Auditing your email audiences

By Steve Denner, Director, Adestra

Organisations such as the BPA have been providing auditing services for magazines and event audiences for many years. Providing advertisers with independent evidence that your audience are who you claim them to be is an effective point of differentiation and extremely helpful when selling your proposition to would-be advertisers. Associating your offering with a credible auditing organisation conveys images of trust, essential for first time advertisers unsure of your corporate reputation and credibility.

Email newsletters are fast becoming an integral part of many organisation’s offering to advertisers. With low unit costs, infinite scalability and massive flexibility, sponsors are paying to appear on everything from regular “event updates” through to information-packed newsletters. Historically, the draw back with using email as a channel was that it was not auditable- a significant hurdle when attracting new sponsors.

Whilst the business case for auditing is clear, the rapid emergence of email newsletters mean that organisations faced some headaches- can you audit an email newsletter?

The answer is yes, and Adestra have been working with a number of publishers to implement auditing on their email newsletters.

Overview

Every time an email is broadcast, it is distributed through an email mail server. On sending, Adestra record who the email is to be sent to, and with which communication. Using our technology, each email address we broadcast to is individually tracked allowing us to match all replies. From automated bounced addresses through to individual responses, Adestra’s mail logs contain all information about the broadcast. This information is then analysed by your auditors who will verify your audience and provide you with a statement in the usual way.

Getting started

• You must be using a reputable email service provider to broadcast your messages.
• The email service provider broadcasts your email messages ensuring all information about the sending is recorded for easy access by the auditor
• The email service provider presents the email broadcast ‘logs’ to the auditor
• The auditor analyses the information
• Auditor validates your audience statements

More information about our email marketing broadcast services

Adestra provide welcome tactical advice and input on our client's email marketing program. For more information about how we can work together with you to improve your email marketing, please contact us and ask us about our email marketing services

Adestras Message Focus

Adestra have a proven track record in providing email marketing tools, technology, strategy and support for a number of large corporate players.

From product delivery for large publishers through to tactical direct response promotions for travel providers, all clients always benefit from the shared best practice and knowledge our team have gained working within email marketing since 2000.

For an overview of Adestra's email marketing services, please see our email marketing system, Adestra's Message Focus or for a demonstration, please contact us