There are many misconceptions about email marketing software data. The following article will help clear the air. Knowing more about your email marketing statistics, will ensure that you start reaching the potential that a powerful marketing tool like email marketing software can provide for your business.

The term ‘delivered’ is not as simple as it seems, so looking to those numbers to determine your success is a fallacy. Taking a deeper look at what ‘delivered’ means will help you understand why this is. Emails that get caught up in spam/junk folders or are deleted as soon as they hit the inbox do not get factored into the stats that determine delivered emails. The reports you are getting are likely a little lower than you expected.

The only way to get real statistics on the delivery of your emails you’ll need to look for some of the services offered that monitor in detail the delivery of your emails.

As strange as it sounds, your data has a lot of hidden meanings. Taking a magnifying glass to them will certainly show you how your emails can be even more successful.

Most of the reports that your email marketing software statistics tell you are averages and percentages based on your entire contact list. Unless you dig deeper, these averages can mask some important differences in contacts’ reaction to your emails. You might realize that one portion of your list is largely from a certain domain, like roadrunner.com or hotmail.com. If this is the case you know you are having deliverability issues to that domain. This is extremely helpful in finding a solution to the problem and therefore can improve your overall success in your email marketing software campaigns.

It is also important to review your open rates with a fine toothed comb in order to get a more accurate measure of how many active readers you have. By looking back to see the trend in your open rates you will probably see that they tend to look similar with some small variation as time goes on: 25%, 24%, 26%, 22%, 25%, 27%, 26%…etc.

It safe to say from just ‘eye-balling’ the numbers, that the average readership is 25%. This is possible, but more often than not it’s not the same people opening each email. Instead of just looking at open rates by each campaign that you send out, look for how many people opened at least one email in the past month; Or, input another period of time that makes sense for your sending schedule. You may be surprised by what you unearth. You might discover that your average open rate is much greater.

This is because your contacts might no necessarily open the email EACH time you send it. It is far more reasonable to conclude that they might be busy sometimes, or on vacation. In other words they might not have time to read the email one week, but have plenty the next.

This can also happen because of the varying needs of your contacts. This in turn gives you important insight on how you can go about splitting up your database to target those needs better. As an example, if one portion of your list only opens the email when you offer a promotion, or another only opens the email when you send a newsletter then you are now better equipped to target their interests to illicit a better response.

Paying attention to email marketing data is easy, but takes a bit of time. It will help you determine how to find greater success with your email marketing solutions by targeting the needs of your contacts with more efficacy.

Rudy Barell is a Senior Business Development Executive with Elite Email, the #1 email marketing solutions used by businesses around the globe. Experience how easy it is to build your mailing list, create eye-catching emails and track your success using detailed reports with the complete email marketing program. Try it free!

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