This post speaks to the idea of assessing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in the context of an email marketing programme.
Any KPI / metric employed should be business focused, not operationally driven. However operational metrics will help refine the tactical delivery of the campaign, so do address the two in parallel. While "click-through rates", "open rates" (etc.) will give feedback on how the campaign performed, you must link them back to the broader, strategic, picture.
Here are some ideas for business focused KPI's
- Increased sales - e.g. of your product or service
- Increased market share - e.g. relative to your closest competitor in a particular category or market segment
- Increased brand recognition - e.g. customers on your list immediately recall your brand as a provider of a particular product or service when asked
- Increased social media presence - e.g. a twitter account linked to your email newsletter results in x% increase in followers
- Increased subscription rates - e.g. click-through to landing page resulting in subscription to your newsletter or information campaigns
- Increased ROI - e.g. sales of products and services versus the investment cost in the email marketing campaign
- Reduced cost - e.g. of running a standard newsletter "awareness" campaign versus a direct mail equivalent, with the same reach and response
- Cost avoidance - e.g. running an email-based promotional campaign for a product or service rather than advertising for same via other more cost-intensive channels
Once KPI's have been defined, then you can develop a way of measuring them to ensure that your programme & campaigns are aligned with other channels & with company goals.
Here are some more examples of KPIs*
Finally - always remember a multi-channel world means many different initiatives can influence the purchasing decision.
-= David