“We never received the invoice.” Every UK business has heard it. Without statistics, you can’t tell whether the email bounced, landed in junk or was simply ignored. When your systems send through Mailpro’s SMTP server, each message is tracked, so you can answer the question in seconds and fix the underlying problem.
What you can see
Delivery and bounces
Whether each message was accepted by the receiving server, and if not, why. Hard bounces mean the address doesn’t exist; soft bounces are temporary, such as a full mailbox. The glossary explains bounce rate in more detail.
Opening rates
Which messages were opened and when. For transactional email this is often the most useful proof that a client saw an invoice or a quote. Remember that some email apps register opens automatically, so treat a single open as an indication, not proof.
Click rates
Which links were clicked, such as a “pay now” link in an invoice or a “manage booking” link in a confirmation. A low click rate on a payment link may mean the button is hard to find on a phone.
Reactivity rate
The share of people who opened and then clicked. It tells you whether the content is doing its job once the email is open.
Unsubscribes
Mostly relevant if you send any marketing through SMTP. A pure service email doesn’t need an unsubscribe under PECR, but any promotional content does.
Location of the audience
Geo-tracking shows the countries where messages were opened, useful if you invoice clients in Ireland or continental Europe as well as the UK.
Operating system and email program
Which devices and email apps your recipients use. If most of your B2B clients read on desktop Outlook, test your templates there first.
Turning statistics into fixes
- Rising bounces: clean the addresses in your source system, such as the customer records in your accounting software.
- Messages landing in junk: check SPF, DKIM and DMARC. The FAQ on SPF, DKIM and DMARC explains each.
- Low opens on invoices: review the subject line and sender name. “Invoice 1042 from Harbour & Co Ltd” is clearer than “Document attached”.
- Clicks mostly from phones: make sure payment and booking pages work well on mobile.
Keeping a record for disputes
For businesses that invoice on credit terms, a delivery record can matter in a payment dispute or a late-payment claim. Mailpro’s logs show when a message was accepted by the recipient’s server, which is more than most office mailboxes can tell you. Our article on proving invoice delivery with SMTP logs explains how to use them. Decide how long you need to keep this information and set a retention period, since UK GDPR expects you not to keep personal data longer than necessary.
Statistics and privacy
Open and click tracking uses pixels and tracked links, which fall under PECR’s rules on storage and access technologies. Mention tracking in your privacy notice and follow current ICO guidance. Mailpro stores statistics on private Swiss infrastructure, outside US jurisdiction. For a broader view of your email performance, see campaign statistics, or read what SMTP is if you are setting up for the first time.