Beyond Open Rates: Metrics that Matter

By Loren McDonald

The reality of email marketing: so many metrics, so few clues about which ones really matter. If the open rate is down but conversions are up, should you stress or celebrate? This article explains why you should focus instead on goals and list quality and how to use the numbers to measure your progress toward meeting them. Read Full Article.

Full Article | Email Feedback

Previous Optimization Article
The Ten Most-Ignored Best Practices

Additional Resources:

• Open Rates Don't Matter
• Click-to-Open Rate: A Better Metric?
• Email Metrics: Lies, Damn Lies The Common Untruths in Email Marketing

Spam Complaints: ISPs Aren't the Enemy

By Kirill Popov and Loren McDonald

Does the "Report Spam" button give you nightmares? Do you wish you could refute every spam complaint that comes through an ISP's feedback loop? You're stressing over the wrong thing. If you have solid-gold permission practices permission but still generate a lot of spam complaints, you have a relationship problem with your recipients. This article outlines eight trouble spots and how to fix them quickly. Read Full Article.

Full Article | Email Feedback

Previous Delivery Trends Column
FTC Actions Target Opt-Out Compliance, Phony Forwarding

Gross deliverability rates fell in the U.S. in the first three months of 2006 but rose in Europe, according to the quarterly survey by EmailLabs' sister company, Lyris Technologies Inc. Lyris attributed the U.S. drop to poor deliverability at 3 providers.

Deliverability Falls in U.S.; Gains in Europe

Gross Deliverability Percentage Combined average rate of gross and inbox deliverability, US and Europe:   Q4 2005: 89% Q1 2006: 86% Q1 gross deliverability, Europe 94% Q1 gross deliverability, US 86% Q1 inbox deliverability, Europe 94% Q1 inbox deliverability, US 82% Q1 false positive rate, Europe 3.5% Q1 false positive rate, US 7.7%

Confirming Unsubscribes Via Email

If you use email to confirm or report problems with unsubscribes, convey the news up front in the subject line, especially if the unsubscribe failed. If you deliver the bad news in the last word, your reader might not see it. They'll likely get angry when you continue to send email, and angry readers equal spam complaints and lost business.

Ideally, your company or newsletter name shows up in the sender, or "from" line. That lets you report the good or bad news in the subject line in just three to four words.

Good example: From: XYZ Newsletter. Subject line: "Successfully unsubscribed."

Bad example: From: support@XYZ.com Subject line: "Your request to unsubscribe from XYZ Newsletter was unsuccessful." Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and the new Yahoo mail beta cut off the subject line before "unsuccessful."

Email Feedback

How National Geographic Can Punch Up Your Subject Lines

One 'Reply-To' Address for 3 Newsletters?

Q.: We send three newsletters for our company and use the same email reply address on all of them. Is this smart or could it cause problems?

A.: Generally, it's best to use a separate reply-to address for each newsletter, but it's not a best-practice requirement. However, the full article lists a couple of potential problems and four ways to avoid them. Read Full Answer

Full Answer | Got a Question? Ask EmailLabs
More Email Marketing FAQ's

EmailLabs is a leading provider of high performance email marketing solutions to agencies, publishers and marketing, sales and customer service departments of middle-market and Global 2000 companies. The EmailLabs email marketing platform is provided as an ASP (Web-based) service, and is easily customized and integrated with a company's Web site, sales force automation and CRM technologies. The company provides email marketing solutions to more than 550 companies, including Nokia, Agilent, PalmSource and Jupitermedia. Headquartered in Menlo Park, Calif., EmailLabs was founded in 1999 and is a subsidiary of Lyris, Inc. (OTCBB:JLHY).

For more information, visit www.emaillabs.com or call 866.362.4522.