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”