Predicting response rates
Contrary to popular opinion predicting response rates is pretty much impossible!
It’s as true in email marketing as it is in any form of direct marketing. Though marketing companies may tell you that you should ‘expect around 2%’ response (or whatever), when you think about it its patent nonsense. For example, if you’re planning to sell a Christmas Santa in December for £2.95 would you expect the same response rate as the guy selling million pound yachts? Of course not and there are so many other factors to consider.
A key consideration when sending out a campaign should be to set realistic targets and expectations. But how do you do it if it’s impossible to predict response rates?
The answer is simple - testing. Email marketing is incredibly cost effective to test and it is statistically predictable over time. It’s safe to assume that if you send 2000 mails and get 20 click through you will get a similar percentage of clicks from 20,000 (as long as the group has been selected using the same criteria). Equally, if you send to your group of 2000 and get 0 responses it’s unlikely you will do any better even if you send to 200,000!
In the event that your responses are very low or non-existent then something about your message is not hitting the mark with your intended recipients. It’s time to re-think and test to a small group. Check out some of our previous blog entries for tips on how to write effective campaigns and improve your response rates.
I have found my response rates to vary enormously depending on the content of my email and the call to action I place in it. I have in the past received click through rates of nearly 20% and others as low as 1% or even zero.
I guess my experiments have taught me to keep it really simple and ensure that my subscription list is fully up to date.