Beginner’s guide to fixing common email marketing pitfalls

Even well-planned email campaigns can run into troubles. Sometimes it’s a dip in engagement, an increase in unsubscribes, or results that just don’t match your effort. That’s where your email statistics come in.

Your email stats are more than just numbers. They’re signals that help you fine-tune your content, improve targeting, and adjust your timing. When something’s off, your stats can show you where to look and what to improve.

Let’s look at some of the most common challenges marketers face when they analyze email performance in Xperience by Kentico and see what you can do about it.

For each issue, you’ll explore:

• What should you look for in your stats?
• What it likely means.
• What can you do to fix the issue?

Along the way, we’ll offer practical tips to help you create stronger, more relevant email communications. They’ll help you support your marketing goals and allow you to build and retain long-lasting relationships with your users.

Check your email configuration

Before diving into your stats, make sure everything is set up correctly. If not, the data you’re seeing may be incomplete or misleading.

Understand the limitations of open rates

Email open rates used to be a go-to metric for measuring engagement, but that’s no longer the case. Over time, email clients and services have introduced privacy features that either block open tracking entirely or generate false opens, making the data increasingly unreliable.

These changes were led by Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), but similar behavior is now seen in other inbox tools and apps too.

See how privacy features affect open tracking

• Apple Mail preloads email content (including tracking pixels by default, often registering an “open” even if the user never actually reads the message.
• Gmail and other clients may block images, including tracking pixels, unless the user enables them manually.
• Many providers now obfuscate or block IP address data, making it difficult to determine where or when an email was opened.
• Depending on the provider or device, open tracking may fail silently or produce misleading results.

The result? Open data does not reflect real user behavior. In some cases, open rates are inflated by automated preloading. In others, they’re underreported due to blocked tracking pixels.

Switch to metrics that matter

Open rates can be tempting to rely on, because they’re one of the first metrics marketers see. But with modern privacy protections affecting tracking accuracy, open rates are no longer a reliable way to measure engagement. To truly understand how your audience interacts with your emails, it’s better to focus on metrics that reflect actual user behavior.

• Shift your focus to metrics that reflect real user interaction, such as:
  • Click-through rates – who’s engaging with your content.
  • Unsubscribe rates – who’s opting out.
  • Bounce rates – how clean your email list is.
• If you’re using personalization or automation, pay attention to contact activity logs to get a fuller picture of what individuals are doing post-send.

While open rates can still hint at deliverability issues or sudden changes in behavior, they should no longer be your primary measure of success.

Identify and fix common email issues

Once your tracking is in place and you understand which metrics truly matter, it’s time to dig into the patterns. Your email statistics can quickly show where things are going well and where there’s room for improvement. Each section below highlights a familiar problem marketers face, how it shows up in your stats, and practical ways to fix it using tools available in Xperience by Kentico.

1. Low click-through rate

Click-through rate (CTR) shows how many people clicked a link in your email compared to how many received it. It’s one of the most reliable signs of engagement because it reflects action, not just interest. A solid CTR means your message reaches the right people with content that motivates them to explore and engage further.

What you’ll see

Few recipients click links in your emails, even if the delivery and open rates look high.

What this means

Your content may not motivate users to take the next step. A high delivery with low clicks often signals that people are receiving your emails, but are not interested enough to act. This could be happening due to unclear messaging, weak CTAs, or a mismatch between user expectations and your content.

How to respond

• Clarify your CTA. Make sure there’s a single, prominent call-to-action in the email. Tell the reader exactly what to do next and why it matters.
• Cut the noise. Reduce the number of competing links or visual clutter that might distract from your primary goal.
• Use personalization. Tailor the message using personalization features in Xperience. For example, recommending products based on previous behavior, or tailoring website content by creating a personalized variant of a widget is an easy, effective win.
• Improve subject lines Sometimes the subject line creates one expectation, but the content doesn’t deliver on it. Try brainstorming different variants with AIRA to see what aligns better with your audience’s intent.

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2. High unsubscribe rate

Unsubscribes are a regular part of email marketing, but sudden spikes or consistently high numbers signal a deeper problem. When people opt out in large numbers, it’s often because the content isn’t meeting their needs, or they feel overwhelmed by the frequency. Monitoring unsubscribe behavior helps you understand what’s turning people away.

What you’ll see

A noticeable number of contacts are unsubscribing after receiving your message.

What this means

Something about the message or frequency isn’t sitting right. This could be due to irrelevant content, over-messaging, or a mismatch between what users thought they’d signed up for and what they received.

How to respond

• Re-align your content with expectations. Revisit the signup flow or lead magnet that brought people in. Is your content still delivering what they signed up for?
• Offer frequency controls. Consider building a custom email preference center where subscribers choose how often they hear from you, or what types of messaging they want. This reduces frustration and gives users more control.
• Segment your audience. Break your signup flow to populate different recipient lists instead of sending one-size-fits-all emails. You can do this in Xperience by creating a sign-up flow with a dedicated form . In the future, you will also be able to achieve this with our upcoming recipient targeting feature.
• Use partially personalized messages. If you don’t yet have fully dynamic emails, add personalized email widgets to create email content blocks that speak more directly to a specific segment’s interests or goals.

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3. High bounce rate

A “bounce” happens when an email can’t be delivered to the recipient. There are two types:

• soft bounces – temporary issues like full inboxes,
• and hard bounces – invalid or non-existent addresses.

A high bounce rate lowers your sender reputation, making it harder for your emails to reach inboxes.

What you’ll see

A significant portion of your emails are undelivered. In your email stats, these appear as “bounced” messages.

What this means

Bounces usually happen when emails are sent to invalid, mistyped, or outdated addresses. They can also occur when recipient mailboxes are temporarily unavailable. If you use older contact data or haven’t cleaned your list recently, bounce rates may increase.

Xperience automatically tracks bounced messages and flags affected contacts. After repeated soft bounces or a confirmed hard bounce, the system switches the contact to a Bounced status. It then excludes the bounced contacts from future sends, thus protecting your list quality and sender reputation.

Bounce tracking must be configured for your project. If you’re not seeing bounce data, ask your developer to check if everything is set up correctly.

You can review a contact’s bounce status in:

• Contact management (contact list or profile)
• Recipient lists (Overview and Recipients tabs)

How to respond

• Clean your list regularly. Remove email addresses that generate hard bounces. This simple action helps protect your sender reputation and improves overall deliverability.
• Use double opt-in. Xperience by Kentico uses double opt-in by default, meaning recipients confirm their email address before receiving marketing emails. This helps ensure valid addresses and explicit consent from recipients. While developers can override this behavior (such as when importing contacts or syncing from a CRM), the default setup supports list quality and compliance out of the box.
• Watch bounce patterns over time. A sudden spike may indicate a technical issue or a problematic list source. Monitoring email delivery trends in Xperience can help you catch problems early.

4. Spam complaints

Spam complaints are among the most damaging signals your emails can generate. When a recipient marks your message as spam, it sends a direct signal to mailbox providers that your emails are unwanted, or worse, deceptive. A rising complaint rate harms your sender reputation and cause future emails to land in the junk folder or be blocked entirely.

What you’ll see

You may receive a report from your email provider (such as SendGrid ) showing complaints, or you’ll notice a decline in deliverability and engagement without an apparent reason.

What this means

Some people might see your emails as off-topic, confusing, or a bit too pushy. This can happen if the subject line isn’t clear, the message feels unexpected, or the recipient doesn’t recognize or trust who it’s from.

How to respond

• Avoid misleading subject lines. Make sure your subject line accurately reflects the content of the message.
• Set expectations clearly during signup. Tell users what kind of content they’ll receive and how often.
• Make unsubscribing easy. A visible, one-click unsubscribe option is more respectful and effective than hiding it. Xperience by Kentico supports one-click unsubscribe links, but your development team needs to implement them correctly using our recommended approach. Unsubscribe links must be easy to find and not obfuscated, or recipients may mark your email as spam instead.
• Clean your list of disengaged users. If someone hasn’t clicked in a long time, they may not want your emails anymore. Removing them can reduce complaint risk.

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5. Low engagement across all metrics

When your delivery rates, click-throughs, and other interactions are all low, it’s a sign that something more systemic is happening. Maybe your list is outdated, your content has gone stale, or your targeting doesn’t align with the audience’s needs. Low engagement is one of the clearest signs that it’s time to rethink your email approach.

What you’ll see

Click-through rates and interaction logs are all consistently low for several email blasts.

What this means

Your audience may no longer be interested in the content you’re sending, or they may not even be seeing your emails due to poor deliverability or low inbox visibility. Inactive users can drag down your performance and, as a result, damage your sender reputation over time.

How to respond

• Run a re-engagement campaign. Try sending a “Still interested?” or “We miss you” message that gives users a chance to confirm their interest.
• Start with personalization. Even basic personalization like adjusting language to reflect the user’s past behavior or tailoring content to known interests, can reignite interest.
• Rethink and adjust your user segments. Consider who your emails are for. Is the messaging still aligned with their current needs or customer journey stage?
• Remove inactive users. After repeated attempts to re-engage, it’s best to stop emailing users who haven’t interacted in a long time. Updating your recipient lists to contain only active subscribers helps protect your sender reputation and improves engagement averages.

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6. Sudden drop in deliverability

When deliverability drops suddenly, it often means mailbox providers are flagging your messages or temporarily limiting their delivery. Such drops can happen if you’ve hit a spam trap, triggered a daily sending limit, or harmed your sender reputation. You need to act fast to avoid a sudden dip that could cause long-term issues.

What you’ll see

You’ll notice a broad decline in delivery rates and clicks across multiple mailouts, even if you haven’t changed your content or sent more emails than usual.

sometimes with no obvious change in your content or sending volume.

What this means

If your emails aren’t landing in inboxes, it might be because your sending domain or IP has gained a poor reputation. This usually happens when you send emails to outdated recipient lists, your recipients report your emails, or you hit a lot of bounces.

How to respond

• Pause broad sends temporarily. Send emails only to the most engaged recipient lists while you investigate.
• Check your domain authentication. Work with your developer or admin to confirm that everything is properly configured in Xperience. Verify that your sender email is properly authenticated through DMARK, DKIM, and SPF.
• Review your recent activity. Did you send to a cold or purchased list? Was there a spike in sends or complaints? Identify and correct the source quickly.
• Monitor your sender reputation. If your provider offers it, check sender health tools to see if you’ve been flagged or throttled.

7. Missing contact activity data

Xperience contact activity tracking gives you a deeper view into how individual users interact with your emails. This includes when they click links, subscribe to newsletters, and move through the stages of the connected customer journey. When that data is missing or incomplete, it becomes harder to personalize follow-ups or measure success of your marketing strategy.

What you’ll see

Your email performance stats (clicks, bounces) look normal, but the related contact activity records are empty or inconsistent.

What this means

Contact activity tracking may be turned off, misconfigured, or contacts may not have given consent to tracking. In some cases, tracking isn’t available because the contact has turned their privacy settings on or data protection doesn’t allow it.

How to respond

• Check tracking configuration. Verify if contact tracking is enabled, or ask your administrator to confirm that email tracking and contact activity logging are enabled.
• Review consent settings. Xperience logs data only when the contact provides valid consent. Review your consent strategy and forms to make sure you’re collecting what you need.
• Use anonymous stats if needed. Even without full activity tracking, anonymous email stats (like overall click-through rates or bounces) can still offer valuable insights at the email level. To track this data, segment anonymous contacts that have given consent.

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8. Duplicate sends to the same recipient

Seeing the same user receive an email multiple times isn’t just a nuisance. It can erode trust and increase unsubscribes. Recipients may think you’re spamming them or that something is wrong with your system. This often happens with automated emails tied to triggers like form submissions or workflow steps.

What you’ll see

One recipient appears in your “Sent emails” count multiple times, or reports receiving the same email more than once.

What this means

The email may have been triggered more than once, for example, by users submitting the same form twice or by a customer journey rule that doesn’t properly limit re-entry.

How to respond

• Review form behavior. Check for duplicate form submissions or misconfigured confirmations that might fire an email each time.
• Audit your email logic. If using conditions in an email automation or in a customer journey, double-check that your email send actions only run once per contact by setting the Process recurrence to If not already running, unless recording a contact multiple times is intentional.

Wrap-up

Email stats are more than just diagnostics. They show results of conversations with your audience. Every click, bounce, or unsubscribe gives you a clue about what your contacts want (or don’t want), and what’s working in your messaging. Reading these signals helps you move from guesswork to insight, from generic spray-and-pray mailouts to meaningful interactions.

Keep an eye on your stats to send your emails only to the right people. When you see that something isn’t working, react with small, smart changes. Over time, this will make your email marketing more helpful and effective.

Now you’re able to:

• Understand what standard email performance metrics are telling you.
• Recognize early warning signs like low click-throughs, high unsubscribes, or increased bounce rates.
• Pinpoint the likely cause behind each issue: list quality, content relevance, timing, or sender reputation.
• Take action using built-in tools in Xperience by Kentico to adjust targeting, personalize content, and monitor deliverability.
• Feel confident using email stats not just to measure outcomes, but to improve future results.

Keep learning from your data and make small tweaks to improve the performance of your emails. Your audience will thank you for it.