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One of our <a href="https://convertkit.com/mission" target="_blank" rel="noopener">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">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/june-2023-deliverability-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June 2023</a></li>
<li><a href="https://convertkit.com/resources/blog/july-2023-deliverability-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">July 2023</a></li>
<li><a href="https://convertkit.com/resources/blog/august-2023-deliverability-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August 2023</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>In September, ConvertKit sent over 2.4 billion messages (2,470,167,483 to be exact).</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">here</a>. But for a little TLDR—the more messages delivered, the better!
It’s 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 September, our system-wide delivery rate was 99.8%.</h2>
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-38372 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fm=pjpg" alt="delivery rate 99.8" width="1500" height="1016" srcset="https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=406&amp;w=600 600w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=694&amp;w=1024 1024w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=520&amp;w=768 768w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=400&amp;w=590 590w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=240&amp;w=354 354w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1040&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fit=scale&amp;fm=pjpg&amp;h=1387&amp;w=2048 2048w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/FIs3dfxB-OCTOBER-21-systemwide-delivery-rate.jpg?fm=pjpg 1500w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" />
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 filter down by mailbox provider.
Here are the top 5 domains ConvertKit sends to in terms of volume:
1. Gmail.com 
1.6 billion messages 
Delivery rate: 99.9%
2. Yahoo.com 
242 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.9%
3. Hotmail.com 
136 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.9%
4. AOL.com 
50 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.9%
5. Outlook.com 
23 million messages 
Delivery rate: 99.8%
<h2>The average open rate of all emails sent through ConvertKit was 44%.</h2>
Senders often ask how their open rates stack up to others. The 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="alignnone size-full lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/tp0dK1cd-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.18.23-PM.png?fm=png" width="1238" height="674" />
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">in this article</a>.
<h2>The average click rate across ConvertKit accounts was 4.5%.</h2>
We calculate click rate by dividing the number of subscribers who clicked a link by the total number of subscribers who received the email.
Similarly, the average click-to-open rate was 9.5%. This is calculated by dividing the number of subscribers who clicked a link by the number of subscribers who opened the email.
<h2>Our system-wide complaint rate remained over 10x lower than the 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 recipients want the mail sent from ConvertKit.
In the email industry, a complaint rate of less than 0.1% is seen as healthy. ConvertKit’s complaint rate in September was 0.01%, which speaks to the high quality of mail sent by our customers and the healthy reputation of our infrastructure.
<blockquote class="blockquote-sm">
<h3>Deliverability tip of the month: To warm-up or not to warm-up?</h3>
Short answer: If you are moving to a new ESP you may want to consider a warm-up plan to help establish your domain. The most basic warm up plan would consist of sending volume over time. This means you’d send to a smaller portion of your audience (preferably your most engaged group) and slowly add additional groups of subscribers until you are sending to your whole list. Warm up plans can be anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months depending on what’s best for your situation and audience.</blockquote>
<h2>Check out season 4 <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-grow-and-monetize-your-newsletter-featuring/id1515377286?i=1000617667472" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>! If you have questions or recommendations for a new season send them our way!</h2>
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-26175 lazy" data-src="https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fm=png" alt="deliverability defined podcast" width="1252" height="702" srcset="https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fit=scale&amp;fm=png&amp;h=336&amp;w=600 600w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fit=scale&amp;fm=png&amp;h=574&amp;w=1024 1024w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fit=scale&amp;fm=png&amp;h=431&amp;w=768 768w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fit=scale&amp;fm=png&amp;h=331&amp;w=590 590w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fit=scale&amp;fm=png&amp;h=219&amp;w=390 390w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fit=scale&amp;fm=png&amp;h=861&amp;w=1536 1536w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fit=scale&amp;fm=png&amp;h=1148&amp;w=2048 2048w, https://media.convertkit.com/post/G8JSmbjJ-Screen-Shot-2020-06-22-at-10.21.54-PM.png?fm=png 1252w" sizes="(max-width: 1252px) 100vw, 1252px" />
If you missed any episodes or want to refresh your knowledge <a href="https://convertkit.com/deliverability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here is the link</a>.
Follow us on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/deliverabilitydefined/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@DeliverabilityDefined</a> for weekly deliverability education and tips. We’d love to hear from you, if you have any questions you’d like answered on the podcast you can fill out our form <a href="https://convertkit.com/deliverability" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>!

ConvertKit’s September 2023 Deliverability Report

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