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In the earlier installments of our Stat Central series, we spent time exploring the impact and utility of the “interpretation” data generated after each newsletter send – meaning the way the newsletter is received by the reader and their email client. Today, we’re going to take a little step back and check out the Email Client Usage section of each newsletter report.

From the new “My Reports”, you’ll notice that you can click the title of each newsletter in the data table. Select the newsletter you’d like to dissect further and click the linked title on the far left. That will take you directly to the “Report Details” screen. There you’ll find a deeper breakdown of the interpretation data, but if you scroll down just a bit, you’ll see the subject of today’s post: The Big Donut.

That big, multi-colored donut, under the “Email Client Usage” header, is an incredibly valuable bit of data that shows which email clients your subscribers are using to view your email newsletters. That may not seem important at first blush, but trust me, it is. Every email client uses different tools to interpret and display your newsletter, so staying on top of how you’re being read will give a leg up on how you should be designing your emails.

For example, some email clients, like Microsoft Outlook and many mobile email apps, offer a very limited viewing experience. If you see that a large percentage of your subscribers are using something like Outlook, Android Mobile, or iPhone, it might be time to take a hard look at the construction of your email newsletter.

To make the reading experience easier for those subscribers, try trimming your newsletter to a single column design, and shoot for high-contrast, high-impact text. Keep it short, don’t overload them with images, and make links large enough to be easily clicked with a finger (on a mobile device). Additionally, always make sure you’ve got the “View as a Webpage” link added to your header. This will give subscribers the option to open your email newsletter in a separate viewing window that doesn’t have many of the same viewing restrictions as their client.

Next week, we’ll take a look at perhaps the most important aspect of your email campaign reports: subscribes and unsubscribes. And let me tell you, It’s going to get a little wild. It probably won’t, but this is super valuable information, so don’t miss it.