The majority of our clients are very focused on how they are engaging with recipients. Whether it is looking at open rates, click rates or effective rates across one mailing or multiple mailings the focus is very much on the activity levels on their emails. These are all very valuable and important metrics. However, even without all the research that has been done on this topic, we all know that up to 80% of people do not engage with your emails and that recipients are becoming increasingly frustrated with irrelevant emails sent to them too often. As a result the question now being asked is:

What is the level of disengagement from your emails?

As email marketing gains greater visibility within companies, pressure is increasingly being placed on email marketers to send out more mails - especially given the provable uplift in revenue generated from each campaign.

Often the timelines get shortened and before you know it you're expected to send out twice as many mailings which leads to less targeted and less thought out campaigns. This will almost certainly work the first time but quickly the engagement and conversion metrics will start to decrease. How many recipients are unsubscribing as frequency increases? What impact does a less targeted campaign have on opt outs and abuse rates?

As pressure mounts make sure you monitor all your metrics closely, and track not only the level of engagement but the disengagement some activities may result in. Customers are increasingly fickle (Brits are more likely than other Europeans to change their minds after researching online according to a MediaScope Europe survey) and with a plethora of companies vying for every piece of business it's important to minimise activities which may lead to the long term decline in your ability to re-engage with your audience (and a significant reduction in the number of people you can engage with!).

Julie Joseph
eMarketing Strategy Consultant

(Image courtesy of AliceNWondrlnd)