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1. Message/Diagnostics
Use: Answer the basic questions “How did our
last email message perform?” and “Did we meet
our short-term or campaign goals?” It also helps
you identify issues that may be causing reduced
email performance, such as blocking or bulkfolder
filtering at ISPs or high list churn.
Metrics: Open rate, click-through rate, bounce
rate, spam-complaint rate, delivery rate, engagement
rate, unsubscribe rate.
2. Actionable Insights
Use: Understand your customers’ behavior
by testing and analyzing segments of your
list based on demographics, geography, past
buying behavior, action on emails, list source,
etc. For example, analysis by gender and age
might reveal that women between the ages of
18 and 35 have the highest click-through rates
on average, creating an opportunity for greater
targeting and personalization to increase
conversions.
Metrics: Open rate, click-through rate, conversion
rate, forward/share rate, etc.
3. Benchmarking
Use: Compare your email program to your
peers and to your own past performance to see
how your email metrics stack up, or to look for
trends. This is probably where most marketers
currently spend a lot of their time, but the
other three uses of metrics will provide greater
benefits to your program.
Metrics: Open rate, click rate, forward/share
rate, unsubscribe rate, bounce rate, conversion
rate, etc.
4. Company Goals
Use: These metrics measure how your email program
is delivering against your overall marketing
and company goals. Of the four strategies listed
here, this is the one that will best help you demonstrate
email’s value to your company.
Metrics: Revenue, cost savings/improved margins,
share of wallet, customer retention, leads generated,
etc.
Think Beyond Email
For email to grab increased management mindshare
and resources, marketers need to think
outside of the box and beyond the purview of opens
and clicks. Think real business impact and helping
solve some of your company’s most-strategic
issues.
Work with other departments to collect data that
measures email’s impact. For example, email can
reduce call-center expenses by providing educational
content, FAQs, operating instructions, contact
information and procedures, payment reminders
and other information, all of which can reduce your
customers’ need to call support for help.
When you expand your measurement horizon
beyond benchmarking to include diagnostics,
actionable insights and progress toward business
goals, and when you work with other departments
to measure impact and influence, you
get a real sense of your email program’s performance,
which you can communicate to your
senior management.
That’s your best possible defense for your marketing
resources.
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