Statistics and Understanding Them

Overview: What are we talking about?

This article reviews how to use the Statistics Viewer for newsletters.

This article includes:

• Opening the Statistics Viewer
• Understanding the options

Opening the Statistics Viewer

If it has been a few hours after you queued your newsletter to be sent, then you are probably eager to see how many people received it and actually read it.

In order to check the status of your newsletter campaign:

1. Log into your Cybergolf Email Marketing System and click Stats Viewer from the left side menu.
   

2. The Broadcast Statistics page will be displayed. You will see a list of your past newsletter campaigns. Each newsletter campaign is listed by the date it was sent out, so the most current campaign will be at the top of the list.
   

Understanding the Options

The screen shot below is a sample list of newsletter campaigns. In order to teach you how to read and understand the statistics, we will break down each item.

1. Show Duplicates: When data is added to a database, it is easy to add the same email address more than once causing duplicate emails. When a newsletter is sent out, the Cybergolf email server will find these duplicates and send only one newsletter to that email address and will store the extra emails under the duplicate list. Click Duplicates to view all the duplicate email addresses.
   
   
2. Show Unsubscribes: When a newsletter is sent to a database (mailing list), everyone has the right to opt-out of (unsubscribe from) your mailing list. After a newsletter is sent out, click Unsubscribes to view who unsubscribed after receiving your email.
   
   
3. Show Bounces: When a newsletter reaches an email address that has an overfilled inbox or if it is an outdated email address that no longer exists, then that email address will be marked as a bounce. To view the bounces, click Bounces.
   • When viewing the bounced emails, you can click Edit next to each email to see if the email address was entered correctly.
   • If you find a mistake, change the email address.
   • Then check the box next to the statement Check this box to take this email off the bounce list (and restore it to the original list):
   • Then click Update.
     
     
4. Show Invalids: Occasionally, you may receive fake email addresses from golfers or an email address will be typed incorrectly. When a newsletter is sent to one of these invalid emails, the Cybergolf server will mark the email address as Invalid.
   A common invalid email usually is missing one essential character for an email such as the "@" symbol or the dot (.) before "com." In order to view your list of invalid emails click Invalids.
   • Click Edit next to each email to see if the email address was entered correctly.
   • If you find a mistake, change the email address
   • Then check the box next to the statement Check this box to take this email off the invalid list (and restore it to the original list):
   • Then click Update.
     
     
5. See Birthday/Anniversary Send Statistics: If you have set up an automated Birthday or Anniversary newsletter to reach people on their birthday or anniversary, then you can check the success of those automated campaigns by clicking See Birthday/Anniversary Send Statistics. Once on this stats page, you can view by date, who received the newsletter and if the newsletter was opened.
   
   
6. Date: The "Date" column lets you know what day the newsletter was sent out. This helps you organize and log your past newsletters.
   
   
7. Time: The "Time" column lets you know the time that the Cybergolf server received your request to send out a newsletter.
   
   
8. Subject: The Subject column lets you see the subject title that was read by the recipients, such as "Golf Specials" or "August Newsletter."
   
   
9. Sent To: The "Sent To" column lets you know what databases or mailing lists received the newsletter.
   NOTE: If a newsletter was sent to people based on location, then the database names will not show up under the "Sent To" column.
   
   
10. Commands: The "Commands" column has two options: View Statistics and Delete.
    • Clicking View Statistics will open a new window with a preview of that newsletter. Above the newsletter preview you should see bar graphs:
      

    • The first bar graph "Total Sent," shows the total number of newsletters that were sent out. In the example above, three newsletters have been sent.

    • The second bar graph "Opened," shows the total number of times the newsletter was opened. In the example above, there are four opens. If the total number of opens exceeds the total sent, then one of your recipients opened and read the newsletter more than once.

    • The number of people who unsubscribed from your list and the number of invalid emails will also tracked on each newsletter here.