Definition
Potential reach represents the maximum audience a campaign could ever reach: every active, deliverable subscriber on the list at the time of send. It establishes the theoretical ceiling against which actual delivery, open and click performance can be measured.
Understanding potential reach highlights the gap between aspiration and reality. A list of 50,000 subscribers with a potential reach of 50,000 but an average delivered count of 42,000 and an average open count of 10,500 reveals significant gaps at both the delivery and engagement stages — each representing a distinct optimisation opportunity.
The Reach Funnel
- Potential reach: All subscribers on the list
- Sendable reach: Subscribers after suppression rules are applied
- Deliverable reach: Emails that pass authentication and delivery checks
- Inbox reach: Emails that land in the inbox rather than spam
- Open reach: Subscribers who actually open at least one campaign
Best Practices
- Calculate potential reach before every major campaign and compare against actual performance
- Track the gap between potential reach and inbox reach over time — widening gaps indicate deliverability erosion
- Use potential reach data to set realistic targets rather than benchmarking against industry averages that may not account for your list composition
Related Glossary Terms
A/B Testing
A/B testing in email marketing is the practice of sending two variations of an email to a small sample of your list to determine which version performs better before sending the winner to the remaining subscribers.
Abandoned Cart Email
An abandoned cart email is an automated message sent to customers who added items to their online shopping cart but left without completing the purchase. It is one of the highest-converting email types in ecommerce.
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is a metric that measures the average revenue generated per email subscriber over a specific period, used to evaluate list value and campaign effectiveness.
Attention Rate
Attention rate is the percentage of email opens that last longer than 5 seconds, distinguishing genuine reads from passive opens, preview-pane views, or Apple MPP auto-loads.
Bounce Rate Threshold
A bounce rate threshold is the percentage of hard or soft bounces at which email platforms and ISPs begin to penalise sender reputation, typically around 2-5%.
Bounce Rate
Email bounce rate is the percentage of emails that were rejected by the receiving server before reaching the recipient. It is a key indicator of list health and data quality.