by Jeff Rice, Senior Research Analyst

CMOs seeking financial ROI to determine email's value in 2011

Q. As CMO or senior marketing executive in your organization, how important are the following factors in helping you determine and communicate the value of email marketing programs?



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We found a shift in the factors CMOs use to determine the business value of an organization’s email program. In the past, post-click conversion metrics and email open and clickthrough rates were sufficient.

Today, CMOs presume email to provide a financial return on investment Furthermore, as a mature marketing channel in comparison to social media, CMOs look to monetize messages to measure their performance in meeting a company’s financial goals. Email metrics such as opens, clickthroughs and bounces are seen as key indicators of the overall health of the program, but not its true value.

This request will be difficult to fulfill for a majority of firms, as 68% of surveyed marketers did not have a method for quantifying email marketing ROI. It is disappointing, but not surprising, that almost seven of 10 marketers do not have a method to measure ROI.

It is daunting for many organizations to find the right balance for maintaining control of the data, identifying outcomes, and having the resources required to manage the process.

For additional research data and insights about email marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from the MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report – Research and Insights for Engaging Email Subscribers.

Useful links related to this research

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Lead Capture: HP increases conversion rate 186% on email opt-in page

Email Summit 2012: Top 5 takeaways from the industry's largest research-based event