Measuring whether your marketing worked

The number that matters is bookings taken after the send, not how many people opened it. Open rates tell you your subject line worked. Bookings tell you the campaign worked.

What to look at

• Bookings in the days after the send, compared with a normal week
• Whether the people who booked were in the segment you targeted
• Revenue from those bookings against anything you gave away

Where to look

Reports in the sidebar shows what came in and when. Compare the week of a campaign against the weeks either side rather than judging it on its own.

Give it more than a day

People read a message, think about it and book at the weekend. Judging a Tuesday campaign on Tuesday afternoon will always look disappointing.

Compare like with like

This is the real reason to save segments. The same segment sent the same kind of offer at the same time of year is the only comparison worth trusting.

Be honest about the giveaway

Twenty bookings at a third off is not automatically better than twelve at full price. Work the margin rather than the volume.

Common questions

Where do I see campaign results?

Open the campaign for what was sent and to whom, and use Reports for the bookings and revenue that followed.

What is a good open rate?

It varies too much to be a useful target. Your own trend over time tells you far more than anyone else's benchmark.

How often should I send?

Often enough to be remembered and rarely enough to be welcome. Monthly suits most local businesses.