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I asked some heavy email users for their thoughts on email metrics:
Richard Kadzis, director, special projects & media relations, CoreNet Global
"The need for performance metrics in email marketing isn't a luxury, it's a necessity. Delivery, open, clickthrough and unsubscribe rates -- coupled with knowledge of who's accepting the message or not down to the specific click -- help inform the effectiveness of a given strategy. Perhaps more so, these metrics also allow for critical adjustments or modifications to scheduling, targeting and messaging strategies."
Kevin Keller, vice president-internet marketing, GMAC Insurance
"We look to metrics to facilitate a continual process of testing, measuring and refining our marketing activities. Traditional email data points are important (open rate, clickthrough rate, et cetera), but it is critical to note that this data must be tied to data from key points across the sales process. A view of data across the sales process allows us to determine which campaigns generate cost-effective sales and to troubleshoot campaigns that may drive high clickthrough rates without a resulting increase in sales."
Lynn Moss, senior manager in consumer interactive marketing for a Fortune 100 communications company
"We look at the usual campaign metrics, such as Delivered, Opened, Clicked and Conversion. We measure actual results from a campaign and compare it to what we projected. Each campaign has a defined measure of success. We also look at trends over time which can alert us to potential problems with the site, the leads list or even email fatigue."
Ryan Tuttle, vice president of client services, Spunlogic
"When it comes to email marketing, holding each of your email campaigns hostage to the typical industry metrics might not be the best way to measure success. It is important to develop your own internal benchmarks so you have metrics that are based on your target audience and the specific desires, needs and actions of your recipients. And, once you have those in place, remember that finding success within metrics depends on the specific campaign you are running, what kind of brand impression it made on your recipients and how well you achieved your business goals. Also, we encourage clients to look beyond the average metrics and dig deeper to gain the "not so obvious" insight from email campaigns."
