Why might metrics be the most important aspect of your email services?

When it comes to online marketing, email could very well be the most effective medium you can turn to for good results. This is even when stacked against powerful channels such as search and social media. However, as far as professional email services go, some aspects can be considered more important than others, and metrics just might be the most important of all.

Calculating the Value of Email Metrics

In email marketing terminology, metrics are essentially predefined measurements that serve as a sort of evaluation for specific activity. To be a bit less technical, they are a measure of how your campaigns are performing in certain areas. Understanding what they mean is crucial because if you don’t, you will not have a clue in regard to what works and what doesn’t in your marketing strategy. Getting familiar with your metrics is not only important for knowing where you stand, but knowing what it takes to get better.

Being able to effortlessly deliver metrics you can measure is one of email’s greatest attributes. Still, getting the most from them is all up to you. Besides, understanding these critical measurements in and out will do you no good if don’t put that knowledge to use. With that in mind, here are some key metrics you want to pay attention to in the reports of your email services:

Open Rate – The open rate gives you the total number of your delivered email messages that were opened. There are several factors that affect the accuracy of open rates, including default images and format, in this case being plaintext, which is not able to track opens. Accuracy issues aside, open rates tell you a lot about important areas such as subject lines, frequency, and general level of interest in your campaign.

Click Rate – With the click or click-through rate, you have a metric that gives you the unique number of clicks on the links in your opened emails. This one is very important because it speaks to the engagement quality of your content. If no one is clicking, then no one is engaged enough to take action, meaning you probably need to head back to the drawing board.

Bounce Rate – The bounce rate tells you how many of your messages bounced back for whatever reason and were not delivered. A bounce could occur for a wide variety of reasons, but what’s most important is rectifying the problem. If you continue to send email to an address that is producing bounces, the infamous blacklist could be your fate.

Measuring Beyond Metrics

So which metrics are the most essential? Well, that really depends on the objectives of your campaigns. What is critical is understanding the importance of not limiting yourself to metrics when trying to access your overall performance. Sure opens, clicks, and bounces can tell you a lot about how your campaigns are performing, but never discount the key interactions that don’t necessarily show up in the reports. Think outside the box with your measuring, and you will be able to see a much clearer picture.

John is a consultant, best practices activist and advocate for leading web and permission based email services.

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