Understanding Email Statistics
DonorDock tracks delivery and engagement information for bulk Outreach Emails so you can better understand how recipients are interacting with your communications.
These statistics are available on the Sent Email Summary Page.
Email Statistic Definitions
Statistic | Description |
|---|---|
Total Sent | Total number of recipient email activities created and processed for the bulk email |
Total Delivered | Number of emails reported as successfully delivered to the recipient |
Unique Opens | Number of individual recipients for whom an email open was recorded |
Opened | Total number of recorded email opens, including multiple opens by the same recipient |
Bounced | Number of emails that could not be delivered because of a temporary or permanent delivery issue |
Dropped | Number of emails that were not sent because the address had previously experienced a hard bounce |
Unsubscribed | Number of contacts who unsubscribed from the applicable marketing communication |
Conversions - Gifts | Number of gifts attributed to recipients clicking a tracked giving link in the email |
Conversions - Gift Amount | Total value of gifts attributed to the email |
Clicked Links | Links included in the email and the number of recorded clicks for each link |
Delivered Emails
A delivered status means the recipient's email server reported that it successfully accepted the message.
Not all email servers provide delivery reporting in the same way. Because of this, an email may have reached a recipient even when DonorDock does not receive a delivery confirmation.
Opens and Unique Opens
Unique Opens counts the number of individual recipients for whom at least one open was recorded.
Opened counts every recorded open, including when the same recipient opens the email multiple times.
Email open tracking is not exact. Privacy features and email providers may:
Prevent an actual open from being reported
Automatically load the tracking information and cause an email to appear opened
Block tracking images used to detect opens
For this reason, treat open statistics as an engagement indicator rather than an exact count of who read an email.
Bounces
A bounce means an email could not be successfully delivered.Bounces may be classified as either soft or hard.
Soft Bounce
A soft bounce is generally caused by a temporary problem, such as:
A full mailbox
A temporary server error
A firewall or filtering issue
DonorDock may attempt delivery again after a soft bounce.
If a later attempt succeeds, you may see both a bounce and a delivery associated with the email activity.
Hard Bounce
A hard bounce indicates a permanent delivery problem, such as:
An invalid email address
A mistyped address
A domain that does not exist
A recipient server permanently refusing the address
After a hard bounce, DonorDock will no longer attempt to send to that address. Future attempts will be recorded as Dropped.
Dropped Emails
A dropped email is an email DonorDock does not send because the address has already been identified as having a permanent delivery problem.
Review and correct dropped email addresses when possible.
Clicked Links
DonorDock tracks links clicked from bulk emails. The Sent Email Summary Page displays the URLs that received clicks and the number of recorded clicks.
Clicking a URL can also take you to activity information for the recipients who clicked that particular link.
Clicks can be a useful engagement metric because they indicate that a recipient interacted with a specific call to action or piece of content.