Article by Staff Writer, Posted: November 19, 2003

Email Tracking

Marketing experts know that to create an appropriate marketing strategy, you need to know what people want. Email tracking using today’s email marketing technology involves retrieving metrics from open emails, analyzing web site traffic, and monitoring customer interest.

The growing trend of email marketing has lead to expanded development of email tracking. Knowing who is doing what with your email is just as important to your campaign as sending it. Most professional email marketing software and services offer writeback data that tells you who clicked where, when, and how many times.

Email tracking gives you the ability to determine the effectiveness of your email message, and how it’s being used. After sending a campaign, you can use the merge information written back to your database to learn vital customer email viewing habits; which, after a relatively short amount of time, can be translated into customer buying habits. Online and email coupons help reach this goal even faster.

Email tracking offers numerous benefits to your organization’s customer relationship management and sales strategies as well. The ability to learn buying behavior from your clients enables you to tailor your sales alert and other email marketing messages to their needs and wants. Enabling your team to see what is selling, and what links are generating interest, allows for more focus on the areas that will grow sales and fuel client satisfaction.

After your campaign has been sent, and information has been gathered, email tracking can filter your database to reach specific client populations. Email tracking provides incremented data in pre-designated columns written to your database. The code transmitted with each email allows for email software (or service manager) to write back and track all information pertaining to a particular email. It is this information that allows the sending of customized campaigns, all based on click-thru, opened or unsubscribe information.

Email tracking also gives you the ability to see who is opening your email, and allows the sending of automated email responses based on the message open activity. Open tracking also allows you to see which clients are opening the email. This information gives marketers the ability to monitor what subject lines are being opened the most, and helps them determine which email messages are the most successful. Knowing who has opened your email also allows you to target those customers most interested in your product, enabling total sale potential and maximization of investment.

Another important tracking feature is the ability to see what links are generating the highest traffic. Email tracking helps determine which of your web pages people are looking at the most and what information they are taking away from websites. Tracking web visits are also indicators of what clients are looking for, and what aspect of business you should be focusing on.

The knowledge email tracking provides when using a professional email marketing software is priceless, with sales and growth potential undeniable. Tracking features give an insider’s guide to customer needs and provide focal points for your organization. Demographic information gained from these trackers allow for the use of dynamic content and other field merges to highly personalize email messages. The direct contact that is made with consumers allows for a personal relationship to develop, leading to customer loyalty and the ultimate success of your organization.

Results are important in an organization, big or small. Email tracking gives you the ability to see results that have not always been so easy to find in the past. Customer information is now available to your organization, allowing for you to not only see the success of your campaigns, but also the business generated from these leads.