Qualitative metrics
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Given the difficulties with obtaining and interpreting relevant quantitative metrics, you can perhaps take heart from some qualitative metrics which can indicate whether you're going in the right direction or not.
Reader feedback is a classic indicator of the impression you're creating through the professionalism, value and personality you provide in your newsletter. What are people saying about your publication, both to you and in publicly-accessible places such as discussion lists and online forums?
If you're succeeding in enthusing your readers, then you should see an increase in feedback as a whole, and particularly in positive feedback. You should also be able to find testimonials, reviews and recommendations elsewhere on the Web, as well as links to your newsletter's website or web pages.
The reverse, though, isn't true. If you're getting little feedback, this doesn't mean that you've failed. Many successful publishers complain at the lack of feedback they get from their readers. It seems some audiences and newsletters just aren't conducive to feedback.
I know, for example, of two "public service" email newsletters where the owners decided to stop publishing because of a lack of feedback - they thought that their newsletters just weren't being read. But on announcing the demise of the publications, they were flooded by reader requests to keep going.
One thing you might do is track the number of subscribers referred by your readers. The following method won't pick up all referrals, but it might give you some idea of how many people are getting copies of your newsletter and subscribing as a result.
Simply create a unique subscription address or method which is only listed in your newsletter (in place of the standard subscription information). For example, instead of asking people to visit: http://www.madeupsss.com/subs.html, I might list the page as http://www.madeupsss.com/subs1.html.
If the only place I list this URL is my newsletter, then I can be pretty sure that anybody visiting that page and using the subscription form is a referral from a forwarded email.
Testing
Whatever metrics you do use, use them to test, test, test. Compare changes in metrics over time with the changes you make to your newsletter. For example:
- how does changing your email headers affect your open rates?
- how do different types of content affect your clickthrough rates?
- how do different topics affect your unsubscribe rates?
You can use all the various metrics to test just about any of the newsletter components described in this report. Make use of the opportunity, even if it just means tracking reader feedback.
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