A Guest Tutorial From Krystin Ruschman of Email-2-Inbox

"How do I know if my stats are good?" Great question! Let's break down the different types of email stats and what they actually mean for your childcare center's communications with parents.

Common Email Stats (Using Mailgun Terminology)

Here are the key metrics you'll see when tracking your emails to parents and prospective families:

  • Processed: Total number of message requests received by Mailgun (both outgoing and incoming)
  • Accepted: Total number of outgoing messages Mailgun received from you (emails you tried to send)
  • Delivered: Total number of messages that actually reached the recipient's mail server
  • Opened: Total number of times a delivered message triggered an open
  • Clicked: Total number of times a delivered message triggered a click
  • Replied: Total number of times a delivered message triggered a reply
  • Bounced (hard): Total number of accepted messages that couldn't be delivered due to bad addresses or inactive accounts
  • Complained: Total number of delivered messages marked as spam or junk by the recipient
  • Unsubscribed: Total number of delivered messages that triggered an unsubscribe
  • Suppressions: Total number of accepted messages not delivered due to previous bounces, complaints, or unsubscribes

Delivered Rate

✅ Great: 98% or above
⚠️ Watch closely: 97-98%
❌ Red flag: Under 97%

Where to look: Monitor your delivered rate at the domain level and for individual emails.

What it means: Delivered just means the email made it to the recipient's mail server — not necessarily their inbox. When you see delivery rates below 97%, it usually means most of your delivered emails are likely landing in spam or promotions folders.

Pro tip: Low delivery rates indicate multiple problems with your email setup or list quality. Even 97-98% can signal issues, especially when combined with other red flags.

Opened Rate

✅ Great: 40-60%+
⚠️ Average: 16-26%
❌ Needs work: Under 15%

Where to look: Monitor open rates for individual emails.

What affects opens: Parents decide whether to open your email based on what they can see before opening: your sender name, email address, subject line, and preview text. Show up in a way that makes families feel comfortable opening your messages.

Important note: Apple's iOS privacy features automatically trigger opens for many users, so this metric may show higher numbers than actual human opens.

Clicked Rate

✅ Great: 10%+
⚠️ Average: 7-9%
❌ Needs work: Under 5%

Where to look: Monitor click rates for emails where you're asking parents to take action by clicking a link.

Best practices for clicks:

  • Make your call-to-action crystal clear
  • Keep messages short (3-5 lines) with a clear button or link
  • For longer emails, place your main call-to-action multiple times
  • Be clear about what happens when they click and why it matters to them
  • Focus on ONE main action — multiple links confuse parents

Replied Rate

✅ Great: 30%+
⚠️ Average: 15-25%
❌ Needs work: Under 10%

Where to look: Monitor reply rates for emails where you're specifically asking parents to respond.

Best practices for replies:

  • Ask simple, easy-to-answer questions (yes/no questions work great)
  • Make it clear you want a reply
  • Offer something valuable in exchange for their response
  • Don't include clickable links — they distract from the reply call-to-action

Pro tip: The psychology of getting a reply is different from getting a click. Choose one or the other as your main goal for each email.

Complained Rate (Spam Reports)

✅ Great: As close to 0.00% as possible
⚠️ Acceptable threshold: Under 0.05% (1 out of 2,000 emails)
❌ Danger zone: 0.04% or higher

Where to look: Monitor complaint rates at both the domain level and individual email level.

Why this matters: High complaint rates can damage your domain reputation, get your account disabled, or land you on a blacklist. Following best practices should keep you well under 0.03%.

How to avoid complaints: Always make it easy for parents to unsubscribe or update their preferences. Unsubscribes don't hurt your reputation — spam complaints do.

Bounced Rate

✅ Great: Well under 1%
⚠️ Acceptable threshold: Under 5%
❌ Warning: Over 2-2.5%

Where to look: Monitor bounce rates at both the domain level and individual email level.

Why this matters: Bounce rates above 2-2.5% can affect your domain and IP reputation. High bounce rates can lead to account restrictions or blacklisting.

How to keep bounces low: Maintain good list hygiene by removing invalid email addresses and regularly cleaning your parent contact list.

Putting It All Together

These benchmarks are guidelines, not absolute rules. Your actual numbers will vary based on your specific messages, your parent audience, and how well you segment your communications.

Make it a habit: Check your deliverability stats weekly. Regular monitoring helps you spot what's working and catch problems early.

Remember, average results come from average efforts. Your childcare center deserves better than average when it comes to parent communication!