Andrew Osterday, Solutions Director, eMarketing, Premiere Global Services You Asked With drastic changes in the e-mail deliverability landscape, what metrics should I use to track the performance of my email program?

Traditionally, measuring success of an email campaign is done using three standard metrics: delivery rate, open rate and click-through rate. These metrics gave reasonable insight into how users interacted with a message and whether or not they found its content relevant.

But with the drastic changes in the deliverability landscape and the need more a more in-depth understanding of campaign performance, it’s time to reconsider the metrics we use to gauge success.

First, let’s look at the delivery rate. Delivery rate is determined by calculating how many emails delivered versus the number of emails sent. We recently worked with a client whose campaign reporting showed consistent delivery rates over 95 percent. Fantastic, right? Not when you consider only 40 percent were being delivered to the inbox. Not good.

If you don’t use a delivery reporting partner like Return Path or Pivatol Veracity, look at opens and clicks. If you have high “delivery” but low interaction, it may not be your subject line or creative – it may be that most of your audience is never seeing the email in the first place. Rather than look at the traditional delivery rate, consider using the Inbox Delivery Rate to gage success.

Next, let’s look at opens. Open rate is calculated by number of emails opened versus the number of emails sent. This formula carries an inherent flaw – the open rate should be calculated based on the number of emails delivered to the inbox, not sent. This will give a clearer picture of performance. After all, if the email is never delivered, there is zero chance of an open.

Another flaw is that opens are usually recorded by a 1x1 pixel image rendering upon open. This can lead to skewed numbers when you consider many ISPs suppress images by default. In general, the open rate is still a valuable indicator when looked at over time, but understand its limits when diagnosing your programs.

Last but not least, let’s look at the click-through rate. Like the open rate, the traditional formula for the click-through rate (CTR) carries an inherent flaw. CTR is calculated based on the number of clicks versus the number of emails sent. Some more progressive marketers calculate using the number of total emails delivered (not to the inbox.) But how telling is that? Wouldn’t it be more insightful to look the number of clicks versus the number of people that actually opened the email? After all, if you don’t open the email there is no chance for a click. The suggested formula allows better insight into creative performance and content relevance.

Andrew Osterday joined Premiere Global Services’ eMarketing team in October 2005. Formerly the Creative Manager of Premiere Global's Strategic Services group, Andrew was promoted to Solutions Director, eMarketing in July 2007. With experience at both traditional and interactive advertising agencies, Andrew is experienced in working with clients as a creative manager, account executive and strategic consultant. Premiere Global Services