Not “spam” but “junk folder.” Okay, that’s two, but it’s my newsletter so I get a little poetic license. Trivial matters aside, study after study shows that the average click-thru rate for most e-mail is in the 2%-3% range, meaning a whopping 97%-98% never had a chance to connect with your recipient – and people aren’t just deleting you, they’re funneling your e-mail to their junk folder instead of opting out. There are a number of things you can do to improve your chances of getting your e-mail opened, read and acted on, including short subject lines with teaser copy, sending the message from someone they know and NOT a company name, messages that look like a personal message over an ad and making sure what you send them is not mindless fodder but interesting, relevant content.

Further, “clicking” doesn’t equal ACTION – or opt-in, registration, download or appointment. Once that 2%-3% get to your landing page, there’s an action that needs to be taken, and it’s not uncommon to lose another 70%-90%. Let’s translate that. If your offer is for a free consultation, you’d have to send 1,000 e-mails to get three clicks (3% CTR) to get one consult (30% con¬version). Further, leads generated from online media do NOT con-vert as well as leads from off-line marketing. Of course, money matters, and e-mail is infinitely cheaper than direct mail – but not all prospects will buy via online media, and if that’s all you’re doing, you better have a honkin’ big list.