Actual Delivery Stats - 2007/06/20 22:27This was so unusual that it begged to be posted.
Bronto actually posts delivery rates, updated weekly, for the trailing three month period.
They also include open rates (though inaccurate due to tracking image blocking, still interesting), and click-thru rates.
It is even broken down by industry.
We could probably come up with some cheap shots as to the validity of these numbers, but so far I haven't come across another ESP posting them so freely.
http://bronto.com/stats/--------------------------------- Hats off to these ESPs that have openly posted on this forum: - Bronto - Emma - ExactTarget - Gold Lasso - GOT Corporation (Campaigner) - iContact
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Mr Subject Line
User Gold Boarder
Posts: 47
Re:Actual Delivery Stats - 2007/06/21 02:44Although a noble thing to do, the stats are very misleading since they define delivery as the following:
"What is the delivery rate? The delivery rate is the number of messages sent minus the number of messages bounced divided by the number of messages sent. Both hard and soft bounces are included in this calculation."
Since MSN and other inbox providers often don't broadcast hard bounces (goes into their black hole) how many of the messages are really getting into the inbox? This is just a testiment to how clean their clients' lists are, not their actual delivery. To make the stats truly valid, they need a third party auditor such as ReturnPath or Pivotal Veracity.
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freelancewriter
User Platinum Boarder
Posts: 91
Re:Actual Delivery Stats - 2007/06/21 19:23Mr Subject Line wrote: Since MSN and other inbox providers often don't broadcast hard bounces (goes into their black hole) how many of the messages are really getting into the inbox? This is just a testiment to how clean their clients' lists are, not their actual delivery. To make the stats truly valid, they need a third party auditor such as ReturnPath or Pivotal Veracity.
A very legitimate point and a good reason to check with your ESP re: their use of a third party auditor. My primary ESP uses Pivotal Veracity.
Beyond that, I still seed my list with Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL and Gmail, as well as through my ISP to pull those messages down into Outlook to see how up-to-date Outlook junk filters react.
I do receive hard bounce notices from at least some of the major ISPs from a very low volume unique IP address I use, by the way. I'll pay more attention as to where those come from.
Coincidentally, I received an e-mail from Bronto today encouraging referrals with a drawing for a 20" Samsung flat panel as the incentive.
(Ironic that I'd receive this since I'm not even a customer. So what am I supposed to do? Say, hey, I'm not a customer, but you should really check these guys out :) Recommend an ESP I don't use myself? I don't think so...)
At any rate, the sending IP for that particular Bronto e-mail was 216.27.63.69. Return Path gives that a 96.59% accepted rate. The Sender Score was 50/100.
Look up bounce.bronto.com and it lists 70 authenticated sending IPs. 50 seems like a fairly typical Sender Score for them, and many show lower accepted rates.
Gotta love Return Path offering free reputation lookups through senderscore.org--------------------------------- Hats off to these ESPs that have openly posted on this forum: - Bronto - Emma - ExactTarget - Gold Lasso - GOT Corporation (Campaigner) - iContact
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covati
User Junior Boarder
Posts: 6
Re:Actual Delivery Stats - 2007/06/28 18:20Sorry, I've been meaning to reply to this thread for a bit. I wouldn't say these stats are 'misleading', we state how they are created just so they won't be. But I do understand that you'd like to see actual inbox stats. The fact of the matter is that it's expensive to get the data across all categories for actual inbox stats. To do so across our customer base just isn't feasible. This does allow for good comparative analysis though.
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freelancewriter
User Platinum Boarder
Posts: 91
Re:Actual Delivery Stats - 2007/06/29 19:09covati wrote: I wouldn't say these stats are 'misleading', we state how they are created just so they won't be.
He definitely has a point there - the methodology is fully explained.
And given the propensity of ESPs to promote the fact they are "whitelisted" by ISPs (increasingly a meaningingless claim, in my opinion), at least Bronto offers some numbers.
Surf around ESP Web sites and you'll see the whitelisting claim. It's a Good Housekeeping seal of approval, of sorts.
Adam, is lack of hard-bounce reporting really much of an issue? I've watched bouncebacks for individual e-mails I don't send through my ESPs and I don't notice a lack of hard bounces for the major ISPs. In the last week I can recall off the top of my head bounces from Yahoo, AOL, and Comcast.--------------------------------- Hats off to these ESPs that have openly posted on this forum: - Bronto - Emma - ExactTarget - Gold Lasso - GOT Corporation (Campaigner) - iContact
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covati
User Junior Boarder
Posts: 6
Re:Actual Delivery Stats - 2007/07/02 16:49Adam, is lack of hard-bounce reporting really much of an issue? Freelance, I wouldn't say it's an issue. We get bounces back from (what I would call) the major ISPs; we have custom rules in place to parse, track, and deal with them accordingly as well. It's definitely a hassle that everyone can't agree on a common way to reply with info, but it's manageable.
The white-listing is a good point, most major ESPs claim great deliverability. We are just trying to lay it out there an show what ours is; while at the same time giving back a bit of info about how the different verticals compare. I hope you find it useful.
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