Email best practices? High CTR with low conversion or lower CTR with a high conversion rate?

Got a question today and thought I would blog about it.

Question from LinkedIn:

What value can the customer be offered for email marketing of a luxurious
brand?
One of my clients, who is a luxurious brand retailer wants to pursue
email marketing, as they have a nicely developed e-mail database (however no
demographic data like gender or age has been collected). The KPI set by client
is 80% click-though rate. What value can we offer to the customers to make them
excited and interested about the EDM? Is there much of field to move around
considering there is no budget for any sort of contest or freebies, nor any
exclusive information available?

My email marketing answer:
Wow.... sorry to say but I don't think it's going to happen. 80% CTR! Wow! lol! What you could do is to offer to give away their luxury products and make it really sweet and lucrative that people receiving the email offer would be stupid not to click on it. :)

There has to be some sort of offer or will not work. I am working on this for a massive real estate company and they don’t have any incentives to give away either but what other information can we give away that will ensure a high CTR?

Think of it this way.
Would you rather show the client a high CTR with low conversion or lower CTR with a high conversion rate?

80% CTR but you only sold 10 products ($50 ea) = $500
30% CTR but you sold 50 products ($50 ea) = $2,500

That is one way you could communicate with the client so they understand that it is not just about CTR – it’s about conversion. Plus a multiple more tactics to make email work smarter. :)

Hope that helps!

Cheers
Chris
http://www.reallyhotideas.com/