Email marketers using wrong metrics?

Recent research has found that marketers are putting more emphasis on measuring click-through rates and deliverability as a measure of their email marketing’s success than looking at indicators of financial return.

by Helen Leggatt

Leading marketing professionals were surveyed by EmailStatCenter.com for their recent research into how metrics were being used to gauge an email marketing campaign’s success.

Click-through rates and deliverability were the metrics most used to track campaign success, while total subscribers and forwards were ranked least important.

"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.

The research also found just 50 percent of respondents used email marketing statistics for budgeting and forecasting purposes. Jenkins believes marketers are missing an opportunity to gain executive support for their programs by neglecting email marketing metrics.

Full results of EmailStatCenter’s findings can be found online in their First Annual State of Email Metrics survey.