Email measurement: the missing ingredient
Dan Smith, SVP of marketing, ClickSquared
Are marketers effectively using email to get closer to their customers? If email is the least expensive, most trackable and easiest way to understand customer behavior, why aren't more marketers using it to its full potential? A recent ClickSquared industry survey conducted by The Relevancy Group reveals that marketers segmented audiences based upon email click-through data only 42% of the time within the last six months. Email open rates were used only 35% of the time. If marketers have the information they need to target specific behavior profiles and engagement levels, what is holding them back?
According to marketers in the survey, demographics and geographics were the most commonly used customer segmentation and targeting attributes. Sixty-one percent are using demographics and 51% are using geographics. These statistics are alarming when we know how much behavioral targeting can contribute to the success of a marketing campaign, often increasing conversion rates fivefold or more.
The need for relevancy has never been more important than in today's multimedia environment, where consumers are constantly bombarded with commercial messages. The data gleaned from customer opens and clicks enable precise audience segmentation and targeting, allowing marketers to create more effective and relevant communication streams based on observed customer interests.
In addition, using click-through rates can be extremely important in measuring your success against your marketing objectives, and compare competing campaigns.
Understanding the relationship of opens-to-click, and then clicks-to-conversion, gives marketers the clues to fine-tune their messages. For example, having a low open-rate — in conjunction with a high conversion rate — points to either a deliverability issue or a poor subject line. Paying attention to these important metrics can help the marketer understand what needs to be tweaked and tested to achieve better results.
Careful analysis of email behavior is critical to the development of highly relevant marketing campaigns that deliver the best return on your marketing dollar. Analyzing click-through rates can help marketers target more effectively and address deliverability issues.
Email metrics are essential ingredients to understanding customer behavior and developing effective marketing campaigns. It's just a matter of experimenting to find the best recipe.
