What is the Response Rate? And How is it Used?

The response rate is a measure of how many times someone responded to a call to action over the number of requests you sent out. Response rate can refer to emails, direct mail, or surveys. Marketers use the response rate in many ways. For example, you could have an email with a call to action button that links to a survey. You’ll want to know the response rate of your survey. Say you sent 1000 emails, and 100 people clicked on and completed the survey. The response rate is 100/1000, so 10%. Also, an important thing to remember is that the response rate can only be calculated with a defined sample group. So trying to figure out the response rate of a pop-up ad, for example, is not usually as straightforward as an email, survey, or direct mail piece. Thus when sending emails, surveys, or direct mail, focusing on the response rate is a great way to help grow your business.

Why Should I Care About Response Rate?

The response rate is a terrific metric to help you see how engaged your audience is and look at any aspects of the campaign you might change. Maybe in an email, the call to action has to be more prominent, or the message may have been too long. Also, running A/B tests (also called split tests) can be very helpful in email campaigns and can help you compare two response rates. With email, you can also consider things like open rate, click rate, and click vs open rate along with response rate. This gives a fuller picture.

With direct mail, your customers can be even more engaged than with other digital marketing campaigns. Direct mail can help retain highly engaged customers. Response rate can also be a great way to measure the satisfaction of your customers. IgnitePOST can help you to add more personalization and fulfillment to your customer’s experience.

What is a Good Target Response Rate?

The target response rate can vary between industry and business. It can also depend on who you are trying to target and how new the sample is to your business. Have they interacted with you before, or are they brand new leads? All of these factors play a role in determining your target response rate.

Let’s looks at email. If you are sending to a whole new group of people you have never reached out to before, a response rate of 2% is usually reasonable. So if you can get higher than 2%, that’s fantastic! If you are sending to a group that you know is highly engaged and has interacted with your content before, you can probably expect a response rate closer to 10% or higher. At IgnitePOST we have seen a much higher response rate with our automatic handwritten cards and notes than with email. IgnitePost found that handwritten direct mail campaigns can expect 21.3x higher response rates than typical email campaigns.

The response rate is a critical metric to keep track of for any marketing campaign. Determining your target response rate can be challenging. But keep in mind that a reasonable response rate depends on many variables. A response rate for email can be different from direct mail. It can also depend on how engaged your audience is.