Stop Worrying About Deliverability - It’s Not The Real Problem

The real issue is SEE-ABILITY: did a real person actually see your email in their inbox, or was it ignored, buried, or lost in Promotions?

Main Idea: What’s See-Ability and Why It Matters

Most email marketers focus too much on “deliverability” — the idea that if an email technically lands in someone’s inbox, the job is done. But that’s not enough. What really matters is see-ability — whether a subscriber actually sees your message and has a chance to interact with it.

Why Just “Deliverability” Is Misleading

• A high deliverability number (like 99%) doesn’t mean people actually saw your email.
• Emails can still be redirected to spam, the Promotions tab, or get buried by other messages.
• True engagement comes only when a human sees and interacts with your content.

Focusing only on the technical side of delivery is like celebrating that a letter arrived at a house, even if the owner never opened it. You can reach the doorstep but still fail to connect with the person.

Where Email Marketing Gets It Wrong

Many marketers obsess over:

• Inbox placement rates
• Sender scores
• Technical authentication

These are important, but they don’t guarantee that people will see or engage with your emails. 

What See-Ability Focuses On

Instead of obsessing over numbers that show delivery, shift your attention to:

• Actual inbox visibility — ensuring the email shows up where people look first.
• Engagement signals like opens, clicks, and responses that prove people saw your message.
• Sending relevant, timely content subscribers want to open, not just technically deliver.

Takeaway

We need to rethink how we measure success in email marketing. Instead of saying “we delivered it,” aim to make sure your audience actually saw it and had a reason to care.