The email remains the Killer App Internet and has both marketing and cultural phenomena. In its relative short lifespan, email has become so massive that its use, whether you like it or hate it, is an essential part of any multichannel marketing action, exceeding other channels in almost all its dimensions - volume, frequency, ease of execution, cost, just to list some.
Despite the importance it gains as a marketing tool, many people, including Marketeers, continue to evaluate their email marketing campaigns by evaluating shipping metrics (e.g. merely indicative opening and click ratios ( CTRs )).
With all the importance that these metrics can have in the perception of a certain level of success, it is important that we perceive and withdraw the due value of what is “beyond the click”. It is important to know how many people have received, seen, or clicked on the links of an email message, and even who they are. The real value is in knowing what happened after the click: what was the route of this user, how long he spent on the site (or landing page), what the profile, what the qualification level as Lead, in the specific context of the site or campaign, was purchased (conversion), adding all the other metrics that he can normally get with a Web Analytics tool.
Today, the market requires an integrated approach not only to online marketing actions (it is not enough to “shoot” actions) but mainly to the ability to interpret results and react in real time, with targeted and, if possible, personalized actions.
The integration of email marketing campaigns with tracking mechanisms in email and websites Web amplifies and enhances the success of a campaign, allowing you to follow user behavior from your Inbox to the shopping cart, including all the intermediate points of the visit.
An integrated view of Email Analytics helps to:
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Perceiving the route of the visit after clicking the email;
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Check that the user has been directed to the desired area on the site;
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Realize how long the visit took;
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Evaluate the Lead qualification level;
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Check whether the visit has become a business, whether by buying in a virtual store or subscription (conversion);
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verify that the converted product/service was the purpose of the campaign;
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Evaluate whether a visitor from an eMail Marketing campaign differs from other visitors from different backgrounds;
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Assessment of lead generation capacity and its conversion into a multi-channel perspective (web, voice/Call center, point of sale, sms, etc.).
If we complement this information with effective management of contact lists to extract states and address errors, it is this type of “knowledge” that makes eMail Marketing actions and all online campaigns more targeted and effective, helping to develop an online channel (and not just a website!) capable of reacting, if possible in real time, effectively to traffic resulting from online campaigns, and even offline (increasingly both).
Today, there are hundreds of tools on the market that efficiently deliver Newsletters and eMail Marketing campaigns. Much of these tools are effective in handling shipping and conventional metrics (emails sent, returned, theoretically read and links). Some tools also allow you to cross with other channels (sms and voice broadcast). However, the lack of a comprehensive and integrated view of eMail Marketing actions in the global management of the online channel, not only do they not have valid results, but they very possibly end up falling into a rambling logic and, in the worst case, Spam.
Disclaimer:
This is one of the first posts I do on the Blog that crosses, though partially, with the offer BySide. I am doing so because of the growing confusion I have felt in the market, by talking to customers and partners, about the need to measure this type of campaigns effectively.
Explaining the connection: BySide, project that I represent, we develop as a complementary platform to our BySide Webcare ( BySide that aims to manage actions “onsite”, where we include tracking, customization, profiling, targeting and active campaigns Web, Click2Call, chat, sms and surveys) the BySide AdCenter platform that, in an offsite logic, allows the creation and management of SMS campaigns, SMS2Call (sms that after accepting a campaign allows to make a call between the call center and the client mobile), MMS, eMail Marketing, Voice Broadcast interactive and voice surveys.
Although in this Blog express a personal opinion about the management of eMail Marketing campaigns, this is of course the same view that we bring to the logic of these campaigns in BySide AdCenter.
In any case, the confusion we feel in the market (clients and partners) about the need to measure this type of campaigns effectively motivated this post.