Measuring Success: Beyond Open Rates
Our post last Thursday discussed Open Rates and why it may not be the metric to focus on. So, what should you be tracking to measure overall success for your email marketing campaign? The Marketing Sherpa 2007 Email Benchmark Guide has some suggestions:
• Click to Open Ratio
This number is the click rate divided by the open rate. Because only the opened messages are used in this formula, it helps to determine what content those who open the message find valuable.
• Click Times Conversion
This is determined by click-throughs times the conversion rate. Removing the open rate from this equation allows you to see how your email marketing campaign performed with those who clicked.
• Leads Per Email
If your concentration is lead generation this metric will provide you a simple comparison of offers and lists by taking the number of leads received divided by the number if emails delivered. How many forward to a friend or refer a friend messages are resulting in opt-ins?
• Engagement Per Campaign
This determines the non-financial impact of your marketing message. How many engaging activities have your subscribers participated in? How many have entered your contest, changed their profile, or commented to a message board? By engaging your subscribers you are continuing to get face time for your brand.
If your messages have a retail or ecommerce focus, there are some additional metrics you should also be reviewing for success.
• Revenue Per Email
You can determine this by taking the total revenue generated by your email marketing campaign divided by emails sent. This provides value by comparing the value achieved by different messages or offers by comparing the revenue attached to the individual campaigns. This metric also helps assess the financial impact of meager deliverability.
• Order Size Per Email
This is the total number of orders divided by the number of emails delivered. This is an excellent way to compare messaging. Was there a particular element in one message that equated to more orders? This measurement also allows for segmentation based on order size for future campaigns.
Your email campaign contains more information than just open rates. By tracking the additional metrics mentioned above you can better understand the behavior or your subscribers and use this information to send messages with more relevance in the future.
Posted by MindComet on Jan. 17, 2007