How To Fail With Email Promotions
I played lots of basketball growing up and a common mistake we all made as kids was thinking that the tallest guy on the court was the best. Sometimes we were right but not always. But we did learn (in time) that it was only part of what we should be looking for.
We face a similar dilemma with our marketing analytics and the temptation we each have towards a favorite metric. Here’s a paragraph from an article on defining successful email marketing. Often we think that if we could just grow our list or just increase customer engagement then we will have had a successful campaign. Rather than wait for our email marketing program to continue to grow with time we want quick success. Below is a great point about how you can declare a victory by looking at one data point, but if you look at all of the information maybe you would judge your email program differently.
In the end, the goal of your marketing efforts (and in turn your email program) should be to encourage or motivate an action that would not otherwise have been taken. If you are only providing a discount to customers that would have taken action at full-price, have you truly been successful?
(via ClickZ)