The reports that are available in the View Trends Over Time group present historical data which makes it easy to see whether any trends are emerging as regards metrics such as message opens, link clicks, and social-media activity.
- Click View Trends Over Time 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 View Trends Over Time reports
Classic Admin interface
- Navigate to Mailings > Reports > Mailing Summary Report.
- Set your preferred filters on the Select Messages tab and click the View Reports tab.
- Click View Trends Over Time to expand the group and select a report.
New Admin Experience
- Navigate to Messages > Reports > Message Summary Reports.
- Set your preferred filters on the Select Messages tab and click the View Reports tab.
- Click View Trends Over Time to expand the group and select a report.
Delivery Rate Trends
This is a valuable report to run as time goes on, as it shows a summary of delivery, open rate, click rate, and mobile opens. Not only are you able to track the success of your email delivery, but you can also determine how engaged your audience is.
- Use the Scale menu at the upper right to scale the results by week, month, quarter, or year.
- Hover anywhere on a line to see the statistics for that time period.
Marketing Trends
You can gather significant insights into the marketing trends — social media, delivery, open rates, click-throughs, and forwards — of your mailings. Being able to put your finger on the pulse of the trends around your marketing is a key competitive advantage for you and your organization. If you're noticing that your contacts are sharing on social media, you can react; if you see that they're forwarding, you can use that knowledge to get forward recipients to subscribe.
The Marketing Trends report is a great summary of your reach and engagement, as it provide insight into as much information as you'd like, based on the checkboxes that are available on the left side of the report.
- Use the Scale menu at the upper right to scale the results by week, month, quarter, or year.
- Hover anywhere on a line to see the statistics for that time period.
Social Trends
Combining the powers of email marketing with social media has a very positive impact on contact engagement. The way to measure how well you are doing with your connectivity to social media is with the Social Trends report. This report takes a pulse on how much your contacts are spreading the message. Take the pulse, and then react. Contacts who reach out on your organization's behalf can have a powerful effect on your membership and your organization's goals. You now have insight into opens, forwards, send to friends, social shares, social share clicks, and social post clicks.
- Use the Scale dropdown in the upper right of this report to scale the results by week, month, quarter, or year.
- Hover anywhere on a line to see the statistics for that time period.
Total Reach Trends
This chart presents a view of the total reach of your mailings. It includes the number of opens and forwards, social shares, and "share" and "post" clicks.
- Use the Scale dropdown in the upper right of this report to scale the results by week, month, quarter, or year.
- Hover on a bar to see the statistics for that time period.
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:
- Click the Export button above the list.
- Click Download Excel File on the popup.
- Navigate to where you want to store the report file, give it a unique name, and click Save.
- 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.