Very good stuff in this thread.
Though one should consider the following before conversions are compared:
1. Is the email is opt-in
2. Is there a relationship with the opt-in list
3. Is it a cold list (no opt in)
4. Is it from affiliates
All scenarios will give a completely different answer.
Generally speaking on conversion to SALES:
1. Opt-in will depend on what they opted in, if the data is NOT 100% related the % of conversion fall. Some of the best marketers don't ever count on more than 1% conversion. Not in the past and even worse now when no one trusts no one. Some of the best direct response professionals that know what they are doing and made multi millions in this business, don't count more than 2% if they get more the better. I know on the net you will find people saying stuff like 30% and 70%, those claims 99.99999% of the time are BS. Best I ever did was 12% and the list fell into "relationship" category. Then you can get very high conversions in EXTREMELY focus niches (fans of XYZ) that don't need convincing that XYZ is a good thing and the service/product/information is EXTREMELY rare.
2. If there is relationship in the opt in list for a long time = you have had these people on your list and gave them tons of good info and trust was built with time and they know you are good in your business, then your rates of conversion will be much higher than the 2%, maybe 5% or 10% if you are lucky and extreme niches with little info again conversions go up because there is not much choice around, but still in the assumption that you have relationship and trust which takes time (in years) to build.
3. Cold list no opt in. Ok, this is funny because the only number I ever heard of here -- as I don't deal with spammers -- was some 5 years ago when a colleague of mine did a marketing test on a cold list of affiliates, by him sending the email not the affiliates selling the product and the conversion was more like in the rates of spam........ like 1 person purchased out of like 30,000 emails. And that was only because they people did not identify his email address to the product and his writing style (that is what came down to after the affiliates did a survey). Obviously this is bad conversion and no go.
4. Conversion from emails sent from affiliates will immensely depend on their relationship with their clients and database as detailed above and of course the better the relationship and more rare the data the higher the conversion. Now with affiliates it will also depend on the training they get from you and copy of letters. If they don't get help from you the owner and the correct copy to send out, the rates can falls and usually do below 1%.
As a side note, there is not good conversion to "email shots", there is only good conversion to "relationship building". To do that one has to have an opt in and give huge amount of good information to build trust and show the person that one knows the subject matter.
If you have a good relationship you need no gimmicks, therefore american, uk, australian way..... and any way - will do, because they know YOU, your individual style as a person. And even if you occasionally make a spelling mistake which happens to all of us, it will be forgiven (that doesn't mean you should not take care of your work quality, but it means that you will be easily forgiven because you are seen as human as a person not some selling company/consultant/machine).
Now if you have relationship with your customers you conversions will be higher than the 2% or 1% or even 7%, simply because people will love you for what you give them and buy from you because they trust you and look forward to you information and occasionally you can sell your products and they will buy because the know you are good and your word is good and your data is good.
Then, last point I can remember - the conversion rate will also depend on price ceiling and barriers. If your pricing and offer is right you conversions can be higher than normal. Example: would you buy a house that is worth 500K for 10K? Of course you will anyone will and they will jump. But that is rare and good and they will jump on the offer. Now if I say: Would you like to buy my home cooking course for 10,000 I promise it is really worth the money? The answer is logical NO, because no matter how good the course is and even if it will make you a million if you teach it later, you hit the psychological price barrier for the product line.
So, to know your conversion you also need to know what your offer is and is it priced right.
Now, for any beginner, I have only one suggestion. For the first email campaigns do not have high expectations, especially if you haven't done extensive market research..... because if you don't get results it will crush you and you won't be motivated to carry on and that is neither good nor constructive.
Email marketing takes time and permission marketing was invented because no one trusts no one anymore in this world, do don't expect anyone to trust you unless you show your worth and ......then.......... you get high conversions.
Last but not least. Landing pages to FREE opt-in for e-books and data are different and depend highly on the copywriting. I heard 35% conversion is good, I got more than that in the past, but traffic was extremely targeted.
Now converting the free opt-in to a sale. Is another story and without relationship will highly depend on HOW GOOD that free data was. If not good, ouch, you are just losing reputation, if good you will be winning clients.
Hope this helps.
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