If you invited 100 friends to a party at your house, would you judge the success of the party based solely on the number of people who RSVPed? Of course not. You’d also take into consideration how the party itself went — how many people stayed longer than a few minutes, whether they seemed to have a good time and even how much food and wine was left over.
So why would you judge the success of your e-mail campaign based solely on the campaign metrics? You shouldn’t. If you’re relying solely on e-mail metrics, you’re only seeing part of the bigger picture. That’s why savvy e-mail marketers must also invest in Web analytics. A good Web analytics package will allow you to:
See what’s happening beyond the click through: Going back to our party analogy, consider this: What if 75 people showed up at your party and stayed an average of 3 minutes each? Your RSVPs would tell a radically different story than your actual party experience.
Your ESP provides you with campaign stats. Use a Web analytics software package to understand what visitors do once they’ve arrived at your site via a particular campaign. Do they linger in the kitchen section, or chat with others in the forums? Web analytics can show you.
See how different campaigns compare: Web analytics also helps marketers to compare and contrast between campaigns. Last month’s campaign may have had a higher click-through rate, but did it have a correspondingly impressive average time on site (ATOS) or conversion rate? Comparing campaign metrics helps e-mail marketers make better future campaign decisions.
Determine the metrics that really mean “success”: What’s your “real” campaign goal? Most likely it’s to persuade recipients to purchase a particular product, sign up for a newsletter or take a similar action. Savvy e-marketers understand that things like to get the recipient to open the e-mail and get the recipient to click through the links are just a small part of the much larger goal. Investing in Web analytics means you’ll be able to track the metrics that really matter.
So the next time you’re getting ready to press the send button, make sure you’ve got a solid Web analytics program waiting on the other side of the click through. That way, you’ll be able to capture the full range of information you need to make smart e-mail marketing decisions now and in the future.
