E-mail campaign performance

In today's market, e-mail is becoming as viable a tool for prospecting as direct mail is. However, this comes with a caveat. The issue is, will you save money in the long run doing a large e-mail blast when compared to a more limited direct mail campaign.



As with direct mail there are three key components to any campaign. The bounce rate, the open rate and the click through rate. None of these, in reality are what you actually care about. What is important to YOU is how many prospects are actually interested in buying? Yet, in so many cases the campaign tracking breaks down at this point. Let me share with you an example of what I mean.



A recent campaign had the following response:



Total names in the e-mail blast 30,000

Open rate after 2 weeks 10,200 or around 34%

Click through rate after 2 weeks 663 or around 6.2% of the click opens

Requested further information 5 or around .75% response rate



The cost/lead for this campaign is currently $860.



The problem that occurred was that the client did not have a proper mechanism to track their click throughs. We had to match back these 5 names to the master blast database to make sure they were there. They showed significant activity increased in their web activity logs, yet didn't have a way to capture those names/addresses of people who may have been truly interested but didn't take the additional step to click on the "more information" link.



Create a landing page that forces the person to complete even basic information before they get to the master information page. Look to capture:



E-mail address

Name

Address

City, State Zip code

Phone



Or, to streamline the process, you can just go for the e-mail address and phone for follow up. This way, you have enough information to get back in touch with them, and most people who may be interested, even a little bit will offer that information to you.



If you compare this to a direct mail campaign the results can be similar. If we look at spending the exact same amount of money on a direct mail campaign we would have the following numbers to consider.



Pieces mailed 5,000

Cost of printing, postage, letter shop, design, and mailing list $4,160

Expected response rate .5%

Total responses 35.



The question becomes, for the same money, which is more effective? My guess is that the e-mail campaign listed above had more then 5 people who were interested, It's just that the tracking system for direct mail is more efficient and easier to use.



Set up an effective tracking system.



Don't think e-mail is cheaper than direct mail. It's not. They are comparable in cost.



Response is ALL you really care about. New students are what you need to focus on here, not click throughs or direct mail responses. You want STUDENTS.



Combining direct mail and e-mail campaigns can lift response but this is something you need to test in order to know if this will work for you. Market Mapping plus LLC can help you determine what type of campaign you can afford and will be most effective for you. We focus on YOUR PROSPECTS.