The Email Measurement Accuracy Coalition (EMAC), which was formed in April 2007 to establish e-mail marketing measurement standards, has defined its first metric: deliverability.
Deliverability has been defined by the EMAC as total e-mail deployed (unique records) divided into the total amount successfully delivered. The amount successfully delivered is the total amount attempted minus all failures, including hard bounces.
“We surveyed mailers, clients and marketers to see what information they used to gather results and it was all over the board,” said Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the EEC. “By standardizing the definition, we think that this will have a massive impact on the industry because we will be able to establish a level playing field.”
It is still early in the process and no e-mail service providers have signed up at this time. Mullen said that she expects the industry to take six to 12 months for real adoption to occur.
“There is definitely a problem with the industry not having a standardized way to measure metrics, but it will be challenging to get everyone to adopt the same measurement tools and definitions,” said Heather Blank, strategic services manager at Responsys.
EMAC does not expect everybody to adopt its definition, but hopes that those that do will define their metrics according to the EMAC definition. With this defining process, marketers will be given a tool to measure by.
This definition comes a week after the Email Experience Council, the Direct Marketing Association’s e-mail marketing arm, has taken guardianship over EMAC. Under the EEC name, EMAC’s issues will continue to be addressed. The group is now working in tandem with the EEC’s Research and Intelligence Roundtable to begin standardizing the definitions of click-through and click-to-open rates, as well as other industry metrics.
