{"id":37471,"date":"2021-10-14T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/?p=37471"},"modified":"2024-12-23T13:13:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T18:13:31","slug":"email-reports-marketing-leaders-should-look-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.litmus.com\/blog\/email-reports-marketing-leaders-should-look-at","title":{"rendered":"3 Email Reports Marketing Leaders Should Look At With an Eye Toward the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t
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Written by Amy Jones, Chief Marketing Officer at Digital Aviation Solutions.<\/em><\/p>\n

The beauty of email marketing is you can immediately see results\u2014and we often take that for granted. Back when I did huge segmented direct marketing campaigns for Epsilon, it would take months<\/i> to get the results. Then I worked for an email agency called e-Dialog to do email targeting and segmentation, and the results were instant<\/i>. I\u2019ve been hooked ever since.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been in the email space for over two decades, now the VP of Email Marketing & Analytics at Oracle for the corporate marketing teams. We run the marketing technology stack that they use, making their campaigns as efficient and successful as possible with a tight analytics feedback loop.<\/p>\n

Why the tight feedback loop? Email analytics<\/a> is incredibly valuable, giving you insight into what works and what doesn\u2019t so you can drive the right content and segmentation strategies for your campaigns.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a lot of data out there, and it can put you into analysis paralysis. So what\u2019s a good place to start?<\/p>\n

Top email reports every company needs to have<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s important to block out the noise and key in on the metrics that matter most to your business. While there\u2019s much to consider, there are three foundational reports you definitely need to make sure you have.<\/p>\n

1. Email list health<\/h3>\n

The most critical report you must have is for monitoring your audience\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

What is going on with the health of your database? And this includes everything from analyses on where the most engaged and active subscribers are coming from to what\u2019s happening over time to the size of your audience as that relates back to source. How are you growing your email list?<\/p>\n

Audience health is super important to the fundamental performance of all of your campaigns. Without a solid database, expect everything else in your email program to suffer.<\/p>\n

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\"Litmus'<\/td>\n\n

Healthy email list. Healthy ROI.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Subscribers fuel your overall email program success. Learn how to drive email revenue, a higher ROI, and list growth\u2014all while giving a better experience to your subscribers.<\/p>\n

GET THE GUIDE<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Email engagement metrics<\/span><\/p>\n

Companies tend to put too much emphasis on opens and click rates. They\u2019re an indication of general email engagement health, but they don\u2019t tell you how or what or what next. A great open rate just shows how flashy your subject line is. And, there\u2019s been a lot of change on the reliability of open rates anyway because of Apple\u2019s Mail Privacy Protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now\u2019s the time to go deeper and really understand what\u2019s happening after the click and what\u2019s happening with your subscribers in other channels. What are they doing when they get to the website? Draw that bigger, more holistic picture of your subscriber engagement activity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And what I wish more marketers would look at is engagement metrics by campaign type<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So, categorizing and driving content in a way you can understand that content\u2019s performance relative to your targeting. For example, why is your newsletter your best performing email? By looking at content types, you can help tie back to your content strategy to help drive your segmentation strategy. You just need the right categorization to organize your emails and look at them more broadly in groups.<\/p>\n

3. Negative email metrics<\/h3>\n

Usually not as popular but still very important to understand are your negative metrics.<\/p>\n

What are your unsubscribe rates? What are your ignore rates? Ignore rate is a huge one. It looks like someone received the email, but you don\u2019t understand that maybe they\u2019re moving into your dormant file or they\u2019re maybe going to unsubscribe eventually based on their email client.<\/p>\n

As part of the report on negative metrics, I would also look at deliverability.<\/p>\n

Something like 15-17% of emails never make it to the inbox. So, are your emails even getting there before you can understand both your audience health and your engagement? And if subscribers are going in the direction of becoming a stale contact, what can you do to stop that? What are your trigger points along the way based on the types of inactive subscribers<\/a>?<\/p>\n

How marketing leaders can use these reports<\/h2>\n\"woman\n

As a marketing leader, you don\u2019t need to get into the weeds. But having a pulse on your email analytics empowers you to:<\/p>\n