Disconnects on Metrics: Health vs. Optimization vs. Success Metrics

Marketers have become very focused on measuring the effects of their work—which is both good and bad. On the one hand, quantifying things can prove that certain strategies and tactics are effective and worth additional investment. On the other hand, we don’t always do a very good job at understanding the numbers…

9 Experts Weigh in on Email Metrics that Matter

If you’re just looking at your email open and click rates, you’re missing out, says Tim Watson, founder of email marketing consultancy Zettasphere. I couldn’t agree more. To help marketers better understand how to use the email metrics that are available to them, Tim asked me and eight other email marketing experts…

The New Litmus Test for a Great Email Marketing Program

I used to say the hallmark of a great email marketing program was that they have a robust A/B testing program. It’s not just because I consider A/B testing a key optimization tool and a vital part of “listening” to subscribers, but because if a brand is taking the time to follow…

Tweetables from Dreamforce 2014

It was a great week at Dreamforce 2014 and I found plenty of great content to tweet about. In case you missed them, here are all the tidbits, factoids, and stats that I shared this week from the conference. You can find all the tweets from Dreamforce at #DF14. Sears.ca overhauled cart…

The Email Marketing Rules for Measuring Success

In my latest Email Insider column for MediaPost, I discuss three poor email marketing success metrics and explain what a better alternative metric is in each case. Instead of unqualified list growth, where every new subscriber is viewed as equally valuable, I recommend using “real list growth.” This metric adjusts for subscriber…

The Questions My #EEC14 Panel Didn’t Get to

I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel last week at the Email Evolution Conference with fellow email marketing book author Simms Jenkins. We crowdsourced questions online for our session, in addition to taking questions from attendees—but, of course, we didn’t get through them all. So I wanted to go ahead…

In Defense of ‘Low’ Open Rates

No one wrings their hands over email marketing’s stellar ROI, but I’m surprised by how often a big deal is made out of “low” open, click and conversion rates. Everything is about perspective. And that’s absolutely the case when looking at open rates, which can be highly misleading, especially when compared over…

Email Marketing Is Blind in One Eye

Measuring the performance of your email marketing efforts is critical. It’s vital to maximizing program revenue, as well as subscriber happiness. But email marketing is not nearly as measureable as we like to think it is. Ignoring how unreliable so-called “open” rates are, subscribers react to our emails in a lot of…