Email Newsletter KPIs Part 3 - Platform Variance, Environmental Variance

My first column in NextStage's explorations with email newsletters dealt with kpis, specifically Delivery Rate, Open Rate, Growth Rate and Cost of Acquisition. The second post in this series, Email Newsletter KPIs Part 2 - ReOpen Rate explored (you guessed it) ReOpen Rates. I ended the first entry with an offer to explore where subscriptions are coming from (covered in the next installment) and determining a real value from that, and the second entry with a nod to Platform and Environmental Variance.

Buckle up 'cause here we go.

Platform Variance

I wrote in Email Newsletter KPIs Part 2 - ReOpen Rate that people who find your newsletter valuable tend to open it often and definitely more than once and offered some easy ways to determine the reason for the reopen. An easy way to determine your newsletter's real value to any subscriber or group of subscribers is to determine what NextStage calls Platform Variance; do they open it on an PDA, for example, then on a desktop? Or vice versa (rare and a real indication your newsletter is providing value)?

As I write this The NextStage Irregular, my newsletter, has a reopen rate of over 250%. This means the average subscriber opens the newsletter 2.5 times. Yes, I know there's a good number who only open it once and a lesser number that open it several times. That's why we also consider Platform Variance (ours is about 17%).

This means that 17% of our audience opens the newsletter on one device then reopens it on another device. Knowing how high this number is and the direction of the platform variance tells you how much value you're providing and what topics have the greatest value to subscribers.

Environmental Variance

Beyond Platform Variance is knowing if your newsletter is something they take with them in their work and travels. NextStage calls this Environmental Variance and it appears as differences in urls (usually). Some subscribers open the newsletter in their office then at home, for example. One subscriber opened one newsletter first in San Jose, CA, then the next day in Washington, DC. Are they opening the newsletter in an office, in an airport then in another office? Congratulations, you have provided enough value that your part of their sales or marketing materials.

Next time we discuss what NextStage calls Viral Capacity - does your newsletter provide sufficient value that subscribers pass it on to others by "word-of-mouth"?

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Links for this post:

• BizMediaScience Email Marketing blog posts
• How to Design an E-Mail Newsletter to Maximize Your ROI: Part 1 podcast
• How to Design an E-Mail Newsletter to Maximize Your ROI: Part 2
• Email Newsletters, Anyone?
• Make sure your email newsletter is working
• BizMediaScience SEND Glands Blog arc

Upcoming Trainings:

• This is Your Brain on the Internet at Emetrics SF on 8 May 2008
• "Know How Someone Is Thinking in 10 Seconds or Less" Half-day training at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 13 June 08

Upcoming Conferences:

• San Francisco Emetrics Marketing Optimzation Summit, 4-7 May 08
• International Communication Association's Communicating for Social Impact, the 58th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association at Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 22-26, 2008
• SUNY Marketing Professionals Conference at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 11-13 June 08

Come on by and say hello.

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