The State of Email Metrics & Bounce Management

Full Coverage - The State of Email Metrics & Bounce Management
Results Are a Wake-up Call for Standards in Email Metrics and Practices 

• Download the Executive Summary here at no charge.
• Visit the Email Experience Council to purchase the Whitepaper**

**If you are a Pivotal Veracity client or partner, please contact Pivotal Veracity for a complimentary copy of the whitepaper at no charge.

PRESS COVERAGE & RELATED STORIES

• Which Vendor Is Better? -ClickZ: March 5, 2007
• E-mail Industry Lacks Consensus on Most Basic Definitions: Study -Direct Magazine: March 5, 2007

THE OFFICIAL RELEASE

UPPER MONTCLAIR, NJ (March 5, 2007) — The Email Experience Council (eec), an organization of global professionals driving and defining email marketing and communications practices, today announced new survey results that are available in a white paper entitled "The State of Email Metrics & Bounce Management." The eec Deliverability Roundtable initiated the survey project and analyzed the results in a comprehensive white paper that reveals a lack of standards around industry metrics, bounce data, definitions and bounce management practices. Collectively, these issues make it exceedingly difficult for senders to improve the marketing effectiveness of campaigns, properly manage their lists and maintain good reputations as legitimate email senders.

The survey project and white paper were developed under the leadership of the eec’s Deliverability Roundtable chair Deirdre Baird, president and CEO of Pivotal Veracity, and Bounce Project Committee co-chair David Lewis, vice president of market development at StrongMail Systems, with participating roundtable members from Datran Media, e-Marketing Strategies, Listrak and Return Path. The survey findings provide an assessment of the current state of email metrics and bounce management based on the responses from 321 Mailers and 29 Email Service Providers (ESPs) representing thousands of client-companies. The resulting white paper compiling the results, "The State of Email Metrics & Bounce Management," is available for purchase at: www.emailexperience.org.

“The white paper paints an alarming picture and should serve as a wake-up call to address the inability to define, calculate, view and act on key metrics,” explained Deirdre Baird, eec Deliverability Roundtable Chair.

The following summarize the three key principal problem areas uncovered by the surveys:

Conflicting Metrics
Findings demonstrate a significant variance in how senders calculate key metrics such as delivery, open and click rates. The lack of consistency in calculating key performance metrics makes it impossible to establish industry benchmarks or compare results.

Inconsistent Bounce Data & Definitions Inconsistency in bounce data provided by ISPs, corporate domains and other email receivers, and widespread industry disagreement on key bounce definitions remains a challenge. Getting standardized, accurate bounce data from ISPs was a top concern regarding deliverability.

Inadequate Bounce Management
Despite the ubiquity of email there is considerable confusion around one of the key processes effecting deliverability – bounce management. Bounce management capabilities and visibility were often inadequate and varied widely. The survey confirmed that currently both Mailers and ESPs are unable to maximize the effectiveness of their campaigns by maintaining clean lists, retrying temporary failures and proactively managing their marketing practices.

Email continues to be the only direct marketing channel without a standardized set of metrics. The survey results validate the need for metrics as well as common definitions and uniform practices.

“These problems require an industry-wide commitment to establishing uniform metrics and definitions and to educating marketers on their meaning and use," said Dave Lewis, eec Bounce Project Committee co-chair. "Concurrently, we need to be advocating greater transparency from the ISPs in the bounce data they provide. Only then can we demystify the bounce process and ensure that marketers are able to follow through with best practices.”

“In 2007, the eec has committed to driving the email channel forward by focusing on a few key yet significant initiatives like the Deliverability Roundtable's Bounce Project and the List Growth and Quality Roundtable's commitment to defining how to calculate the value of an email address," said Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the eec. "These eec original content reports, along with our ever growing community-driven White Paper Forum will help facilitate an industry dialogue and consensus that will not only demonstrate the power of email, but also the way in which to effectively use this channel.”

About the Email Experience Council (eec)
The eec is a global professional organization striving to enhance the image of email marketing and communications, while celebrating and advocating its importance in business, and its ROI value. The eec is committed to regularly conducting a broad series of email initiatives for a variety of organizations that highlight the positive impact and importance of email as a marketing tool, communications vehicle and branding device. Additionally, eec members are setting the standards for email through Marketing Roundtables. The eec members belonging are representative of other trade organizations, agencies, advertisers, technology partners, clients and companies focused on the potential of email marketing via mobile and other digital devices.