Please Show Me A Different Metrics That Confirms My Email Marketing Program Is Effective

Yup, there's always pushback ... people love opens/clicks, so when you tell 'em that your Email Marketing Program should generate 15% - 20% of total e-commerce sales and at least 35% of total e-commerce sales among best customers, people get mad. Such was the case on Twitter on Monday.

"Could you give us a different metric? Our brand is unique and special, so we don't think your metric is right for our brand."

"You're just plain wrong."

"Show me the source of the research report that aligns with how you view the world?"

Here's another way to think about whether your Email Marketing Program is effective.

• Sum Annual Demand attributed to your Email Marketing Program ($20,000,000).
• Sum Annual Number of Individual Emails Delivered (say 385,000 subscribers * 5 campaigns per week * 52 campaigns per year = 100,100,000 Annual Individual Emails Delivered.
• Divide Annual Demand by Annual Number of Individual Emails Delivered (20,000,000 / 100,100,000).

In the example provided, the brand generated $0.20 per Individual Email Delivered.

That's what you are looking for ... $0.20 per Individual Email Delivered.

It's common to see $0.03 - $0.06 per Individual Email Delivered. Companies posting this level of sales penetration do not have an effective Email Marketing Program.

I know, here's where you get mad at me.

Cost cuts are coming ... they're going to be deep ... your CFO will look at your marketing budget and will not believe she ever gave you so much cash. In our "new world", she's gonna be thrifty.

Which means you will have no choice but to leverage your virtually free Email Marketing Program to do the heavy lifting going forward. No choice. Sorry Google. Sorry Facebook. You'll both rebound when we have a vaccine.

In other words, if you don't generate at least $0.12 to $0.20 per Individual Email Delivered, it is time to reinvent your Email Marketing Program. Get busy reinventing right now, while you have time. And yes, my QuickScores framework (click here) gets you started moving in the right direction.