Category: Stefan Eyram

As marketers are held more accountable for their budget there is a greater need to provide CFO with return on investment (ROI) metrics for programs, campaigns and even individual executions. It seems that nowhere is this more relevant than with email marketing.
Part of the drive for email ROI is that email _is_ so measurable. You can get immediate feedback on your executions and accurately forecast the results of an email drop in just a few days. Furthermore, when you integrate your email metrics with your point-of-sale or e-commerce data and your web analytics platform (“WebTrends”:http://www.webtrends.com, “WebSideStory/HBX”:http://www.websidestory.com, “Omniture”:http://www.omniture.com, etc.) you can get even deeper ROI insights.
Here are a few things that can help you optimize your mail ROI:
*Clean Email Lists* – Keeping your lists clean (removing unsubscribes and bounces) is a best practice for avoiding spam blocks. It’s also a great way to reduce the number of messages sent, therefore reducing your total cost. Furthermore, if you have an old, underperforming list (maybe you inherited it from another division or a company you acquired) you may want to re-subscribe them through an opt-in campaign. Case studies have proven it’s the quality of the list, not the quantity that drives ROI. It’s possible to cut your email list in half and not affect your click-though and other activity rates. Plus you save 50% on your per-message fees, meaning an increase in ROI.

One of the most common questions I get asked about email marketing is “What are the industry average open and click-through rates?”
If you ask ten industry experts you are likely to get ten different answers.
What’s the right answer?
“It depends.”
That’s also the right answer for many other email-related questions like:
* What’s the best day and time to send email?
* What’s the best type of offer to send?
* How often should I send email?
The specific answers to these questions will vary depending on your industry, who your best customers are, what your marketing objectives are and many other variables.
So how do you get the answers to your questions?