Part Six: Tracking results

1. What to track

As with any direct marketing initiative, tracking e-mail campaign results will help you identify what's working, what's not, and how to make improvements.

Among the more common factors e-mail marketers track are:

• Return on investment. This is typically the revenue earned from the campaign minus the costs. However, in integrated, lead generating, and prospect acquisition campaigns, the ROI calculation can be more complex.
• Response cycle. It may be useful to determine how quickly response comes in from an e-mail campaign as compared to other channels, such as telemarketing and direct mail.
• List performance. Which lists pull the higher response rates? Which lists contain the most accurate e-mail addresses and profile data?
• Open rates. What is the percentage of your e-mail messages that are actually opened? Are there any trends regarding which subject lines, lists, and time and date of sending?
• Click throughs. What percentage of your recipients are clicking though your embedded links?
• Abandonment rate. This is the percentage of recipients who receive your e-mail message, open it, click on the call-to-action URL, but then fail to complete the transaction. The abandonment rate can be a measure of the effectiveness of the landing page.
• Readability statistics. In e-mail newsletters, tracking which articles get clicked on and read is useful information. It can indicate customer preferences that drive future marketing initiatives.
• Bounce backs. This occurs when your e-mail message is returned unopened. This doesn't necessarily mean the address is no longer valid. Bounce backs can also be an indication of a technical glitch or simply a recipient who is on vacation. Tracking bounce backs helps keep your e-mail list up-to-date.
• Conversion rate. In lead generation or prospect acquisition campaigns, the conversion rate is the percentage of those leads or prospects that actually buy.

2. How to track it

In direct mail, it's difficult to know with certainty how many people have opened the envelope and read the package.

The e-mail channel, by contrast, is unprecedented in its ability to accurately track virtually every element of a campaign - from who opened the e-mail to who replied to the offer to even if that person subsequently visited your website. (Note: you cannot track the open rate of a plain text message.)

Technical capability

Of course, your ability to track results is constrained by the technology used to support the campaign. Not all e-mail marketing systems, nor all e-mail marketing companies, have the same capabilities.

If you're using an in-house e-mail system, it's important to ensure you have the features in place to deliver the campaign information you need - now and in the future.

If you're using an outside e-mail marketing services company, make sure they have the sophisticated campaign reporting capabilities you require. Some companies offer an a la carte approach, allowing you to pick and choose which campaign reporting features you need.

In-house readiness

Of course, not all e-mail campaign tracking is dependant on technology. Keeping an eye on such factors as return on investment, conversion rates, fulfilment issues, trend analysis, and other success factors requires people resources as well. So it's important to have these in place before your campaign is launched.