Email marketing continues to be one of the most cost-effective tools for marketers. A good email marketing program keeps you connected with your customers and prospects. It also provides a great source of incremental revenue, assuming prospects can purchase your products or services online.

One of the key questions we get asked at the 60 Second Marketer is “What metrics should I measure in my email marketing campaign?”

With that in mind, here are the top 18 things you should measure in your next email marketing campaign. These are pulled from an excellent white paper put out by Lyris|HQ called “Guru’s Guide to Email Marketing Success”:

1. Open rate
2. Click-through rate
3. Click to open rate (number of unique clicks/number of unique opens)
4. Bounce rate
5. Delivery rate (emails sent – bounces)
6. Unsubscribe rate
7. Referral rate
8. Number of or percent spam complaints
9. Net subscribers
10. Subscriber retention
11. Web site actions (number of visits to a specific web page or pages)
12. Percent unique clicks on a specific recurring link(s)
13. Number of orders, transactions, downloads or actions
14. Percent orders, transactions, downloads or actions of emails sent or delivered
15. Total revenue
16. Average order size
17. Conversion rate
18. Average dollars per email sent or delivered

For the full report, be sure to download the “Guru’s Guide to Email Marketing Success.” It’s an excellent white paper with tons of great information.

AOL Mail has completed its fourth annual study of email usage. If you check your email while you’re driving or in the middle of the night, you’re not alone.

Last year, 15% of the respondents said they were hooked on email. This year, that figure has jumped to 46%. 51% check their email four or more times each day, which is up from 45% in 2007. 20% said they check their email more than 10 times each day.

It’s a terrific study and well-worth checking out. You can find out more about it here: http://www.CrazyForEmail.com.