When we started our email marketing business four years ago, we encountered some situations where our tracking numbers differed greatly from the numbers our client IT departments had counted.

This would leave us in the classic “he said/she said” conundrum.  Who were you to believe?

That’s why we instituted the dvMail eTegrity program. We hired an independent third party to track our clients’ broadcasts, a company who had no skin in the game at all.  Whether the campaign performed, or didn’t, this company would get paid just the same.

Since then, as each broadcast progresses, we get real-time campaign tracking results from our third party tracking service as well as click updates from our broadcast server. We can side-by-side them and feel confident in our numbers.

Plus, we can easily identify anti-spam bot activity and remove those clicks from our count.

Armed with redundant reports which confirm the integrity of our tracking results, we still occasionally find counting discrepancies between our two mutually-confirming reports and the Google Analytics or Hitbox reports presented by a client.

Enter analytics company Akirasoft. I’ve attached an executive summary of their report on some of the foibles of tracking software, and the reason why your tracking numbers are probably much lower than they actually are. It has to do with the primary function of your tracking software and the effect visitor cookies, javascript and flash have on your software’s ability to count visitor numbers.

Tracking issues seemingly will never go away entirely.  But knowing why discrepancies may occur, at least lets you sleep better at night.

The Evolution of Web Analytics

As noted in recent Email Insider posts, e-mails are most likely to get opened not only when they are personalized, but also relevant to the recipient. This is especially true for the subject line. A mere 50 characters (the length of a typical subject line) are all you have to grab the attention of readers, enticing them not only to open your e-mail, but to take the desired action rather than report the e-mail as spam. For consideration, we share the top five insights for writing subject lines that are not squandered, but rather ensure campaigns are destined for success.

Tip 1: Read the newspaper. Do you want to develop subject lines that result in higher open rates? Pick up your local paper. News headlines provide an excellent example of how to highlight an important point with brevity. A good headline, and, by extension, a good subject line, is short and intriguing enough to compel the reader to read on. Where possible, the subject line should clearly state what readers can expect from your e-mail: what’s in it for them or what you want them to do as a result.

Tip 2: Remember your objective. Your objective should drive the content of your subject line. Before developing your subject line, think carefully about your objective as it is key to the success of your e-mail. If your objective is for your readers to buy something, your subject line should reflect that call-to-action. Ideally, try testing your subject lines on a small number of targets — or, at the very least, some co-workers outside your department — to see if their actions are on target with your objective. If not, re-work and try again.

Tip 3: Remember where you’re “from.” A good subject line sells recipients on opening it, but that could be all for naught if they don’t know where the e-mail came from. Ideally, the “from” field should be the name of your company; then there’s no need to include it in your subject line, freeing up valuable real estate. If you’re e-mailing a recipient for the first time, make sure the subject line creates some familiarity and conveys credibility.

Tip 4: Get to the point — quickly. As mentioned earlier, you only have 50 characters to develop a subject line that gets noticed. This equates to an approximate two-second window in which a recipient will decide to keep reading and open the e-mail, or press the “delete” button. Therefore it is critically important to include the most information most pertinent to your objective up front, always keeping your end goal in mind. Subject line length may vary based on e-mail provider, so send a test e-mail to yourself in order to make sure that important information, such as time and date, aren’t cut off when they reach your inbox.

Tip 5: Make it personal. In many cases, subject lines can be personalized based on past purchases or Web site visits. However, if your customer database is up-to-date, you may also want to try personalizing your emails with first names, which may be even more persuasive. Be sure to use proper capitalization, such as “Alice” instead of “alice.” In addition, always include a link in your e-mail to where readers can update personal data and e-mail preferences to ensure you’re communicating with them in the manner they prefer.

Squandering the subject line is one of the easiest ways to subvert an email campaign.