Frankly, email marketing is a simple thing. You join Benchmark Email, upload a few opt-ed in contacts, whip up a customizable template, schedule, send and voilà: instant classic. That part is almost fiendishly easy, as in, there must be something they aren’t telling us… Well if you’re a regular reader of our Benchmark Blog then you know we pretty much tell you everything. That being the case, I repeat: email marketing is a simple thing.

Perfecting email marketing, that’s the tricky part. Amassing contacts and sending email are not the only elements within the email marketer’s purview. There’s also the thrilling and sometimes aggravating world of metrics.

Metrics are the analytical notes of your email’s composition, the individual factors that bring your offers or discounts or updates or newsletters into a harmonious movement – one that will hopefully have the same effect on your recipient. It is as much a matter of statistical diligence as it is social competence. Can you understand what the numbers are telling you? More importantly, are you paying attention to what your subscribers want? The use of a symphonic analogy is a fitting one because when you have studied your metrics studiously and shaped your campaigns accordingly, you and your recipients can make beautiful music together.

Our latest email marketing manual, Metrics: Tracking & Reporting, is an in depth look at the data that will define your email strategies. Each page covers the individual metrics of Benchmark Email’s campaign reports, explains what it is, what it means for both you and your subscribers, and ultimately how to improve your scores. Inside you’ll find analyses of open rates, click rates, social networking stats, forwards, unsubscribes, hard and soft bounces, abuse rates and much more. Topics include screenshots of Benchmark Email’s Real-Time Reports with each element clearly delineated and explained.

Ready to perfect your email marketing technique? Click the above link or head over to our resources section and investigate the rest of our email marketing guides. Each one is available for free and can be downloaded as a PDF or accessed directly from our site.