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.