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Email Marketers Don't Always Measure What Counts »
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Email Marketers Don't Always Measure What Counts

EmailStatCenter.com has released results from its “First Annual State of Email Metrics” survey; sponsored by Campaigner, the study measures interactive marketing professionals’ views on email-marketing metrics and the challenges and focus areas for 2008.

Click-through and deliverability metrics rank tops with email professionals:

• Respondents ranked click-through rate and deliverability the most important metrics to track.
• Metrics surrounding total subscribers and forwards were among the lowest-ranked in terms of importance.

“While click-throughs and deliverability are essential metrics, it was surprising to find metrics which tie directly to financial return such as ROI, conversion and revenue lower in the rankings,” said Simms Jenkins, founder of EmailStatCenter.com and parent company BrightWave Marketing.

“Marketers are missing an opportunity to use metrics in order to gain the executive support needed to grow their programs. This speaks to the continued need for measuring the impact of email on the complete customer experience.”

Among other highlights of the survey (pdf):

• Frequent measurement is integral to success:
  • Over 95% of those surveyed said they measure the results of their email campaigns.
  • When asked how often they measured results, 57% of respondents said 24-48 hours after deployment.
  • However, only 18% indicated that they measured results on an annual basis (comparing year to year).

• Metrics not ubiquitously used for budgeting:
  • Just 50% of the email professionals surveyed reported that they use metrics for budgeting and forecasting.
  • 35% of professionals said they do not use metrics for budgeting.
  • The remaining 15% were unsure.

Survey respondents also cited list development and time constraints as the biggest challenges they face, and email strategy and measurement as areas for near term focus: