I often get asked by clients’ questions along the lines of:

“How do I measure whether or not my email blast was successful??”

or

“What is the best metric I should report back to my boss after I send out an eDM??”

People often argue that Email Open Rates is the greatest measure of a successful eDM. Although prima facie it is accurate to suggest Email Open Rates is the best indicator for email performance, this is a flawed logic.

Usually, Email Open Rates are usually dictated by whether or not the recipient is entertained by the subject heading or resonated with who the email is sent from. This is not necessarily an indicator of sales readiness or an intention to purchase.

Techy Tip: Further, email opens are usually measured by ‘images downloaded’. It is important to note that certain email clients download images automatically. For that very reason ‘Email Opens’ is often an inaccurate measure of a successful email.

Similarly, “email deliverability” is a popular indicator of a successful email campaign, but it still does not take the title of the “best measure for a successful email campaign” – at least in my books!

Deliverability is affected by how clean your list of email recipients is kept in order. If you have an email platform (such as Pardot), that cleanses your list (automatically unsubscribes any recipients who have hard bounced or previously unsubscribed), then your deliverability rates should be in the high 90%’s regardless.

Colloquially speaking, “if you have a good housekeeper, your dirty laundry should be in order”.

So…..for those of you who are still reading….here is the punch line:

“The best measure of a successful eDM is recipient interactions, or CTR (Click Through Rate)”

– Alex Kaye

Click any link within this post or click here to show your interaction with this article…it will just divert you back to this same article once again, but at least I am tracking your interactions..

🙂