Email marketing is the most effective marketing tool available to financial advisors but not all email marketing platforms perform the same. Fortunately, performance measurement of the efficacy of email marketing platforms comes down to a few well-defined key performance indicators—email open-rates, click-throughs, delivery rates, and adoption of campaign-tracking technology.
Aberdeen Group, an independent research firm, in an April 2011 Research Brief, evaluated major email campaign platforms based on email marketing KPIs including:
- Email open-rates
- Click-through rate
- Delivery rate
- Adoption rate
Aberdeen research is respected. It studies the experience of practitioners across industries to produce “fact-based analysis based on a proprietary framework independent of outside influence.” Its process identifies “Best-In-Class” providers. In email campaigns, Constant Contact is best in class, according to Aberdeen's study.
Aberdeen's authoritative study of email marketing KPIs — summarized below — is instructive to financial advisors, especially Advisor Products users currently being contacted about upgrading to our powerful new platform, which integrates seamlessly with Constant Contact for email campaigns.
“Constant Contact users demonstrate better results than users of other email solutions in several key performance indicators that are critical in measuring email marketing effectiveness,” according to Aberdeen, “with 36% (open rate) and 60% (click through rate) better marketing activity rates.”
Of the 600 executives surveyed in Aberdeen's study of email campaign software, 286 were companies with fewer than 100 employees. Here are highlights of Aberdeen's study of the performance of email campaign platforms over a one-year period:
- Email open-rates of Constant Contact users improved by 5.6% versus 3.1% for users of other email marketing systems.
- Click through rates of Constant Contact users improved by 5.4% versus 2.2% for users of other email marketing systems.
- Delivery rates of Constant Contact users improved by 7.4% versus 4.1% for users of other email marketing systems.
- Revenue generated by Constant Contact users 5.8% more revenue over the one year period versus 2.1% for users of other email marketing systems.
- Constant Contact users were 38% more likely to have a process for updating their database by removing opt-outs
- Adoption of technology to track, measure, and report on email marketing activities is 77% higher among Constant Contact users.
That last bullet is most significant. Adoption of analytics for tracking the effectiveness of email campaigns was 77% higher among CTCT users than the average user of the other email marketing platforms, according to Aberdeen. The report concluded that companies that develop a formal process for tracking analytics outperform those that do not, specifically, by generating 32% higher growth in revenue from email campaigns.
Advisor Products is working with senior leadership at Constant Contact to engage financial professionals in conducting measurable email campaigns. Advisor Products now bundles Constant Contact into its content marketing solution for advisors, the Financial Advisor Communication System