Delivered is not the same as in the inbox

Your report says 98 per cent delivered. That says nothing about where your messages ended up.

What "delivered" means

The recipient's server accepted the message. What it does next — inbox, promotions tab, spam folder — does not appear in that figure.

Why it matters

A high delivery rate with low clicks is the classic pattern of a campaign landing in spam. You think you have a content problem when you have a placement problem.

How to measure it

Look at the ratio of deliveries to clicks per mail provider. If one provider diverges sharply from the others, that is where you are being filtered.

What improves it

Correct authentication, a clean list, consistency, and recipients who genuinely engage. The same levers as deliverability in general.

What does not improve it

Changing words in your subject line to avoid supposedly forbidden terms. That list does not exist in the way people imagine.