Wendy Roth writes a great piece for iMedia Connection on the core metrics every email marketer should measure. She states some of the clear and obvious ones, but also discusses some that are very important and often are overlooked. The top 7 metrics to watch on Wendy’s list are:

• Delivery
• Opens
• Clickthroughs
• Funnel navigation
• Conversions
• Unsubscribes
• Spam complaints

These are all key metrics in measuring the true performance of your campaigns and more imporantly giving you the data you need to accurately tweak and optimize your efforts. One of the metrics that stood out to me was “funnel navigation” which essentially is the path that your customers will hopefully take to the point of converting. As Wendy mentions, its important to keep an eye on where your users are going off the click and hopefully to the point of acting on whatever your conversion event is, a sale, an RSVP, a lead, etc.

Here is a graphic used in Wendy’s article that helps visually show the funnel navigation process:

Its very important to watch where your recipients are going once they click. We always advise on the path of least resistance, meaning make your funnel navigation path as short and as sweet as possible. Guide your customers to where you want them, clearly and concisely. Watch what works and change what doesn’t.

Check out the complete “In Focus” series by Wendy Roth “Email Marketing: What to Measure”

Here is a great article from ClickZ that outlines the rather complex chain of email deliverability. For anyone who has ever wanted to know all of the various steps involved in getting a message to a users inbox, this covers all of the steps. Check it out.

“Years ago, the e-mail delivery chain had just a few links. You loaded your e-mail and hit “send.” After a couple handoffs, the message arrived in your recipient’s inbox the way you sent it.

Today, that chain has many more links. Some block your e-mail, others help it along. Deliverability has become a big issue for many e-mail senders. It even spawned this column.”

Could the future of email involve what today feels like alien behavior….an email culture where we have a primary Inbox, and a secondary Inbox that looks and feels much like our Spam/Junk folders of today?

It seems like an absurd proposition, but if we ever want to be 100% certain we receive the good email, will we ever be able to escape the daily routine of checking our spam/junk folders to be sure nothing was missed? Some will, but I suspect many won’t.

And with Outlook ‘03, it’s clear that they haven’t yet figured out how to continously deliver only the good email to your Inbox. Often, I approve a sender, only to find the next email from them right back in the Junk Folder. Luckily, they remind me to check it….and it’s now become part of my daily routine. Sure it’s no fun sifting through pointless junk mail from worldwide experts on utterly meaningless topics, but it is better than not getting some important email. And the more I do it each day, the easier it is to search for good email….it’s at the top…..so it’s a quick exercise a few times each day.

And over time, if other filtering and authentication strategies fail to gain traction, then we are likely to utilize email in much the same way we do today, with a Junk Mail folder continuing to hold important email. It’s only natural that the Junk Folder will continue to evolve and become more functional so that we can begin to use it more like a second Inbox.

Sounds crazy today….but maybe not tomorrow.

The answer to that question may determine whether your marketing emails end up in the junk folder or the inbox. You see, a large share of deliverability challenges can not be mitigated by clever technology or reputation management solutions. They are caused by companies, who do get permission to deliver email, but then send only sales messages.

Many recipients don’t remember or care whether they subscribed to your emails. At best they will unsubscribe — often, you run the risk of getting a click of the notorious “this is SPAM” button. Sending welcome email is in large part a result of your intent.

A recent article by Jackie Huba outlines the basic differences between sales messages that are imposed and evangelizing messages that are more often welcomed. These differences are remarkably similar to the differences between spam and welcome email.

To adapt Huba’s idea to email marketing, we would have a chart of characteristics that looks something like this:

Within these characteristics, how do your recipients rate your messages? Are they bored by the same old sales pitch in every message or are they sometimes engaged by your unconventional ideas? Do you share the passion and mission of your organization or only the latest discounts?

Over time, the answers to these questions will affect your email deliverability even when recipients have asked to receive your messages.

We are happy to announce the release of our latest white paper: “Understanding and Maximizing Deliverability.” The paper is an educational overview of the key issues surrounding email deliverability today. The document is written in an digestable, easy to read format, and designed to be a resourceful tool for all marketers. Below, is a brief excerpt of the executive summary, to get a copy of the full white paper please contact us by clicking here.