Improve Email Marketing with Web Analytics Insights

By Blaine Mathieu

Financial marketers agree that email marketing has proven itself to be a valuable lead-generation and customer acquisition tactic. But if those marketers are counting solely on open and click-through rates to tell the successful campaigns from the unsuccessful ones, they're missing the boat. In today's digital world, marketers must adopt a well-rounded online marketing initiative. By adding the power of web analytics to their arsenal of marketing tools, marketers are moving toward an integrated online marketing approach. Web analytics shows how respondents engage with a website and can better indicate just how effective an email campaign was or wasn’t, and why.

Let's take a look at the role that web analytics can play in the four phases of the email campaign process:

Send.
Some marketers have a narrowly defined view of conversion – if a sale or lead doesn't immediately result from a campaign, then the campaign is considered a flop. But this narrow view ignores the “big picture”. Marketers can use web analytics solutions to get a broader, more accurate view of their campaign's performance by tracking a variety of metrics, including visitors' average time on site and campaign exit rates. These metrics can help marketers pinpoint areas where the conversion process could be improved, so they can implement their findings in follow-up campaigns.

Analyze.
Analysis is an extremely important part of any email campaign's success. By taking a look at all of the data available, including the data that Web analytics provides, marketers will gain greater insight into how visitors interact with their campaigns and their site. Two of the most important metrics to consider are:

Time on site: The time on site metric often indicates how well a website is able to keep a visitor interested, and if the site is meeting their expectations. Marketers can use their web analytics program to determine the average time on site for all visitors, then look at the average time on site for visitors who arrived from a particular email campaign. If the email campaign's visitors stayed the same time (or longer) than the average visitor, the campaign should be considered successful. If the campaign's average time on site was high, but resulted in few conversions, marketers should consider a follow-up campaign that introduces a sense of urgency – a tactic like offering a 25% off coupon that expires in a week may be just the push the needed.

Exit rates: When it comes to exit rates, the lower the number, the better. A campaign's exit rate is an excellent indicator of whether the visitors' expectations have been met. If marketers notice a high exit rate, their first step would be to ensure that the campaign's landing page complements and reiterates the initial offer made in the email campaign. Using the same, or at least similar, graphics and promotion wording is a good start.

Target.
Marketers should focus on visitors who share common behavior when responding to a particular email campaign – a practice called visitor segmentation. Using web analytics to segment campaign respondents gives marketers valuable insights on creating more effective follow-up campaigns.

Resend.
After the initial send, the analysis and the targeting, marketers are ready to resend to the recipient – either via a follow-up campaign or through an entirely new offer. By considering a wide variety of metrics including average time on site, campaign exit rates, ROI, conversion, and visitor volume/response rate, marketers can make more informed resending decisions.

Combining the personalization power and security of an installed email marketing solution such as Lyris ListManager 10.0 and the unparalleled insights web analytics tools such as Lyris ClickTracks provide, marketers have the opportunity to better meet the unique needs and preferences of each customer. For marketers in the financial services realm, it's just one more important step in the journey toward integrated online marketing.

Blaine Mathieu is CMO of Lyris Inc., based in Emeryville, Calif. www.Lyris.com