Email marketing continues to be one of the highest performing channels for businesses. Given its virtually 0 cost model, every sale coming from an email essentially amounts to being a net positive ROAS. If you’re a company that’s getting more than 30-40% of your overall revenue from email, your email marketing agency or email team deserves a shoutout. But how do you know that all revenue attributed to email marketing is really coming from email? After all, the customer may have been influenced by an ad seconds before they got your email and email really just pushed them that extra bit. In other words, what is email attributed revenue and how do you track it?
What is attribution in email marketing?
Attribution in email marketing refers to the process of determining which interactions or touch-points contributed to a specific desired outcome, such as a conversion or a sale. Deciding attribution in email marketing involves understanding how different elements of your email campaigns influence user behavior and ultimately contribute to your goals. Here’s how you can approach attribution in email marketing:
- Define Your Goals: Start by clearly defining your goals for the email marketing campaign. Are you aiming for sales, sign-ups, website visits, or another specific outcome? Having well-defined goals will help you focus your attribution efforts.
- Use Tracking Tools: Utilize tracking tools like UTM parameters and tracking pixels to monitor user interactions with your emails. UTM parameters can help you identify which links within your emails are generating traffic and conversions. Tracking pixe3ls allow you to monitor open rates and user engagement.
- Multi-Touch Attribution: Email marketing often involves multiple touchpoints before a user takes the desired action. Multi-touch attribution models consider all touchpoints in the user journey, attributing value to each touchpoint based on its contribution. Common models include First Touch, Last Touch, Linear, Time Decay, and Position-Based attribution.
- Analyze Click-Through Rates (CTR): Measure the CTR of different links within your emails. This can help you understand which content or calls to action are resonating with your audience. Higher CTR might indicate stronger engagement and interest.
- Conversion Tracking: Set up conversion tracking to monitor actions taken by users after clicking through your emails. This could include tracking purchases, form submissions, or other desired actions on your website.
- Segmentation and Testing: Segment your email list and conduct A/B tests to determine how different elements of your emails impact user behavior. Test variations of subject lines, content, visuals, and CTAs to see which combinations lead to better outcomes.
- Engagement Metrics: Analyze engagement metrics like open rates, click rates, and time spent on page after clicking through the email. These metrics can provide insights into how compelling your email content is and whether it’s driving user actions.
- Time Lag Analysis: Consider the time lag between when an email is received and when a conversion occurs. Some conversions might not happen immediately after receiving the email, so understanding the typical time frame can help attribute actions accurately.
- Customer Surveys and Feedback: Sometimes, direct feedback from customers can provide valuable insights into how your emails influenced their decision-making process.
- Combine Data Sources: Integrate email marketing data with data from other channels like social media and paid advertising to get a more comprehensive view of the customer journey.
- Continuous Monitoring and Adjustment: Attribution is an ongoing process. Regularly review your attribution models and data to ensure they reflect the most accurate insights. Adjust your strategies based on the results and trends you observe.
Remember that attribution in email marketing is not always straightforward, as customers can interact with multiple touchpoints before taking action. But successful marketers can make informed decisions about how to attribute the impact of their email campaigns on their overall marketing efforts by using a combination of tracking tools, analyzing data, and understanding user behavior, you can make informed decisions about how to attribute the impact of your email campaigns on your overall marketing efforts.
