Beyond Click-Through
Email marketing reporting tools can only follow subscribers up to the point where they click-though the call to action button and land on the website. After that, web analytics takes over. Email marketing solutions that have integrated Google Analytics gives you the complete picture of your subscribers’ actions. That is why it is so important to use the two tools in accordance with one another.
Marketers rely on a number of key performance indicators to run successful email marketing campaigns. Common KPIs include the percentage of subscribers that opened the message, read the message (determined by the length of time the email message remained open), and clicked-through a call to action button on the email. These percentages are important as they measure the effectiveness of each campaign. Over time, marketers use these reports to develop benchmarks and goals for upcoming campaigns, to streamline business processes needed to support campaigns, and to increase the accuracy of the email messages. These kPIs are vital to the success of the email marketing strategy; and, on their own, they provide marketers with information that can be used to grow their subscriber base and increase response rates. However, the click-through rate isn’t the same as the true conversion rate. Google Analytics allows you to track the subscribers’ clickstream data so you can easily see your campaign conversion rate and ROI.
Clickstream data is the information that users generate as they click from page to page through a website. In the past, it has been used by web designers to track the visitors’ path through the site so they could increase the site navigation. However, today marketers are tracking clickstream data through web analytics to figure out how customers are interacting with their websites.
For example, say you sent out an email campaign inviting 10,000 subscribers to purchase a new product at a discounted price. Using the tracking features of the email marketing product, you can see that you had a 15 percent click-through rate.
You can then use web analytics to track the pageviews of the subscribers that clicked-through your email. You will see which subscribers left your site after reviewing the information on your landing page. You will know which subscribers were drawn away from your initial offer through other information on your site that had a greater importance to them. You will learn which subscribers added the product to their shopping cart but abandoned it before reaching the check out process. And you will also find out which subscribers reviewed the product information but decided not to make a purchase at that time. In addition, you will also be able to tell when the subscribers visited the site, how many times they returned to your site, and what pages they viewed on each visit.
Knowing these metrics takes the guesswork out of your reports. But it also gives you valuable insight into your subscribers’ viewing and purchasing habits that can be used to develop more relevant email campaigns and landing pages in the future. Also, it gives you the information you need to create specific remarketing campaigns directly targeted to the subscribers that have shown interest in your previous offer.
