In the past 73 years the highest overall MLB batting average achieved among all professional baseball players is .271. That was achieved consecutively in 1999 and 2000. The overall MLB batting average has declined steadily since then to a level of .255 in both 2011 and 2012.
Depending on how you like to count players (nothing is straightforward when it comes to baseball statistics) as of this writing 1,074 players went to bat at least once in 2013, with 151 of those regarded as “qualified hitters” by MLB statisticians (which means they bat regularly enough to be compared to other regular batters). A batting average of .300 or better considered “very good” earning a player considerably more than another batting .275. So far in 2013:
- 26 of 151 “qualified” hitters have hit .300 or higher (17.2%)
- 74 of all 1,074 players (batted at least once) have hit .300 or higher (6.9%)
Now, there’s a very reason that a pair of decent tickets to a San Francisco Giants game cost $300, a hot dog $5 and a beer $8 (likely higher by the time you read this). A lot of money is paid to players, coaches, trainers and others to do two things: (1) hit a ball safely and score home runs for your team (2) stop the other team from hitting safely and scoring runs. How much is a lot? Well, the 2013 MLB payroll for 32 teams is just over $3.2 billion (that’s correct – billion). Both the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers like to pay a lot to hit balls and stop other teams from hitting balls, with respective payrolls of $230 million and $219 million. The Houston Astros’ payroll, at a meager $24.2 million, is less than the individual salary of Alex Rodriguez, Johan Santana and Cliff Lee, each of whom earns in excess of $25 million (the average MLB salary is $3.2 million). Of the 718 highest paid MLB players in 2013 ($20 million+) eight are hitters/fielders (both offense and defense) and ten are pitchers (defense). Yes, you’re right: none of them play for the Houston Astros.
Failing to hit a baseball no more than 7 times in 10, or preventing others from hitting a baseball more than 7 times in 10, can earn you a lot of money. At least in the United States. What other job can you think of that pays so well to fail two-thirds of the time?
Which brings me to email marketing which, like baseball, is bathed in an aura of baffling statistics in its own right.
On August 7, emarketer published a research article entitled Mobile and Targeting Drive Up Email Opens. Though you can read the highlights on your own, here’s what stood out to me (it helps to look at this graph from the Epsilon study quoted in the article):
Epsilon.email.study
In the space of 8 quarters marketers have increased the email “open rate” from 23.3%to 31.1% – by 1/3. For the first time since this study began fewer than 70% of email recipients simply deleted the email (it used to exceed 77% in 2012). Cause for celebration? Not really …. it’s somewhat like taking swings at the ball.
Let’s look at the “hits” – the clickthrough rate (CTR). It actually fell from 5.9% to 5.1% – a 14% drop (though better than the 4.5% CTR for all of the 2012). Looked at another way, about 1 in 20 people will actually open an email do something constructive, such as clicking on a link.
Now, there are a variety of interesting things that marketers are doing to drive up the CTR – and transaction rates – like “triggered email” (a fancy term for sending email in response to a user doing something, e.g. sending a warranty service offer when a customer buys something online). But that is something like putting pine tar on a bat, or adjusting one’s batting mechanics. We won’t delve into that.
The important takeaway is this: just as a difference in batting average of a few points can mean the difference between a $2 million and $20 million salary, so too do modest improvements in marketing effectiveness. As the cost of online marketing makes it affordable for everyone, having a “batting average” near the top of the heap can make a huge difference to the home team.
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