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RSSPerhaps it is because we are in a newer industry and few people know what to expect, but the desire to know what average is can wreak havoc on what may be a great email program. A quick search on the Web shows reports of average open rates being reported in the 20s, 30s and 40 percents. The bottom line is, while there may be a mathematical average, there is no "average." If anyone ever truly calculated the average open rate, for example, it would be made up of numbers in such a large range as to be virtually useless. So, does it really matter where that number falls in evaluating your email program's success?
Marketers who know how to succeed usually disregard industry averages and focus on the two numbers that really matter: return on investment and improving their results using innovative tests. In any marketing program, ROI is like the green light that keeps you moving forward. A positive ROI, and one that, relative to others, is equal or greater, indicates that it is probably a good place to keep spending your marketing funds. If you have a positive ROI that you can live with, it is time to work on improving it through testing (and not in driving towards any industry average).
It is possible to overemphasize benchmarking to the detriment of a program's success. Marketers get so fixated on what others are doing that they fail to see the great things (or the items in their own program that are different) and are thus yielding different results. In the end, they let the benchmark guide them into an uncomfortable position because they are focused on the wrong goal.
If you keep in mind the basic premise of direct marketing and email marketing success, you will have a much better understanding of what works for you, and why what you are doing makes much more sense than any industry average. Last week I had the opportunity to meet with one of our clients who understood the value of testing. They were not focused on what others were doing, but were doing all kinds of variations on their control message to see how they could improve their messages performance. Some tests provided some surprisingly interesting results: options they would never have even bothered to explore if they were just focused on what was average.
So to the motto for any great marketing department today should paraphrase Garrison Keillor: "Welcome to our marketing department, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the email campaigns are above average."
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But evading the question isn't always easy. The less people understand the math, the more likely they are to think you're evading a perfectly reasonable question. People used to ask me how much an ad campaign would cost. The answer is, as much as you can afford, because there's never enough money to do all the things you'd like to do.
Seems to me the best answer is a good proposal to test alternatives as you suggest above.
What other dumb questions do people ask you, Jordan?
Marketers must define their goals ahead of time, look at what value the customer is currently getting out of the newsletter and think of ways to leverage other innovative ideas. With the holiday season coming up, this is the perfect opportunity for marketers to step back and review their current campaigns – see what’s working and what isn’t. This is the time when marketers should strive to be the best email marketers they can be – giving them momentum that will put their business on a strong footing for the rest of the year.
Huw Griffiths Campaigner Director, Marketing
Like you we get asked those questions and many like it all the time, its amazing how prevalent the desire to find the average is.
By a weird coincidence I have just posted an article entitled Maximising ROI without overmailing - how to determine the right send frequency for your email campaigns, on the DMA Email Marketing Blog; that makes your point in another context.
Anyone asking the “how many is too many emails� question is seeking an average – in effect they are trying to calculate the optimum mailing frequency is for the average person on the list. Does such a person exist?
What we have found here at Alchemy Worx is that when it comes to finding the balance between the need to maximise revenue and minimise email fatigue; it is vital to consider all behaviour not just the average.
In other words, focus on the needs of all you customers and not the list average.
Let’s say your monthly offer mailing has an average open rate of 25%, click rate of six% and generates $120,000. It would not be unreasonable to consider whether you could increase your revenue by sending out 2, 3 or even 4 campaigns a month. So which of these mailing frequency options is the right one?
The correct answer is all of them and none of them!
There will be some people on the list for who each of those numbers is the ideal frequency and a significant proportion; those who have not opened a message for a year or more (between 35 – 55% of most lists we have analysed), where a frequency of ZERO may be appropriate.
If you really seek to maximise revenue without killing your list you need to identify each of those segments and send them the appropriate number of messages to each. Mail to the average and you are guaranteed to be annoying some people.
You can find the full article by following the link below
http://dmaemailblog.typepad.com/dma_email_marketing_counc/2008/09/maximising-roi.html
Everyone loves to benchmark, so my simple rules are: - Start with your business goals - what ROI, number of leads, revenue, etc are actually needed to achieve corporate objectives.
- To then see what is possible, benchmark with businesses with similar goals
- Focus on the top performers - not the average.
- Benchmark against yourself - where are you today; where do you need to be/what is possible; and how do I get there.
Loren