The numbers that matter.
WHAT PLATFORMS REPORT
Delivered, opens, clicks, unsubscribes, complaints, bounces.
WHAT ACTUALLY MATTERS
Sales or enquiries attributable to email Click rate, as a measure of relevance Unsubscribe and complaint rates, as warning signs List growth over time
ON OPEN RATES
Increasingly unreliable. Privacy features in mail clients pre-load images, which registers as an open that did not happen.
Treat them as a rough indicator, not a measurement.
Clicks are more trustworthy.
THE NUMBER THAT DECIDES EVERYTHING
Revenue or enquiries from email, against the time and cost of producing it.
If a monthly campaign takes three hours and produces nothing measurable after a year, something needs changing.
TRACKING SALES
Use tracking parameters on your links so analytics attributes the traffic.
For a shop, your platform may report revenue per campaign directly.
BASELINES
Record where you are before making changes.
REVIEWING
Quarterly. Individual campaigns vary; trends over several are meaningful.
