A jargon-free scorecard for business brokers who want email to drive more mandates
For years, brokers gauged outreach success by one number: open rate - the percentage of recipients who appear to open your email. How is an “open” detected? Most email tools insert a tiny, invisible image inside each message; when that image loads, the system counts an open. But today:
Result: the same message could show a 60% open rate in Apple-heavy lists and 15% in Outlook-heavy lists - without any difference in owner interest.
Good news: open rate is still a useful starting point - but only if you pair it with smarter metrics that reveal what actually drives conversations and mandates.
| What It Does Well | Where It Misleads |
|---|---|
| • Fast health signal - sudden drop flags a deliverability issue. | • Apple MPP inflates opens by 10-30%. |
| • Helps compare subject-line tests in A/B campaigns. | • Image blocking on Outlook desktop hides genuine opens. |
| • Easy to pull from any ESP (Apollo, HubSpot, Gmail add-ons). | • Zero insight into engagement - did they read, reply, or act? |
Rule of thumb: Open rate below 15% often points to spam-folder placement. Above 60% may be an Apple-inflated mirage. The sweet spot for clean cold outreach is 25–45%.
| KPI | Why It Matters | How to Track It (No IT Degree Required) | Healthy Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reply Rate | A direct signal that owners engaged - and the strongest positive reputation boost in Gmail/Outlook. | 1. Tag all outbound folders “Sent - Cold” in Gmail/Outlook. 2. Use your platform’s answered column (Apollo, Instantly, HubSpot) to divide replies by delivered sends. 3. Analyst3 auto-captures thread IDs and calculates in real-time. | Cold: 2%+ Warm: 8%+ |
| Spam-Complaint Rate | Filters throttle at 0.3%; even 0.1% slows inbox placement. | 1. Open Gmail Postmaster → Spam Rate graph. 2. In Outlook, enable the Junk Email Reporting add-in to see counts. 3. Divide complaints by delivered messages for the period. | ≤0.1% |
| Inbox Placement % | Tells whether mail lands in Primary, Promotions, or Spam - far clearer than opens. | 1. Send a test to a seed list (GlockApps, InboxRepair). 2. View placement report - counts each folder per provider. 3. Analyst3 schedules seed tests twice a month and flags drops. | ≥85% Primary/Inbox |
| First-30-Second Dwell Time | Gmail notes if an email stays open ≥30s - proxy for genuine reading. | 1. In Apollo/HubSpot, export open-event timestamps. 2. Compare open vs. second event (scroll, link click) within 30s. | ≥50% of opens |
| Bounce Rate | High hard-bounces tank reputation and signal list decay. | 1. ESP dashboard → “Hard Bounces.” 2. Divide by total sends. 3. Auto-remove hard-bounce addresses after each campaign - built into Analyst3. | ≤2% |
Real-world proof: A Canadian brokerage using Analyst3 swapped stale copy, pruned bounces, and A/B-tested email scripts. Reply rate climbed from less than 1% to 11% in ~7 weeks.
| Tool | Metric Pulled | How Often |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail Postmaster | Spam-complaint %, domain reputation | Weekly |
| Apollo / Instantly | Opens, replies, soft/hard bounces | Daily |
| GlockApps Seed Tests | Inbox placement % | Bi-weekly |
Prefer not to juggle log-ins? Analyst3 pipes these feeds into a single traffic-light dashboard (green = good, yellow = investigate, red = pause).
| Trigger | Immediate Action |
|---|---|
| Open rate ↓ 10 pts over 48 hrs | Run an inbox-placement test; check SPF/DKIM alignment. |
| Spam-complaint rate ≥0.3% | Pause sequence; remove non-responders; rewrite copy. |
| Reply rate ≤ 1% after 300 sends | Refresh subject + preview; test a new CTA. |
| Inbox placement <80% | Lower daily volume for a week; warm secondary domain. |
Open rate starts the conversation, but reply rate, spam-complaint % and inbox placement finish it. Monitor this trio and you’ll catch problems early, keep filters happy, and spend more time on qualified seller calls - less on guesswork.
Need the heavy lifting done for you? Analyst3 sets thresholds, surfaces alerts, and auto-adjusts sending pace so your deal flow stays on track.
Think of opens as looking through the storefront window; meaningful KPIs tell you who walked in, chatted, and bought. Shift your focus, and your email channel becomes a predictable engine for new mandates.
