Mailing statistics

The statistical overview gives you a list of all newsletters sent so far, in the Mailing statistics section. Simply click on one of the newsletters in the Mailing column to select it for evaluation. You are immediately shown both in graphic and in numerical form how many clicks there were to the links in your mailing. The same evaluation is accessed by selecting a mailing from the Mailings section and then clicking on the Statistics tab.

You are immediately shown an overview with gross and net click rates for all trackable links embedded in your mailing. This number includes all repeat clicks caused by the recipient clicking on a particular link more than once. The net click rate is shown in brackets. It counts how many recipients clicked in the trackable link. Repeat clicks by the same recipient do not count here.

Fig. 5.1: Mailing statistics show interesting data on a selected mailing.

Below the total number of clicks, the system will display delivery statistics on the selected mailing list, including opt-outs and bounces. If you want to check how many recipients opened the e-mail, you must send the mailing in the HTML format. When creating a mailing, a so-called “tracking pixel” can be inserted into the e-mail automatically by using the Track click rates feature (see chapter "Entering basic mailing data"). In this case a 1 x 1 pixel image is inserted into the mail when sending it. This image is stored on the OpenEMM server. As soon as the recipient opens the mail, his or her e-mail clients tries downloading the image file which is registered by the OpenEMM server. This is a confirmation that the e-mail was indeed opened. This does not work in text

mailings. For mixed-format mailings, the statistical figure for opened mails is an approximate one only. It does not in fact register all opened e-mails.

Additional details are available on all mails which were opened. Clicking on the link Opened e-mails will cause OpenEMM to display data according to domains taken from recipients’ e-mail addresses and rank the 20 top domains by number of recipients.

Fig. 5.2: The statistics function shows the 20 top domains of recipients who have opened e-mails.

Open rate over time: Click to see all openings sorted by day. Click on a day, and openings are sorted by hour.

Additional details are also available on all e-mails which bounced. Click on the Bounces link to view a detailed list as well as a distinction according to category. Seven different types of bounce are displayed:

Soft bounces:

Problems with the mail box (e.g. mail box full)

Problems with the mail server (e.g. temporarily not available)

Irregular bounces (no distinction possible according to the server’s return message) Other soft bounces (all other types of soft bounce)

Hard bounces:

Unknown address (the e-mail address is invalid) Unknown mail server (the domain is invalid)

Other hard bounces (all other types of hard bounce)

Fig. 5.3: List of bounces classified in categories. If no bounces have occurred in a specific category, the category is not displayed at all.

5.2.1 Heatmap

Click statistics in the form of a bar chart can quickly become confusing, especially for extensive or elaborately designed newsletters containing many links. OpenEMM provides you with the Heatmap for exactly this case. This tool gives you click statistics that are directly embedded in the mailing.

The Heatmap shows the mailing in the HTML view and places the number of clicks and click rate, expressed in percent, directly next to each URL. This kind of view lets you quickly see what links your recipients click often.

The name Heatmap says it already: The statistics shown in the HTML view are coded in color to give a better overview. The more often recipients click a link the “hotter” it gets, and the

associated click statistics are correspondingly shown in warmer colors. OpenEMM uses the following color gradations for the Heatmap:

Click Rate Color coding

up to 5.0% white

up to 10.0% blue

up to 15.0% green

up to 20.0% yellow

up to 25.0% orange

up to 100.0% red

To analyze one of your newsletters in the Heatmap view, first select this with a mouse click in the Mailings column and then switch to the Heatmap tab. The system now shows the mailing in the HTML view with the click statistics for each link.

Fig. 5.4: The Heatmap shows color-coded click statistics directly in the selected mailing.

In the View mode selection list, you can switch between various Heatmap views. Gross clicks are preset and are shown by the system as a number followed by the percentage value. In addition, the Heatmap shows the Net clicks in the same pattern. Select the option Mailing only when you want to view the mailing in the HTML view without clicks statistics.

In the Recipients selection list, choose the desired addressees. Attention: The list only shows administrators and test recipients who have subscribed to this mailing. You may first have to create these special recipients. You can read more about this subject in chapter "Sending out test mails".

5.2.2 Comparing target groups

Mailing statistics shows data for all mailing recipients as a default setting. It is, however, possible to display only data belonging to recipients of a particular target group. Here, it is possible to display data for up to five target groups in parallel in order to allow statistical comparison.

1. In the Target group drop-down list, select a target group and click on the Add button.

2. Now, the OpenEMM will show a second column with statistical data for that target group. This does not influence the delivery statistics which are automatically shown in the far right-hand column.

Fig. 5.5: Further target groups are added to the statistical comparison by selecting a target group and clicking on Add.

3. In order to delete a target group from the comparative statistics, click on the Delete symbol next to the target group name.

5.2.3 Feedback analysis

But the OpenEMM can do even more. If you click on the heading Total clicks (directly below the link list), you receive an overview of the distribution of the clicks according to days of the week following the mailing. You can even restrict them to predefined target groups by using the Target group drop-down list. Select a target group from the drop-down list and confirm, by clicking on OK .

Fig. 5.6: A distribution of clicks according to days of the week.

It is even possible to select to evaluate the click rate according to the hour of the day. All you need to do is to click on the date of the selected day of the week. This evaluation can also be restricted to certain target groups.

Fig. 5.7: A distribution of clicks by hour.

By clicking on Back you can return to the previous screen.

In addition, click rates in your newsletters can be observed over a longer period. In the display of clicks according to the day of the week, the two arrowhead symbols to the left and the right of the date bar (in the weekly analysis) allow you to navigate to the next week or the previous week.

This provides you with a convenient way of controlling the development of click rates in the weekly analysis.