In Part 1 of this article, I defined process metrics and contribution metrics, explained the difference between them, and identified the most-common measures in each category. In part 2, we'll explore the key actionable insights determined from those metrics and how to best employ them.
There are many approaches to using email-campaign metrics to measure and improve marketing performance. The following are the top five approaches I recommend, along with appropriate measures and usable insights for each.
1. Message or Campaign Diagnostics
This approach measures the performance of a single email message or campaign (which may be a series of messages). It answers basic questions, such as "Was the message successfully delivered?" and "Did we meet our campaign goals?" and allows you to gather the performance statistics necessary for benchmarking the message or campaign against past or future ones. It also helps you identify issues that may be causing reduced email delivery and higher-than-usual unsubscribes or complaints.
Metrics: This approach relies primarily on process metrics, such as the open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, spam-complaint rate, delivery rate, engagement rate (length of time on landing page, conversions), and unsubscribe rate.
Actionable insights:
- Gauge how the subject line is performing (open rate)
- Measure effectiveness of targeting, offer link strategy and creative (click-through)
- Determine effectiveness of email vs. landing-page content (click-through rate, conversion rate, click-to-conversion ratio)
- Monitor deliverability
- Determine overall relevance (unsubscribe and complaint rates)
2. Post-Campaign Response Analysis
This approach analyzes audience behavior by unique segmentation scheme, such as by demographics, geography, past buying behavior (RFM, or recency, frequency, monetary), past email engagement, source of name, or time on list. After a message or campaign is run, it views response by segmented audience group.
For example, analysis by time on list might reveal that established members (those who signed up more than six months ago) have higher click-through rates on average than newer members (those who signed up within the last six months), creating an opportunity for different email frequency to different list segments. You can test an onboarding campaign to new members as a way to increase engagement and conversion. Or you might find that analysis by age indicates that twentysomethings are more responsive than thirtysomethings, allowing for greater positioning of offers and creative to the younger group.
Metrics: This approach also primarily uses process metrics, such as the open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, forward/share rate, etc.
Actionable insights:
- Understand how demographic or geographic differences affect response
- Improve targeting and segmentation on future campaigns
- Test offers, creative, or frequency to improve response on less-active list segments
- Develop or test frequency strategies
3. Longitudinal Audience Engagement Analysis
It's great to have a process-metrics report for each message or campaign, but you'll also want to know how segments of your list respond from a process-metrics standpoint over longer periods of time.
Such an analysis relies on measuring cumulative actions by the responder (opens, clicks, conversions) during defined time periods (usually quarterly or annually) to uncover both best responders and inactive list segments for reactivation or culling.
Metrics: Like the previous two approaches, this one uses process metrics such as the open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, and forward/share rate but views them from individual-subscriber perspective rather than a campaign perspective. Essentially, it requires subscriber email interaction (i.e., a response history) to be present in your database.
