Definition
Channel comparison puts email's performance in context against the rest of your marketing mix. It answers: Is email outperforming paid social? How does email's CPA compare to search? Where should the next budget pound go?
Metrics to Compare
- ROI: Return on investment per channel
- CPA: Cost per acquisition
- Conversion rate: Percentage of visitors or recipients who convert
- Customer LTV: Long-term value of customers acquired through each channel
- Attribution complexity: How difficult it is to measure each channel's true impact
Why It Matters
Most organisations underinvest in email relative to its performance because other channels have more visible dashboards and louder advocates. Regular channel comparison provides data-driven evidence for email budget requests.
Related Glossary Terms
A/B Testing
A/B testing in email marketing is the practice of sending two variations of an email to a small sample of your list to determine which version performs better before sending the winner to the remaining subscribers.
Announcement Email
An announcement email is a dedicated campaign that communicates a specific update, milestone, or change to subscribers, from product launches and feature releases to company news and events.
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is a metric that measures the average revenue generated per email subscriber over a specific period, used to evaluate list value and campaign effectiveness.
Attention Rate
Attention rate is the percentage of email opens that last longer than 5 seconds, distinguishing genuine reads from passive opens, preview-pane views, or Apple MPP auto-loads.
B2B Email Marketing
B2B email marketing targets business professionals and organisations with longer sales cycles, educational content, and relationship-driven campaigns compared to B2C email.
B2C Email Marketing
B2C email marketing focuses on sending targeted promotional and transactional emails to individual consumers, emphasising personalisation, urgency, and direct response.