The 40/40/20 Rule — Predict Your Marketing Campaign Success — Without Spending a Dime

Includes subtle nuances to consider when running campaigns on LinkedIn, social media, and the web.

Want to predict how successful your direct response marketing campaign will be?

The 40/40/20 rule is a classic tool for gauging your success. Here it is:

40% of your success depends on your list, 40% on your offer, and 20% on your creative.

In other words, if you have a great list and a strong offer, your chance of success is roughly 80%, even if you have poor copy and design.

Or if you have the best copy in the world, but a bad list and poor offer, you only have about a 20% chance of success.

If a marketing campaign is a fire, the hot list is how flammable the kindling is, the offer is the fuel and the creative is the match.

But does this rule always hold true? What if you’re in the digital space like ads or videos? We’ll look at how this equation changes in other mediums. But first, let’s break this down.

1) List

— — —

This is the target list, or audience, that will receive your offer.