Study: E-mail Marketers Track the Least Important Campaign Metrics
April 15, 2009 By Heather Fletcher, Senior Editor, Target Marketing
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E-mail marketing is overrun by direct marketers seeking instant gratification, reports e-mail marketing provider eROI of Portland, Ore. An eighth of direct marketers don't even track conversions, with 25 percent of the nontrackers ignoring the metric simply because they don't understand it. Such are the findings of the e-mail marketer survey results in eROI's report Use of Analytics in E-mail Marketing Campaigns.
Drilling down further in the responses eROI received from the more than 500 e-mail marketers surveyed, those who didn't track conversions for e-commerce sites—presumably sales-oriented venues—44.44 percent didn't know how to do it. Another 38.89 percent of e-mail marketers tracking e-commerce sites reported not having the budget to track conversions.
At the outset, the survey released on March 20 showed that 18.06 percent of e-mail marketers don't track their campaigns at all. Of those who do, marketers chose, in order of importance, open, clickthrough and open-to-click rates as the most important metrics.
"Because of the instant campaign gratification epidemic, the more elusive metrics are least important to e-mail marketers," eROI reports. "These include: segment-specific metrics, campaign source for conversion tracking and positive vs. negative clicks (e.g., call to action is positive, unsubscribe might be a negative)."
The survey also found that the follow-through often lacked finesse. Armed with data, 74.03 percent of e-mail marketers shared their findings with company executives. Then, "60 percent of e-mail marketers share campaign statistics with corporate marketing. This is positive, but the remaining two out of five have fundamentally disjointed marketing practices." Additionally, 42.54 percent shared e-mail analytics information with advertising, marketing or public relations agencies; 30.94 percent told their direct sales teams; and the smallest percentage, 23.76 percent, informed their e-commerce departments.
Drilling down further in the responses eROI received from the more than 500 e-mail marketers surveyed, those who didn't track conversions for e-commerce sites—presumably sales-oriented venues—44.44 percent didn't know how to do it. Another 38.89 percent of e-mail marketers tracking e-commerce sites reported not having the budget to track conversions.
At the outset, the survey released on March 20 showed that 18.06 percent of e-mail marketers don't track their campaigns at all. Of those who do, marketers chose, in order of importance, open, clickthrough and open-to-click rates as the most important metrics.
"Because of the instant campaign gratification epidemic, the more elusive metrics are least important to e-mail marketers," eROI reports. "These include: segment-specific metrics, campaign source for conversion tracking and positive vs. negative clicks (e.g., call to action is positive, unsubscribe might be a negative)."
The survey also found that the follow-through often lacked finesse. Armed with data, 74.03 percent of e-mail marketers shared their findings with company executives. Then, "60 percent of e-mail marketers share campaign statistics with corporate marketing. This is positive, but the remaining two out of five have fundamentally disjointed marketing practices." Additionally, 42.54 percent shared e-mail analytics information with advertising, marketing or public relations agencies; 30.94 percent told their direct sales teams; and the smallest percentage, 23.76 percent, informed their e-commerce departments.
Companies Mentioned:
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