Email is well-regarded in the marketing world for its ability to drive direct response and cultivate online relationships, and for its low cost relative to other channels, ease of use and exceptional measurability. But to someone on the outside, email marketing may appear to be little more than a cheap and quick way to blast out advertising messages.

One way to help your company's decision-makers understand the power and value of email marketing is by sharing detailed results of your campaigns.

Don't be shy. Share the customer knowledge gained from your email marketing campaigns with others in your company.

How did your mailings perform over the last month or quarter? How is your email campaign performing relative to your ad banners, direct mail and search campaigns? Do your multi-channel respondents really out-perform single-channel customers?

Email reporting and analytics are a lens that enables marketers to consolidate massive volumes of raw data into relevant, simple and actionable information. As the marketing data available to you continues to grow, the opportunities to create better insights and improve revenue grow as well.

Here are a few metrics that can help management better recognize the value and ROI of email marketing:

• Opens and Clicks. The folks in your marketing department placing print ads or radio spots don’t have the luxury of knowing the impact of messaging within hours of a campaign launch. But you can tell the boss how many customers viewed a promotional email message and how they interacted with it.
• Forwards. Word-of-mouth can be difficult to quantify, but viral email marketing can be measured. When you create a campaign so enticing that customers pass it along, be sure to pass the results along to your boss as well.
• Conversions. One of the many beauties of email is its measurability. Track the types of conversions generated by different mailings and tie dollar values back to individual recipients.
• Respond to those who responded to you. Review reports from your email solution that tell you how recipients interact with your messages. This allows you to segment lists and respond to “clickers” based on their interests.

By showing those in positions of leadership exactly how your campaigns are performing, you can help them to better understand your efforts to constantly raise the bar on your email marketing programs and ensure that your campaigns are the ones that customers are waiting to receive.