Re: Looking for feedback on good email response rate

From: Arthur Cohen <Arthur.Cohen_at_TechnologyReview.com>
Date: Mon 19 Sep 2005 15:33:17 -0500

Suzanne, first, there's not necessarily enough info to determine CTR:
The rate is often obtained by comparing the number of users who have
followed a link to the number of times the banner or ad has been viewed
(impressions. Others define it simply as as comparing clicks to number
sent.

In your case, with the latter definition, your blast got a 1.3%. I
think that's pretty low. Industry averages these days seem to range from
7% to 10%.

And btw,in my experience open rates can be deceiving--those who use
Outlook's preview pane, for instance, will be tracked as an open, but
the recipient may never look at it.


There are other metrics that some folks think are equally important,
such as bounce rate: the number that abandon your site--"bounce"
away--after viewing one page. How well is your site performing for those
who do click through?

And what's the delivery rate? What percent of the 114M mailed got
delivered, and what percent were hard or soft bounces (the word "bounce"
used here refers to an undeliverable email, rather than "bounce away" as
above)?

In addition to using the delivered number as the base to analyze
responses, that number or percent can indicate quality of
list--depending on what kind of,if any, whitelisting activity the
website uses in its blasts (though increasingly smarter filters are hard
to surmount regardless).

In any case, the bottom line is sale or conversions, and CTR can just be
a kind of interstitial metric in getting there. If you CTR is low, but
conversions are 30%, then of course you may be far better off than a 10%
CTR but a 2% conversions. (These numbers are extreme for illustration).

So ultimately what's the ROI--what do you need, what's your allowable?

And there are those who say CTR is increasingly irrelevant:
http://www.clickz.com/experts/archives/media/plan_buy/article.php/825831

Anyone else want to chime in? I'm interested to hear other takes on
what metrics you use, and how they are weighted, in response analysis.


Arthur Cohen
Consumer Marketing Director
Technology Review Magazine
One Main St. 7th Fl.
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617 475 8018
Fax: 617 475 8042
arthur.cohen_at_technologyreview.com
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Received on Mon Sep 19 2005 - 15:33:17 CDT