I just learned something cool from our new B-to-B reporter Srikumar Rao (you may know the name -- he used to write on marketing for Forbes.)
Srikumar said he's seen B-to-B email campaign data that shows the recipients who click last, convert at a significantly higher rate than the quicker clickers.
His theory is that if someone has taken the trouble to save your email message in their in-box for later reading, they are probably a more qualified sales lead. Even if it takes them a week or two (or even longer) to finally click through.
Makes sense.
In these days of email overload, I think many recipients are performing a sort of triage-system for incoming mail. You delete the crud quickly, you answer the easy stuff right away, and then you save the requires-thought stuff for later.
What it means for marketers: make sure you leave your landing page (aka splash page) and also anything powering your email's HTML images up for as long as possible. Not just a few days.
Also, don't measure campaign success based on 24-hour response. The really good replies may not have begun to come in yet.
BTW: Got any data from your own campaigns on this? Lemme know and maybe we'll write about you!
