Observed Signal · Jul 23, 2026 · Best Practice · Source: https://martech.org/feed/ · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
One question to improve every email campaign
The article argues that every email campaign should start by identifying a single, measurable primary goal — the one metric that will determine success. The author illustrates how campaigns with multiple equally weighted objectives (multiple CTAs, competing messages) make design and evaluation harder, using an association's conference email as an example. The piece distinguishes outputs (emails sent, pages launched) from outcomes (registrations, renewals, qualified leads) and recommends completing the sentence: “We’ll know this email was successful if…” before building the campaign. The article was published on MarTech on 2026-07-23 and is authored by Jeanne Jennings, CEO of Email Optimization Shop.
Practical guidance for email campaign planning and measurement that can improve campaign effectiveness, but it is tactical advice rather than industry-changing platform or policy news.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Author Jeanne Jennings recommends defining one single measurable outcome for each email campaign.
- Campaigns with multiple equally-weighted objectives often include competing calls to action and are harder to optimize and evaluate.
- The article distinguishes outputs (work completed) from outcomes (e.g., registrations, renewals, leads) as the true measures of success.
- The article was published on MarTech on 2026-07-23.
- MarTech is owned by Semrush and the author Jeanne Jennings is CEO of Email Optimization Shop.
Connected Companies & Entities
8 Entities mapped“MarTech is owned by [Semrush](https://www.semrush.com/?utm_campaign=the-one-question-that-will-improve-all-your-email-campaigns&utm_source=m...”
“Her direct response approach has helped B2B, B2C, government, and non-profit clients including AARP, Capital One, Hasbro, The New York Times...”
“Her direct response approach has helped B2B, B2C, government, and non-profit clients including AARP, Capital One, Hasbro, The New York Times...”
“Her direct response approach has helped B2B, B2C, government, and non-profit clients including AARP, Capital One, Hasbro, The New York Times...”
“Her direct response approach has helped B2B, B2C, government, and non-profit clients including AARP, Capital One, Hasbro, The New York Times...”
“Her direct response approach has helped B2B, B2C, government, and non-profit clients including AARP, Capital One, Hasbro, The New York Times...”
“Her direct response approach has helped B2B, B2C, government, and non-profit clients including AARP, Capital One, Hasbro, The New York Times...”
“Her direct response approach has helped B2B, B2C, government, and non-profit clients including AARP, Capital One, Hasbro, The New York Times...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Email A/B Test 'Winners' Can Be Misleading
A MarTech contributor warns that declared winners from email A/B tests can be misleading because results are context-dependent. Short test windows, audience variability, shifting inbox context (timing, seasonality, competing messages) and reliance on a single primary metric (e.g., opens or clicks) can produce winners that hurt long-term commercial outcomes. The article gives an example where a higher click-through subject line drove less qualified traffic, lowering conversion rate, average order value and revenue per recipient. It recommends hypothesis-driven testing, multi-variable experiments, evaluating downstream metrics (revenue, AOV, repeat behavior), and building a body of learning rather than treating single-test winners as definitive truths. Published on MarTech (owned by Semrush) on 2026-05-06.
Opens and Clicks Are Poor Email KPIs
The article argues that common email engagement metrics—open rate and click-through rate (CTR)—are unreliable proxies for business outcomes. Based on the author’s multi-year A/B test data, open rate correctly predicted the highest-converting or highest-revenue-per-email (RPE) subject line only 20% of the time, was incorrect 10% of the time, and was inconclusive in 70% of tests; overall it misled or provided no useful insight in 80% of tests. CTR performed worse: the highest-CTR variant matched the highest conversion or RPE only 7% of the time, pointed to the wrong winner 36% of the time, and was statistically inconclusive in 57% of tests. The author recommends using outcome-focused metrics—conversion rate and revenue per email (RPE)—and provides formulas for each, stating these directly tie email performance to business goals.
Search Engines Outpace AI Chatbots by 20x
An analysis by data provider OneLittleWeb of traffic across 10,171 websites in June 2026 shows that search engines still dominate website visits, drawing 162.19 billion visits (57.2% of tracked traffic) compared to just 8.26 billion for AI chatbots (2.9%). This makes search engines nearly 20 times more popular than all AI chatbots combined. Google alone recorded 98.19 billion visits, while ChatGPT had 5.32 billion, holding 64% of the chatbot segment. Both categories saw declines from the previous month, with chatbots dropping faster. The study, based on browser visits estimated from Semrush and Ahrefs, excludes app usage, which may undercount AI assistant usage. As Google integrates AI features into search, the line between search and chat continues to blur, but search engines remain the primary gateway to the web.
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