The reports that are available in the Compare Mailing Results group make it easy to compare the performance of your mailings based on various properties and commonalities (e.g., the template they're built on and the send day). You can then use your findings to determine whether your current practices are still effective or whether they should be adjusted.

• Click Compare Mailing Results to expand the list; then click a report name to select it.
• The report displays to the right of the Reports panel.

The report data:

• are refined by any filters that were selected on the Select Messages tab;
• are presented in the most useful and readable format (e.g., tables, pie graphs, line charts);
• are hover-responsive and/or clickable; and
• can be exported, printed, and/or downloaded (depending on the format of the report; refer to Print, Download, and Export options, below).

NOTE: References to Message Summary Reports reflect a rebranding initiative. Message Summary Reports and Mailing Summary Reports refer to the same set of reports with the same options and functionality.

Access the Compare Mailing Results reports

Classic Admin interface

1. Navigate to Mailings > Reports > Mailing Summary Report.
2. Set your preferred filters on the Select Messages tab and click the View Reports tab.
3. Click Compare Mailing Results to expand the group and select a report.

New Admin Experience

1. Navigate to Messages > Reports > Message Summary Reports.
2. Set your preferred filters on the Select Messages tab and click the View Reports tab.
3. Click Compare Mailing Results to expand the group and select a report.

By Templates

TIP: You should periodically review your templates to ensure that the content (e.g., contact information, logo, and brand colors) is accurate and current.

Your mailing templates are an important tool because:

• they contain your branding and required information,
• they present your content in a static layout across all the mailings that are based on them, and
• they might be your main contact point for you recipients.

Are your templates designed with these considerations in mind?

This report can illuminate which templates are the better performing: getting more opens and link clicks.

While template engagement could be due to the content of the messages that use the template (assume that Newsletters might get more engagement than marketing messages), it's still a worthwhile exercise to review them and decide whether any templates could benefit from some reworking.

Don't overlook the Mobile metric. A low percentage for this could indicate a template that is not well designed for rendering messages on mobile devices.

By Folder

You can organize your mailings into any number of folders and for any number of reasons; for example, content type and month-&-year are popular choices. Having your mailings logically organized into folders simplifies finding specific mailings and makes it easy to compare the performance of grouped mailings in the Mailing Summary Report.

By Accounting Code

Accounting codes add the ability to track which groups of users are sending which sets of mailings, and you can generate reports on those mailing activities. This is a great way to get a sense of the effectiveness of a department's aggregate mailings, for example. Further research could highlight specific successes and problem spots, but this is a good starting point.

NOTE: The Accounting Code feature is not enabled in all accounts by default. If it is not enabled in your account and you'd like it to be, create a case with Higher Logic Support.

By Day of Week

Use this report to see which day of the week's mailings get the best recipient engagement (the open and click rates).

• This is the day on which the message was sent; messages might not necessarily be opened on the send day.

Remember, the day of the week may change based upon the Target Group you're sending to. Be prepared to do a few different filters to ensure you're analyzing the right segments of your data.

TIP: Use this report in conjunction with the Best day to send report.

By Time of Day

Use this report to see what time of day's mailings get the best recipient engagement (the open and click rates).

• This is the time at which the message was sent; messages could be opened hours later.

TIP: Use this report in conjunction with the Best time to send report.

By Subject Line Length

Use this report to determine whether there's any great engagement disparity as regards the length of your mailings' Subject lines.

The Subject line is often the first part of an email message that a recipient sees, and it might be the deciding factor on whether the message even gets opened. Make sure that your Subject line (its words/text and its length) is crafted such that it is engaging to your recipients.

TIP: Use this report in conjunction with the Best subject line length report.

By Number of Recipients

Use this report to determine whether there's any correlation between the number of recipients that a mailing has and the mailing's performance. If there is a correlation, the size or the content of the mailings that are sent to different sized groups could be influencing the mailings' performance.

For example, one of your mailings is sent to 500 - 999 people and that mailing consistently "underperforms"...why? Which mailing is it? What is its message? Check the various aspects (size, content, layout) of the mailing to see what about it might be causing the lack of engagement.

TIP: Use this report in conjunction with the Best number of recipients report.

By Number of Links

Use this report to determine whether there's any significant difference across your mailings based on how many links each contains. If there is a correlation, consider how many links are in your mailings and, if this seems to be influential, consider increasing or reducing the number of links.

TIP: Use this report in conjunction with the Best number of links report.

By Email Body Size

Use this report to determine whether the amount of content in your mailings might influence whether and how your recipients engage with those mailings. If a trend does seem to be present, review your mailings and consider increasing or reducing the amount of content, while ensuring that each mailing is tailored to meet its objective.

TIP: Use this report in conjunction with the Best mailing size report.

Customize table data

There are a few management options with reports that are presented as tables. You can use these to choose which report data display in the table, and the order in which the data display.

• Click a column header to sort the table on that column; click the header again to reverse the sort order.
  • A small arrow indicates the sort order (as shown in the Sent column in the image above).
• Click Search to open a search panel and set search parameters to refine the list.
• Click Reset (after refining the list) to restore the original report list.
• Click Columns to open the column chooser to:
  • add and remove columns in the current view and
  • re-arrange the order of the columns.
• Click Export to generate a spreadsheet version (an .XLS file) of the report, as described in the next section.
  • The exported report includes only the columns in the current view.

Print, Download, and Export options

The Message Summary Reports are presented in a variety of formats (tables, line charts, pie graphs) in order for the data to be most easily understood. All of these reports can be "saved off" (printed, downloaded, or exported) for future review and to be shared with colleagues.

NOTE: The availability of these options depends on the type of report.

Print and Download

Many reports have a hamburger icon which, when clicked, has the following print and download options.

• Print - opens the browser's Print dialog.
• Download - these options download the report in the selected format; the file is available in your browser's download feature:

Export

Table-based reports have an Export option above the table with which you can generate a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet version (.XLS) of the report.

To export a table-based report:

1. Click the Export button above the list.
2. Click Download Excel File on the popup.
3. Navigate to where you want to store the report file, give it a unique name, and click Save.
4. Navigate to the saved file, open it and review it.

Export file notes

Below is helpful information about exported report files.

File names

All Message Summary Reports export files have similar default file names:

InformzReport_<series of numerals>.xls

Higher Logic recommends giving each export file a unique name (e.g., include the export date) when you save the file.

Report entries

If a report has more than 5,000 entries (i.e., table rows), it cannot be directly exported to Microsoft Excel as a spreadsheet. Instead, for security reasons:

• you will be sent an email message with a link to the password-protected report and
• will have to log in to Thrive Marketing Professional in order to access the report file.

In this case, instead of the Download Excel File prompt (at #2, above):

• Click Email the file on the popup.
• In the second popup, note the password because it is required to open the protected ZIP file.

TIP: When you open the report, you can save it to your device, in which case you will not need the password to open it in future.