Email Marketing Tactics #6: Track and Measure

Tracking and measuring is an often overlooked piece of email marketing.  Everyone likes to talk about the data that is available through email marketing but few people actually use the information to improve their email campaigns.  Track and measure your email campaigns success to optimize it for maximum returns.

The first step in tracking and measuring is getting comfortable with the metrics.  Open rates and click throughs are a good starting place.  This helps define how engaged the audience is with the email campaign.  Likewise opt-outs and SPAM complaints are a good indicator of how far off the mark the campaign might be. 

The real value is in analyzing and using these numbers.  An email campaign should really be an ongoing test.  Testing is always a good idea but even the actual email sends serve as tests.  Small changes should be made throughout to see how it effects opens, click throughs, and ultimately conversions.

By tracking and measuring a lot of guesswork is removed from email marketing.  Objective analysis of the data is the only way to ensure ongoing improvement.