The click to open rate is an easily calculated, and very useful metric to include in your analysis. It measures whether your communications are meeting your subscribers’ expectations. Your click to open rate will tell you what proportion of the subscribers who opened, then went on to click. The value of your content, and how effectively you convey it in your subject line will influence this metric the most.

Open, click, conversion rates and revenue per email metrics can either be calculated based on the number of messages sent or the number delivered. Each one is perfectly acceptable, providing you consistently stick with one method. However it could be argued that basing your metrics around the number sent is more appropriate for acquisition than retention.

Generating clicks will provide you with valuable information on each of your subscribers, from which content is most attractive to exactly what each individual subscriber is interested in.

Before you buy in a third-party list, check: are you making the most of the program you’ve already got?
Look to build your list organically instead: create something worth subscribing to and communicate its benefits clearly
Make it really easy to subscribe from your website – build email subscription into your web template if possible
Consider an audit of your subscription process and goals
Don’t collect info you’re not going to use in the next 12 months

In the 6 months we have been publishing the AWCM [pronounced:آ aw-suhآ m]آ index we have noticed that email marketers appear to have a marked preference for sending emails on the second and third weeks of the month. With the exception of November (probably due to the Christmas effect) email volumes peak during the second or third week and tend to drop markedly at month end.

So far, Metric of the Month has looked at conventional email metrics. Essentially, these ‘campaign based’ metrics examine how the message performed and treat each message as a discreet event. They do not tell you anything about subscriber behaviour over time. Whilst campaign based metrics are useful they can be frustrating because they give you a sense of what, but not why leaving you with more questions than answers.