Measuring Email ROI: No Longer a "Should Do" But a "Must Do"

Measuring email return on investment (ROI) strikes fear in the heart of many marketers. Why bother? Does it really matter? The answer is an unequivocal “YES!” First of all, it provides a great benchmark for comparing your email marketing to your company’s other marketing channels. Plus, this metric can also help you justify your email-marketing program to clients and bosses (think, “I need more budget and have to justify it to get approval”).

For those of you who have tried to calculate email ROI, you know how challenging it can be to accurately identify all the components that make up the cost of your email-marketing campaigns. At FulcrumTech, we’ve identified four major categories of factors that have the most significant effect on email ROI:

• The size and quality of your email list
• Email list attrition, including bounces, spam complaints, and unsubscribes
• Email costs, from copy and design to delivery
• Email performance, including open, click-through and conversion rates, as well as revenue per conversion.

See the article I recently wrote for iMedia Connection that talks about these key drivers of email ROI, as well as how to measure and improve your email ROI.

Plus, be sure to check out FulcrumTech’s new web-based email ROI calculator – ROI Goalsetter – for an easy and accurate way to help you assess both your current and future email campaigns.