I’m sure you have heard a difference in opinion about whether an email marketing campaign was a success or not. Funny enough, there may be good reason why these opinions vary. I stumbled on a blog article about measuring response rates on email campaigns. There seems to be a lack of standards when it comes to the way we are measuring email metrics. Also, it seems that many people don’t understand how to measure the email campaign nor are they consistent.  Here is a recent study by JupiterResearch/e-Rewards, Inc. which showed that Marketers were not consistent with the measurement used to gage success.

The stats show that many marketers are confused about email metrics and what standards to use. The conscience is that email marketing is not going away; so I guess we need some industry standards as guidelines so we as marketers can speak the same language.

During the TechTarget Online ROI Summit, I heard a lot of interesting information from the Senior IT Panel, comprised of IT professionals who are actively engaged with the IT buying process.  As I sat in the storage specific breakout session, there were a lot of questions around content and the types of content IT storage pro’s consume during particular stages of the IT buying cycle.  We all know as marketers that “Content is King”.  We are constantly asking each other “in what format” but the question we might also want to ask is “by who?”  And by “who” I mean editorial, analyst or vendor.  To my surprise (and possibly the surprise of many in the room) there was a clear definition from the panel as to when they access these three different types of content.

Hands down, editorial content was considered the “go to” resource for IT Pros when it comes to researching new and emerging products or solutions.  In the opinion of the IT pro, editorial content gives them a good understanding of the product or solution as a whole.  For the IT pro, they are not looking for any vendor spin, they are simply trying to grasp the technology.  Features such as “Learning Guides”, “Schools” and “All in One Guides” were mentioned as a great way for an IT Pro to gain specific knowledge around technology options and implementation.

The conversation around editorial content being used as a resource for IT pros was really no surprise, after all that is the intention.  However, what really surprised me was how they use analyst reports, white papers and studies.  These analyst assets are pulled into the last phase of IT buying process to first ensure no vendor was forgotten in the Research Vendors/Products stage and left off the short list.  The other use for these analyst assets is during the Decision Making stage when vendor recommendations are made to the CIO/Final Decision Maker.  IT pros are using analyst assets as supporting document when presenting the vendor of choice.  Check out this blog from CIO Mind where a CIO discusses how he and his colleagues use analyst information.

These guys made it extremely clear that analyst reports should be part of every technology marketers campaign or you risk being left off that short list of recommendations that goes to the final decision maker.