What’s a typical response rate for a direct mail, email or multi-channel marketing campaign?  I’m asked this question a lot.  Heck, I ask myself this question a lot!

The simple answer is, “it depends.”  I dislike giving that answer, but in this instance it really is the only answer.  Response rates are influenced by so many things: the target audience, media, season, vertical market, day of the week, incentives and on and on…

I see a lot of different campaigns as part of my job.  A week doesn’t go by that I don’t hear about a 27% multi-channel response rate by one company and a 243% response rate on some other company’s campaign that went viral.  These are fantastic numbers, but don’t lose hope if your campaign doesn’t get anywhere near them.

On that note, here’s a list of response rate averages, across all sources, I compiled in 2010:

Direct Mail Only      1.38%
Email Only             1.73%
Multi-Channel         1.85%