The answer was not many. They were surprised when I said that was a good result. Let me explain.
Why no reply does not always mean no interest
Having a chat with prospective clients recently, I learned that one of them had been forwarding my emails to a colleague. Did they directly respond to me? No, they didn’t, but they also didn’t opt out. What’s more, they forwarded the information to share it. Now we are front of mind with two people, not just one. That to me is a good result.
Email marketing is more than just getting that quick-fix instant order. There will 100% be emails you send out that are designed specifically for that, but you need to look at the bigger picture. To make sure that you are front of mind and your emails have the best chance of being delivered and opened, you need to invest in setting yourself up as a trusted sender, both with the recipient’s mail server and with the recipient themselves.
What should you measure instead of replies?
A low unsubscribe rate is encouraging, but it doesn’t prove that people are reading. So look at the things that matter to your business as well: relevant clicks, enquiries, bookings and sales. Open rates can still help you spot trends, but privacy protections mean they’re no longer a reliable headcount of who actually read your message. I’ve explained why in what email open rates can, and cannot, tell you.
So what does a good result look like?
It depends on why you sent the email in the first place. If you wanted people to book a demonstration, then bookings matter. If you wanted them to learn something about your business, a useful click or a later enquiry may tell you more than a quick reply. I would rather have ten people genuinely interested in what we do than a hundred replies from people who were never going to be customers. Wouldn’t you?
There is another thing worth checking before declaring the campaign a success or failure: did it actually get delivered? A sent email isn’t necessarily a delivered email, and a delivered email isn’t necessarily one that landed in the inbox. Check for bounces, complaints and unusual changes in engagement. If your audience never had a fair chance to see your message, the lack of replies is hardly surprising. If you suspect that’s the problem, start with why your emails can land in spam.
When should you follow up?
What to do if people do not respond to your emails? If it was something that needed a specific response, I would use Prodocom’s Campaign Board to set up automatic follow-ups. The follow-up might be an SMS; it might be another email. It would all depend on the content of the email and my objective. Follow-ups should be relevant and appropriately timed.
And please, don’t confuse following up with chasing someone around the internet. One useful reminder about an appointment or an enquiry is very different from sending the same sales pitch every morning until somebody gives in. Think about what the recipient needs next, not just what you would like them to do next. In Australia, marketing messages also need to meet the relevant consent, identification and unsubscribe requirements.
Campaign Board can help you build a sequence around what happens next. Someone clicks through to learn about a service? You might offer more information. Someone has already made an enquiry? Perhaps a timely follow-up is useful. Someone has opted out? That is the end of the marketing conversation unless you have another lawful basis for contacting them. The clever part is not sending more messages. It is sending the right one. It’s the same thinking behind the campaigns in the three types of email marketing.
Am I suggesting that sharing useful information regularly can help your business? Yes. Does that help my business too? Not going to lie, 100% it does. But that doesn’t change the point I’m trying to make.
But if people are not replying to your regular updates, don’t automatically assume your campaign has failed. Ask whether you are providing value, whether the audience is right and whether the results match what you wanted the email to achieve.