It pays to change: here's the proof

Latest posts | Feed | By Mark Brownlow on April 03, 2008

A few days ago, we saw some real-world examples of email marketing tests that produced whopping big returns for the marketers involved.

I'm often shocked at just how much benefit you can get out of little tweaks to your templates and tactics. Here are some more examples to get you thinking about some tests and changes that might bring you bottom line benefits.

Subject lines and offers

Bill Siwicki gets various top retailers to reveal the results of several tests on email subject lines and offers.

For example, "$5 off $50" got a better response than "$10 off $75" for Discount Dance. And wine retailer Vinfolio lifted revenues 20% by shifting their "other highlighted wines" footer to the top right of their emails.

Preheaders and snippet text

Bronto's Caroline Smith reveals the benefits of putting marketing copy in the preheader (the bit normally pointing you at the web version of an email).

Blooms Today "increased their above the fold click-throughs significantly" and the link in the preheader "generated a higher click through percentage than any other link in the entire message."

No images, no problem

In an article about designing for blocked images, SubscriberMail reveal two juicy numbers.

First, 60% of the executives they surveyed viewed email with images turned off. Which is a number that should get you serious about ensuring your emails work when the images you use are blocked from displaying.

Second, they found that "...optimizing to ensure effective messaging even when images are off delivered an 87 percent increase in clicks."

An 87% increase in clicks through a few simple design changes.

Unsubscribe links

Yesterday I spoke in favor of putting an unsubscribe link right at the top of your emails. In a comment, blog reader "gjhead" wrote..."I started adding an unsubscribe link to the top of our e-mails a few months back...I've noticed a drop in the amount of Spam Complaints since doing this. So in our case, it's been working as far as I can tell"

So there you have it: small changes, big benefits. Go get 'em.

Tags: email marketing, subject lines, email copywriting, email tests, image blocking, email design

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
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