Key takeaways
- Your own conversion rate is the only number that matters. Benchmarks are a starting guess.
- Improving list fit usually raises meetings faster than sending more.
- Plan contacts per month, then check the plan against your data limit.
Step by step
- Set the meeting goal. For example 10 qualified meetings a month.
- Find your contact-to-meeting rate. Meetings booked divided by people contacted over the last month or campaign.
- Divide. Meetings wanted divided by that rate gives contacts needed. 10 divided by 0.02 is 500.
- Add a margin for bad data. Add 10 to 20 percent for bounces, wrong people and duplicates.
- Improve the rate, not just the volume. Tighter targeting, a better first line and a second channel such as phone move the rate more than extra volume.
| Contact-to-meeting rate | Contacts for 10 meetings |
|---|---|
| 1% | 1,000 |
| 2% | 500 |
| 3% | About 335 |
| 5% | 200 |
What to know
The table is arithmetic, not a promise. A specialist offer sent to a carefully chosen list can convert several times better than a generic message sent to a broad one.
This is also how to choose a data plan. If you need 500 contacts a month, the Buzzlist Starter plan at 1,500 covers it with room to test. If you need 100 to prove the idea, the free plan is enough.
