What metrics are you measuring?

Marketers measure a lot of metrics about the email they send. But are they measuring the right metrics?
Mark Brownlow talks about how marketers may not always know what their measuring. He also links to Email Insider where the Email Diva talks about what metrics can be measured. More importantly, she points out that asking questions and determining what you want out of your email marketing program is critical to determining what metrics you should measure. She says:

what are the goals of your email program? Do you want to build your brand, reach new customers, build relationships with current customers, drive repeat sales, drive traffic to partner programs, increase Web site traffic and/or drive Web site purchases?
Clarify the relative importance of these factors and identify the Key Performance Indicator that represents success for each.

I have worked with a wide range of clients over the years. From large brick and mortar stores that are using email marketing to drive customers to their stores, to small web-based retailers just trying to communicate with their customers. In too many cases, the people trying to deal with delivery issues have no idea what data their companies are measuring about their delivery. We spend a lot of time collecting the data needed to troubleshoot their delivery problems.
Recently I had a meeting with a partner company who described one of their customers that measures everything about email. This company can tell you what color emails work better than others, and even which color preferences correspond to which recipient ISPs.
Perhaps this level of measurement is excessive for many companies. But the reality is that email marketers should be measuring campaign effectiveness beyond clicks and opens.