1.
Prove Your ROI:
Measuring Performance to
Maximize Email Investment
Guy Hanson
 guy.hanson@returnpath.com
 www.returnpath.com
uk.linkedin.com/in/guyhanson
@GuyHanson, @ReturnPath

2.
Current Email
Benchmarks

3.
Source: DMA National Client Email Report 2015
90% of program owners said
email marketing performs a
very important / important
strategic role for their
businesses

4.
Source: DMA Response Rate Report 2015
82% of marketing programs employ email for
promotional campaigns

5.
Source: DMA Response Rate Report 2015
Almost 2/3 of marketing budget holders will be
increasing their email spend in 2015

6.
Why is email core
to your business?
• Our business’ primary revenue source is directly
linked to email operations (20%)
• Email is a critical enabler of our products and
services (60%)
• Email indirectly impacts our business
performance (20%)
Source: SFMC State of Marketing Report 2015

7.
Source: Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census 2014
3 out of every 5
respondents
attribute at least
10% of total sales
to their email
programs

8.
Source: DMA Response Rate Report 2015
When house lists
are used, email has
the lowest Cost per
Acquisition (CPA) of
the media types in
this study

9.
Source: DMA Response Rate Report 2015
Part of the reason
behind the
continuing popularity
of email must be its
ROI, which is the
highest of the
media investigated
in this study

10.
Source: Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census 2014
66% of email
program
owners rank
email as
Excellent or
Good for ROI
effectiveness

11.
Measuring Email
Performance Metrics

12.
“If you can’t
measure it,
you can’t
manage it”
Peter Drucker

13.
Source: Econsultancy Marketing Budgets Report 2015
2 out of every 5 email
program owners rate
their ability to measure
ROI from email as
Good . . .

14.
Source: DMA National Client Email Report 2015
. . . but almost 50% aren’t
confident they can
calculate revenue
from their email
marketing
activities . . .

15.
Source: Econsultancy Marketing Budgets Report 2015
. . . and the inability to
measure ROI is the third
largest barrier to securing
digital investment

16.
What are the
key metrics you
use to evaluate
effectiveness
of your email
programs?
DMA National Client Email Report 2015
Source: SFMC State of Marketing Report 2015

17.
Average
Order Value
$182
Revenue
per Email
$0.08

18.
Source: DMA National Client Email Report 2015
Over 50% of email
revenue is generated by
segmentation
Another 30% is being
produced by triggered
emails – almost doubling
in just 12 months!

19.
“Does the majority of
your email marketing
revenue and
engagement come from
triggered emails?
Anecdotally, marketers
tend to hit this mile-
marker when more than
5% of their email volume
is triggered emails”
Source: Mediapost,

20.
Source: DMA National Client Email Report 2015
Driving sales,
acquisition, and lead
generation is the
primary objective for
54% of email
programs
Engagement, retention, and brand
awareness accounts of a further 40%

21.
Source: DMA Email Tracking Report 2014
Just under half of
consumers (48%)
now say they will
click-through from an
interesting email,
compared to 64% 3
years ago

22.
Source: DMA Email Tracking Report 2014
3 out of every 4 mobile email subscribers will
either occasionally/regularly read the subject
line and then delete

23.
Source: DMA Email Tracking Report 2014
Almost 20% of email
subscribers will register a
spam complaint as a result
of a bad customer
experience, or loss of trust
in the brand

24.
Calculating Email
Effectiveness & ROI

25.
Source: DMA Response Rate Report 2015

26.
Metric Baseline Uplift
Hard Bounces 0.3% 0.27%
Unsubscribes 0.125% 0.113%
Complaints 0.075% 0.068%
Disaffection Index 0.50% 0.45%
Metric Baseline Uplift
List Size 1,000,000 1,000,000
Sends Per Annum 104 104
Total Emails Sent 104,000,000 104,000,000
List Churn 520,000 468,000
CLV of Address $8 $8
Depreciation $4.16M $3.74M
Effectiveness & ROI The Disaffection Index

27.
Effectiveness & ROI Brand Value
• Companies are spending . . . 38% of their
total marketing budgets on digital
• On average, 12% of digital marketing
budgets are allocated to email
• Almost $4 in every $10 spent on digital . . .
has a brand-focused objective
• An email program that supports a $10M
brand is likely contributing ± $200K
Sources: Marketing Charts /eMarketerSource: Econsultancy Marketing Budgets Report 2015

28.
Effectiveness & ROI External Measurements

29.
Strategies to Grow
Email ROI

30.
Source: DMA National Client Email Report 2015
Discounts are the
single biggest
reason subscribers
sign up to receive
emails (38%)

31.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI
List Growth

32.
Source: DMA Response Rate Report 2015
Strategies to Grow Email ROI List Growth

33.
Source: Fastmap Consumer Attitudes to Data
Strategies to Grow Email ROI List Growth
Source: DMA National Client Email Report 2015

34.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI List Growth
Source: RP Labs Frequency Finder

35.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI List Growth
Source: Experian Marketing Services - 4 Tips to Smarter Email Marketing
Source % Primary % Secondary Dead
A 17% 60% 23%
B 18% 59% 23%
C 8% 30% 62%
D 11% 44% 45%
E 39% 43% 18%
F 19% 64% 17%
Revenue
$7,520
$7,600
$3,680
$5,280
$9,680
$8,160

36.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI
Get Delivered

37.
IP Address
Permanence
Spam
Complaints
Unknown
Users
Infrastructure
Spam Traps
Subscriber
Engagement

38.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Get Delivered
Source: Return Path Case Study Red Letter Days

39.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI
Frequency Optimization

40.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Frequency
Optimization
Source: E-Mail Tipps - What’s your best email frequency? Here’s the math
: Mailchimp - Sending Frequency: More Is Not Always Better!

41.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI
Triggered Emails

42.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Triggered Emails
Source: Epsilon Q3 2014 Email Trends & Benchmarks
“Triggered open
rates were 76.7%
higher than BAU
emails, with
triggered click rates
reporting 151.9%
higher”

43.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Triggered Emails
Source: RP Labs Strategy Mapper

44.
Source: SFMC State of Marketing Report 2015

45.
Strategies to
Grow Email ROI
Win-Back

46.
Strategies to Grow ROI Email Win-Back
Source: Econsultancy Cross-Channel Marketing Report 2014
70% of companies say it’s cheaper to retain a customer
than acquire one and 49% say that, pound for pound,
they achieve better ROI by investing in relationship
marketing over acquisition marketing.

47.
Source: Experian Marketing Services – 4 Tips to Smarter Email Marketing
Metric Actives Inactives
Subscribers 100,000 100,000
Revenue per Email $0.08 $0.00
Email Frequency 2 x per week 0 x per week
Revenue per Year $832,000 $0
Revenue Opportunity $116,480
“The overall Read
rate for win-back
emails was 14%”
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Win-Back

48.
Strategies to
Grow Email ROI
Think Mobile

49.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Think Mobile
Source: Yesmail
Emails that make
use of responsive
design techniques
see an average
uplift in click-to-
open rates of 21%
for mobile
subscribers

50.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Think Mobile
Source: Knotice

51.
Strategies to Grow
Email ROI
Eliminate Fraud

52.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Eliminate Fraud
Source: Return Path EFP Security Report

53.
Strategies to Grow Email ROI Eliminate Fraud

54.
Source: Marketing Charts - Low Click-Through Rates A Top Challenge For Email Marketers
A meaningful call-to-
action offer is rated
by 65% of program
owners as the most
effective driver of
email click-throughs

55.
Resources
• Return Path Placement Benchmarks
• Return Path Email Win-Back Programs
• Return Path EFP Security Report
• DMA (UK) Email Tracking Report 2014
• DMA (UK) National Client Email Report 2015
• DMA (US) Response Rate Report 2015
• Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census 2014
• Econsultancy Marketing Budgets Report 2015
• Econsultancy Cross-Channel Marketing Report 2014
• Experian Marketing Services Quarterly Email Benchmark Report Q1 2015
• Experian Marketing Services 4 Tips to Smarter Email Marketing
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud State of Marketing Report 2015
• Epsilon Q3 2014 Email Trends & Benchmarks
• Fastmap Consumer Attitudes to Data

56.
Prove Your ROI:
Measuring Performance to
Maximize Email Investment
Guy Hanson
 guy.hanson@returnpath.com
 www.returnpath.com
uk.linkedin.com/in/guyhanson
@GuyHanson, @ReturnPath