Coaction Group - Business Technology Consulting

For your marketing to work (for an audience member to act on your offer’s Call to Action) all of these things need to happen. Your prospect:

• actually needs what you’re offering
• is aware that they need what you offer
• trusts you and believes you’ll deliver what you promise
• actually reads or listens to your message when it goes out
• has the time and money to take you up on your offer

The odds I use are 1 out of 10 in the case of responses to online marketing.

In other words, for every 100 emails you send to readers who have opted in to your e-mail list:

10 will act on your call to action (click through to your sales page) 1 will actually make a purchase

And 1 in 10 (10%) is actually a spectacular rate of response! It’s not unusual for rates to be more like 5% even 1%.

What’s important is to remember these percents are guidelines. And you can actually improve your odds.

Factors that affect your response rate include:

• Familiarity with your offer. The more often someone sees your offer, the more likely they’ll take the next step assuming they want and need what you offer
• A marketing message that is personalized to the problem and the way your prospect experiences the problem
• How well you define your niche and the likelihood that everyone receiving your message has the problem you’re addressing
• Your message avoids words and phrases that trigger spam filters, etc. 

How These Numbers Apply to Your Marketing

If you’re a small business owner and use online marketing, here are the main points to take away:

- Take Away Point #1 You Need a Large Email List

When someone tells me they’re disappointed with the low number of response they received from a promotion. The first question I ask them is, “How big is your list?”

How large is “large”? At least 500 subscribers, preferably 1,000.

It’s perfectly ok if you have a smaller list but you will need to supplement your online marketing with activities that are more personal: local networking, free presentations, etc.

- Take Away Point #2 Repeated Offers Over Time are a Must

People don’t see every email you send because …

• they’re out of the office
• they’re reading their email on their phone and only look at the most urgent messages
• they accidentally delete your email, etc.

And even if they open your email they may not pay much attention because:

• your event is six weeks away and they just can’t think that far into the future
• they aren’t ready yet to take a class on the subject matter because other priorities take precedence

Which is why it’s so important to repeat your offers to your prospects over a period of time; such as six to eight weeks.

Because eventually, the people who want to enroll in your class or buy your DVD or hire you as a coach will actually see your offer, read it, and take action.

- Take Away Point #3 Relevance is Important

The main resistance to point #2 is “if I send too many emails, everyone will unsubscribe.”

Which is why there’s point #3; they won’t subscribe if the offer is relevant to something they need now or are likely to need soon.

You can email an offer for discounted tire inspections to your heart’s content but there won’t be many takers if most of the people to whom you’re promoting don’t own cars.

- Take Away Point #4 Don’t Forget Those Annoying but Important Details

Once I sent out an offer and had no idea why people weren’t registering until someone emailed me saying “hey, I think the link is broken.”

Sure enough, I hadn’t tested the link people were supposed to click to view the sales page on my website.

Doh!

So, don’t assume everything works. Make sure:

• the links in your message take people where you want them to go
• your message isn’t peppered with words that will send your email right into spam oblivion
• you use the right dates and times,
• and check for typos.

Every one of those annoying little things can ruin an otherwise well done promotion and make it look like no one is interested.