There are many reasons a business decides to deploy an email marketing campaign, and conversion or response rates are usually at the top of the priority list — as they should be. However, if high response rates mean somewhere in the 90% range to you, your expectations are likely off the mark. Many business owners might be surprised to learn that high double-digit response rates are rare, while low-to-high single digits often indicate a successful endeavor. Percentage rates in the single digits may be contrary to what you originally believed, yet just as beneficial as you had hoped.
A conversion rate is the number of recipients who take a desired action. For example: if you send out 3,000 emails and receive 15 affirmative responses, your rate of conversion (responses divided by emails sent) equals .005. That rate is the standard. So taking into account the type of product or service you provide and the state of the current economy, conversion rates of 1-3% can indicate a favorable outcome.
There are other rates to take into account when calculating conversion. According to Epsilon’s Q1 2012 Email Trends report, open rates continue to increase quarterly (5.9%) and yearly (12.6%), resulting in an overall open rate of 26.2%, while click rates were at 4.7%. Divide the latter number by the amount of those who act and you get the picture. However, keep in mind that although conversion rates are the ultimate goal, there are other means by which to measure a successful campaign.
Creating awareness is also extremely important, and in order to achieve this goal, it is crucial to provide relevant content in your email campaign. With an open rate averaging around 26%, you want to make sure your content is accurate and engaging enough to coax your reader into taking another step toward action. Providing consistently good content tends to incrementally increase your open rate over time, thereby increasing your chances for more conversions, but there is even more to the story
Segmentation of your target audience offers valuable information for ongoing campaign adjustments and is considered another component of a successful campaign. By segmenting the broad target market into subsets — how many recipients opened the email, clicked to learn more, visited the web site, became a social follower, are return visitors, how often they visit, and when they decide to buy — a wealth of data becomes apparent and available for generating promising sales leads. All of the metrics gathered amount to useful data for the next precision campaign.
So while a high-percent conversion rate might not be exactly what you expected, a lower conversion rate is not too shabby. Your campaign may just have achieved the desired goal, and in more ways than one.
