E-mail List Testing: Tactics to Try

Company executives decide to test opt-in e-mail to generate new sales. They initially test a category-driven list with an Outdoor Apparel interest selection. They rent 10,000 names at a $45 CPM.

They have great HTML and text creative, but generate a click-through rate of only 0.75 percent and a click-to-conversion rate of 5 percent. In other words, they generate four orders, $120 in sales and pay $450 to get them — well above their acceptable cost.