What metrics matter in cold email?

Cold email metrics differ in importance from traditional marketing email metrics.

Primary success metrics:

Reply rate: Most important. What percentage of delivered emails generate responses?

Positive reply rate: Of replies, how many show interest versus rejection?

Meeting/conversion rate: Ultimate business outcome from replies

Deliverability health metrics:

Delivery rate: Percentage successfully delivered (not bounced)

Bounce rate: Hard and soft bounces indicating list quality

Spam complaint rate: Recipients marking as spam (must stay under 0.1%)

Inbox placement: Where delivered messages land

Engagement indicators:

Open rate: Visibility indicator, but unreliable due to privacy tools

Click rate: If including links, percentage who click

Unsubscribe rate: Opt-outs per campaign

What to deprioritize:

Open rates (increasingly unreliable)

Volume sent (quantity without quality is meaningless)

Vanity metrics that don't indicate business outcomes

The only metric that matters is results. Everything else is navigation data.