 
Volume: 9 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.86%
<h2>The average open rate of all emails sent through ConvertKit was 29%.</h2>
Senders often ask how their open rates stack up to others. Truth is, open rates can vary greatly depending on your industry and audience type (B2B vs. freemail addresses, for example). However, here’s a general scale you can use to measure your performance:
<img class="size-full wp-image-22483 aligncenter lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/1agZhVrD-DEC-19-Sender-Reputation.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="Feb 20 Sender Reputation" width="750" height="508" srcset="https://media.convertkit.com/post/1agZhVrD-DEC-19-Sender-Reputation.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=406&amp;w=600 600w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/1agZhVrD-DEC-19-Sender-Reputation.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=400&amp;w=590 590w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/1agZhVrD-DEC-19-Sender-Reputation.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=240&amp;w=354 354w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/1agZhVrD-DEC-19-Sender-Reputation.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=694&amp;w=1024 1024w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/1agZhVrD-DEC-19-Sender-Reputation.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1040&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/1agZhVrD-DEC-19-Sender-Reputation.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1387&amp;w=2048 2048w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/1agZhVrD-DEC-19-Sender-Reputation.jpg?fm=pjpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" />
I talk more about open rates and why they aren’t always reliable <a href="https://convertkit.com/resources/blog/email-deliverability" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in this article</a>.
<h2>Our system-wide complaint rate remained 10x lower than industry standard</h2>
A complaint is when a subscriber marks a message as spam. An elevated complaint rate is a signal that the sender’s quality of mail isn’t good. We have a team dedicated to ensuring that the mail sent from ConvertKit is wanted by the recipients.
In the email industry, a complaint rate less than 0.1% is seen as healthy. ConvertKit’s complaint rate in February was 0.01%, which speaks to the high quality of mail sent by our customers and the healthy reputation of our infrastructure.
<h2>Deliverability Tip of the Month:</h2>
<blockquote class="blockquote-sm">The biggest factor that influences your deliverability is how your subscribers engage with your messages. For a high reputation and healthy deliverability, you need to regularly remove unengaged subscribers from your list. You can easily do this in ConvertKit by removing your Cold Subscribers.
For more information on how to prune Cold Subscribers from your list, <a href="https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/5268661-cleaning-and-managing-your-list" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">check out this Knowledge Base article</a>.</blockquote>
<h2>Industry news and ConvertKit updates</h2>
<h3>How to measure the impact of deliverability issues</h3>
In February, I contributed to Kickbox’s blog series “Email Deliverability Unfiltered”. <a href="https://blog.kickbox.com/email-deliverability-unfiltered-measuring-the-impact-of-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">You can check out the post here.</a>
<h3>Meet our Deliverability Specialist: Melissa Lambert</h3>
We are so excited to have Melissa as a Deliverability Specialist on our Support Team! Melissa has been a Product Specialist at ConvertKit since September 2018. While she has experience helping our customers with a variety of topics, she always found deliverability to be most interesting. She loves digging in to complex deliverability issues and helping educate customers on a topic that can sometimes feel overwhelming. Outside of work, Melissa loves to run outdoors and travel any opportunity she can get.

ConvertKit’s February 2020 Deliverability Report

Alyssa Dulin

Supporting Creators in Need with The Creator Fund

ConvertKit’s March 2020 Deliverability Report