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Higher Performing Email Marketing

1. The New York Times Groupon ASOS Southwest Airlines Find inspiration for your own tests with these suggestions The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Test ideas Today s Headlines from The New York Times The New York Times Today s Headlines email lands in inboxes every day in the very early morning hours The Times could test many elements of this email to increase click through rates and engagement with content on the website Today s Headlines 11 Billion Later High Speed Rail Is Inching Along NYTimes com lt nytdirect nytimes com gt to me i 1 16 AM 13 hours ago View in Browser Add nytdirect nytimes com to your address book Unsubscribe Ehe New York Cimes Most Popular Video Today s Headlines IN THIS EMAIL World U S Politics Business Technology Sports Arts N Y Region Fashion amp Style Today s Video Obituaries Editorials Op Ed On This Day CUSTOMIZE Thursday August 7 2014 As a subscriber to Today s Headlines get all digital access to The Times for just 99 cents Top News 11 Billion Later High Speed Rail Is Inching Along By RON NIXON Although Republican opposition and community protests have slowed efforts to upgrade passenger service policy experts and members of both parties also blame missteps by the Obama administration Conflict Leaves Industry in Ashes and Gaza Reeling From Economic Toll By JODI
2. images off rendering on a tablet rendering ona smart phone or desktop There are many stages of interaction between a person and an email It starts with the envelope copy from name subject line and Snippet or preheader text Then you have the body copy then the landing page After that there are infinite paths someone might take Test your email because you may have exceptional envelope copy but falling short on the body copy You can and should test at all of these stages What should you test Let s dive into deciding what to test next People worry about subject line a lot Can you use exclamation points How long Is too long Be bold and don t shy away from anything Everything is fair game Jessica Langensand Marketing Programs Manager Marketo OS Deciding what to test The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Deciding What to Test One Email Many Elements to Test Emails typically have 3 parts the envelope that previews the email the email body and the landing page the email directs to Each part has testable elements ENVELOPE Subject line _ _ E Snippet text es FLOM Email From Name EMAIL BODY Headline Image Body text Button text Call to action Email template CALL TO ACTION LANDING PAGE Headline 8 8 TSO proposition Call to action Which landing page you use The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Deciding What to T
3. Tne Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Tools and tips to optimize your email marketing The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing What will you find in this toolkit e Templates you can use at your company to organize scale and keep track of your email marketing and testing e A deep understanding of why A B testing is so beneficial towards achieving your company goals e Actionable steps on how to measurably improve your email marketing programs e Inspiration for tests to try on your own email marketing The User Manual 01 Why email is a great marketing investment 02 Why A B testing email is essential 03 Deciding what to test 04 Test ideas for emails amp landing pages The Tools Email Marketing Blast Template Open the Google Doc Template Email A B Test Results Archive Template Open the Google Spreadsheet Template Ready to sign out of email for 20 minutes and read this Let s dive in oji Why email Is a great marketing investment The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Why email marketing is a great marketing investment 4 EMAIL IS AN INDISPENSABLE PART OF MARKETING In 2013 small and medium businesses voted email marketing as the second most important marketing channel The most important Having a website On the spectrum of marketing functions email is mandatory What s more email is a high value highly adaptable scalable prac
4. recently viewed destinations or upcoming trips Southwest could increase the chance that a person buys the deal On the far right column of the page they could adda module that displayed custom information The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Test ideas 22 Other ideas to test Click to save your own copy of the Email A B Test Results Archive to keep have a big impact on engagement especially for your tests organized TIME OF DAY The time of day an email is sent could recurring emails like daily digests or coupons DAY OF WEEK The day of the week can also significantly affect your key emails metrics Presentation tool Prezi has two distinct users bases educators and non educators They found that educators are much more likely to open email on Monday than any other day of the week LINK FORMATTING Marketo found that making their hyperlinks Marketo branded purple instead of the normal underlined blue increased clicks on links BUTTON COPY Instead of generic words like Submit or Download test spicing up the action words Try being more specific about exactly what the action is Or try making it personal like Download My Copy You re trying to get the right people to open the email you really should be trying to optimize conversions and revenue through the funnel All the elements of email chain work together They should all be working together to drive subscriber to convert and spe
5. E the experience even further O Bags amp Purses Mini haul or fash overhaul Get your wardrobe t T k 0 Belts inspo here with perf matchy co ords ankle boots oe 0 Blazers ales aa rah beg i A files Oe R jh everything bag hits Time to r r ramp up your look a a making suggestions for what O Coats amp Jackets Dresses ne Me ob CI Dresses Tome ee ue to buy in this sale based on Bottoms SE ae re Swim amp beach D O my previous purchases Accessories amp footwear gt A men aaa O usi O usoL O us 2s a CO us2 2420 styles found View 204 per page View O HEEE sort ay Select Fa CLUS 4S x sp 570 The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Test ideas 21 Travel Coupons from Southwest Southwest the 4th largest air carrier in the US by traffic uses personalization in their member emails They use the contact s name and member number Southwest might try using more information they know about the member to deliver a custom experience on the landing page as well Earn 1 200 points on rentals with Dollar Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards lt RapidRewards luv southwest co to me 8 48 AM 3 hours ago Get 1 200 points and save 10 with Dollar View as a web page BOOK NOW RAPID REWARDS PARTNERS LOGIN TO MY ACCOUNT A RAPID REWARDS E MAIL UPDATE EARN DOUBLE POINTS SAVE 10 lt on Mid size Cars with Dollar south
6. RUDOREN and FARES AKRAM In addition to the estimated 1 800 Palestinians killed business leaders say some 175 industrial plants took devastating blows EMAIL Try emphasizing Customize A hypothesis to test is whether or not people would be more engaged with this email if they customized it to their liking So they can try displaying the call to action to customize more prominently Perhaps replace it with the digital access banner Better yet the Times can try taking their best guess at how to organize the categories based on a reader s previous engagement and test whether or not personalization is effective SECTIONS amp Home Q SEARCH The New ork Cimes gt Be ee eee l Billion Later High F gt Dry California Fights Start Ups Seize Marijuana Texas Bolsters Border 22 e Speed Rail Is Inching Illegal Use of Water for Opportunities as Big Sat Patrol With Its Own a Along Cannabis Companies Hold Back Teva _ THE WORLD IS OUR HOME YOU ARE OUR GUEST FIND OUT MORE gt U S HM 930 COMMENTS 11 Billion Later High Speed Rail Is Inching Along By RON NIXON AUG 6 2014 EMA WASHINGTON High speed rail was sa supposed to be President Obama s signature transportation project but vw despite the administration spending nearly SAV 11 billion since 2009 to develop faster ee passenger trains the projects have gone mostly nowhere and the United States still lags far behind Eu
7. testing them is highly important for email because people are always changing The efficiencies or gains you uncover can be very transient The thing that tended to work really well in the summer could be played out come winter Thus it s important to occasionally challenge your A B champions How often you should re test depends on what you re testing There s no hard and fast rule around it One great reason to test is you really don t know if your opinion is right We think we re experts because we write SO Many emails but just because we like it doesn t mean Our audience necessarily will Jessica Langensand Marketing Programs Manager Marketo Email is testable because of the number of different audiences you reach One basic practice of email marketing is forming different lists of contacts The divisions can be based on the channel you acquired that contact such as blog subscription versus contact us form versus existing customers Each of these lists has different characteristics and should receive unique messages The right content to send acontact you acquired by a special sale offer will probably be very different than someone who filled out a Contact us form on your website The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Why A B testing email is essential Email is testable because of the various devices styles and times people interact with it Emails operate in many different modes images on
8. you have and design tests around them Hopefully some takes many tests to find one that drives a meaningful difference between two variations Don t be discouraged Use an alias to subscribe to emails from other brands for constant inspiration on future experiments Landing Pages amp Email A Vital Connection The biggest crime is sending people to your homepage from email Don t make visitors work Hold their hand Chad White Lead Research Analyst Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud The landing page you direct people to is equally important as the email itself The goal of email marketing is not open rate The goal is full conversions The most important thing you can do for email landing pages is to make sure that it s painfully clear people have arrived at the right place There should be a very clear flow from the first interaction with the email all the way to the landing page it links to The envelope copy should relate to the body copy which should connect to the headline and body copy on the landing page Reuse images from the email to reinforce congruency Reuse headlines The more you make people think the worse your conversion rates will be Most of the time good flow means keeping things really simple and obvious The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Deciding What to Test PART OF BEING SYSTEMATIC MEANS KEEPING A RECORD Once you get started experimenting you will fly through test
9. 75 View BESTtrafficschool com 45 Off Online Traffic School Course Os Q What are you looking for 9 San Francisco CA ole Goods Clearance Coupons Back to School Getaways Three or Five Groupons Each Good for One 12 Oz Freshly Squeezed Juice at Jamba Juice 43 Off Multiple Locations FROM 9 75 10 a 2 VALUE DISCOUNT YOU SAVE 17 07 43 7 32 F GIVE AS A GIFT LIMITED QUANTITY AVAILABLE 42 Over 25 000 bought SHARE THIS DEAL Lp in Mi MM e am EMAIL Test stacking more information higher in the email To give readers an at a glance view of what s inside this long information rich email Groupon can try adding an all up list of brands below the headline Display the list horizontally so it doesn t make the email significantly longer Test link formatting To increase click through rate in this email Groupon can try making the headline a link Also they can experiment with making the view button a headline in this email is not a link LANDING PAGE Test a landing page of all local deals The deal links in the email land on deal specific pages Instead they might add an option to see all local deals In one view Test removing navigation Less may be more when it comes to links on this page To keep people focused on buying the deal Groupon can try removing the top links to Home Local Goods etc The Toolkit for High
10. A to 10 of your list B to 10 get a confident result and send the winner to the remaining 80 of list A style of test where you send version A to 50 of your list and version B to the other 50 of your list an even split down the middle When should you use it The 10 10 80 is useful whenever you want to test an element of an email that s part of a time sensitive campaign AND you have a very large list When should you use it Use a 50 50 test when you re testing emails you send frequently such as newsletters daily weekly monthly digests product announcements or sale alerts Use this type of test when you are looking for results that you will reuse again and again Let s say you re planning a one off marketing campaign with 5 emails that you ll send to your entire list This is the perfect scenario for a 10 10 80 because you want to get quick results on which elements are performing best so you can apply those lessons on the remaining campaign emails This way you will capture as much value possible from the campaign The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Deciding What to Test 14 BE SYSTEMATIC ABOUT TESTING Identify low performing areas where you can achieve fast gains and then commit to a testing calendar Come up with a list of hypotheses Click to save your own copy of the Email A B Test tests will produce grand slams Quite often though it Results Archive to keep your tests organized
11. TO TEST The flow chart on the next page will help you decide which One a The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Deciding What to Test 13 Which Part of an Email Should I Test 4 Steps to Identify Your Next Experiment You can test anything when it comes to email but no one has time to test everything Use these 4 steps to decide where to focus for maximum impact STEP 1 Do you have good open rates STEP 2 Do you have good click through rates STEP 3 STEP 4 Do you have a good YES Now try some thing radical ona small percentage of your email list landing page conversion rate Nfe to see if you can discover even better open click Try testing your sub e That could point to Test the landing page and conversion ject lines Be fearless a disconnect in your AINE Gaalene heat hae rates Try testing the time subject line to CTA Alera heron tne of day or day of week Try testing the CTA email like headlines you send emails to reflect the subject and images appear on e Try testing your pre line or subject line to the landing page Test header text reflect the CTA the call to action on e Try testing your from the landing page email or from name Types of Tests to Run The 50 50 The 10 10 80 a MA ball x e e 0 e a FR OS Water 50 l U Aa L e ad S O W O e i Ww 7 V w e e CO W e ON Another style of test when you send
12. ays what performs best A B testing is the best method to figure out what performs best It s a tool in your toolkit to increase the performance of your emails and conversion rates If you re investing valuable resources into email marketing then you should invest in the practices that help you get the most value out of it Besides increasing value A B testing helps navigate the complexity of email There is a lot of change that happens in email marketing that we have to account for constantly Its one element that drives email marketers a little bit crazy Chad White Lead Research Analyst Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud Email is testable because how we read it changes constantly The way you read your email today is probably nothing like what it looked like 10 5 or even 1 year ago According to reports from Movable Ink 65 percent of all marketing emails today are opened on a mobile device For consumers changing email technologies is great since they make inboxes easier to manage and reading email a swifter more enjoyable task But for email marketers changing environments means rapid adoption of new practices standards and rules It s one element that drives email marketers a little bit crazy and makes email extremely testable The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Why A B testing email is essential Email is testable because humans are humans Testing for new findings then re
13. er Performing Email Marketing Test ideas 20 Sale Promotion from Asos This sale email from online retailer Asos is an excellent example of a seamless email to landing page experience The image and headline in the email matches the landing page exactly so the visitor knows she s in the right place The Shop Now call to action is highly visible above the fold and the email is visually engaging j E Revamp your wardrobe with 25 off Inbox x A MAIL ASOS lt asos fashion asos com gt Unsubscribe 5 45 AM 5 hours ago v LOSE removing naVigaron and to me social buttons from email If Soe i the purpose of this email is for asos people to click to shop then promoting social channels NEW IN DRESSES SWIM SHOES ACCESSORIES SALE Ei Tt might be a distraction Oo EE HE H M ee A 25 OFF WARDROBE RE SPIN Make your summer look next level with fresh tees need now jeans way cute dresses and tons more MARKETPLACE OUTFITS amp LOOKS LANDING PAGE aH USD More personalization Asos Search ASOS 2 ee ok discover fashion online ynot you is already personalizing WOMEN MEN My Account Saveditems Cart 0 00 0 this landing page by using MRE HIRE INFORERE S information stored in my sisi a Aa ni customer reference number ee They might experiment with 25 OFF WARDROBE RE the impact of customizing w PRODUCT TYPE SPI N
14. est 12 IN SHORT YOU CAN JUST ABOUT ANYTHING But nobody has time to test everything Ideas for tests that drive the most impressive improvement start with a sound hypothesis They are focused on achieving one of your company s main goals Why not shoot from the hip and test a subject line here and a from name there Randomly running tests may lead to one off victories but it will slow you down in the long run Willy nilly testing prevents continuous iterative learning that will lead you to maximum potential in your email marketing Try these strategies to uncover the tests that will really move the needle Test high impact emails that directly affect your company goals 1 IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS Of course you have more than one goal For this exercise pick one very important goal such as revenue registrations leads downloads page views 2 FIND EVERY EMAIL THAT CONTRIBUTES TO THIS GOAL Which emails in the database help achieve this List them all 3 PICK THE EMAIL WITH THE HIGHEST IMPACT OR THAT REACHES THE MOST PEOPLE Testing high traffic emails that reach a large audience will ensure that you see results from your test quickly We ll talk about sample size later Do you have emails that are part of a nurture track A welcome email that every new customer or subscriber receives These emails are great places to focus testing Focus on just one email for now You will be itching to test more later 4 NOW SELECT A VARIABLE
15. line is specific about the piece of content included Leads are more likely to take action on a deadline framed as a date than a countdown Citing a numerical increase of a key metric in the subject line will increase engagement with this email Why You re Crazy to Spend on SEM But Not A B Testing Submit Your Test Before March Ist What do your website visitors know that you don t Email Call to Action Tests HYPOTHESIS Leads are more likely to click on something that doesn t imply an immediate commitment Send Time HYPOTHESIS Sending out an email at a time that is closest to global working hours 7am will result in more opens A Learn More A 7 am send time Ebook Why You re Crazy to Spend on SEM But Not A B Testing 5 Days Left to Win Awards For Your A B Tests Let your website visitors show you how to increase sales 43 B Submit Your Story Today 4 pm send time Subject line B won increasing click rates by 33 with gt 99 99 confidence Subject line A increased open rate by 17 8 with 99 87 confidence Subject line B won and in creased clicks by 18 with gt 99 99 confidence RESULTS CTA A won lifting click through by 37 5 with a 95 3 confidence level RESULTS Send time B increased opens by 8 5 with a 99 9 confidence 04 Test ideas for emails amp landing pages Test ideas for emails and landing pages from
16. nd money Chad White Lead Research Analyst Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud The key to successful email marketing Iis not about what you like The key is A B testing to figure out what your audience responds best to The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing 24 MORE DOWNLOADS FROM OPTIMIZELY THE BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING OPTIMIZED MOBILE APPS 90 of apps are deleted after only one use It s never been more important to have a mobile app optimization strategy Learn how with this guide ABOUT THIS GUIDE The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Written By Cara Harshman Content Strategist Optimizely CaraHarshman Designed By Jon Saquing Communication Designer Optimizely JSa Thank you to Jessica Langensand Chad White Amelia Lin Allison Sparrow Sources Radicati Email Statistics Report 2014 2018 eMarketer Nearly Half of B2Bs Expect Marketing Budget Bump in 2014 McKinsey amp Company Why marketers should keep sending you e mails eMarketer Mobile takes an increasing share of e mail opens To learn more about Optimizely schedule a live demo today at OPTIMIZELY COM DEMO A GUIDE TO CREATING PROVABLE ROI IN SOCIAL MEDIA A Guide To Creating Provable ROI 66 of companies are putting in Social Media more pressure on measuring return on investment in social media Download this eBook for 10 ways to pro
17. rope and China While Republican opposition and community protests have slowed the projects here transportation policy experts and members of both parties also place Top Stories This article and blame for the failures on missteps by the others like it are b d ee t ti of hich in Jul nared Sa Obama administration w y subscription asked Congress for nearly 10 billion more LANDING PAGE Try featuring other top news Clicking on the first headline under Top News takes a reader to the article page To keep readers viewing articles they can try aggregating other Top News in the display across the top of the page The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Test ideas 19 Daily Deal Coupons from Groupon This email from Groupon features deals in the recipient s local area based on the location he or she defined In a digest email like this they may try making more information like which brands are featured this week discoverable more readily Top Sellers Wrap Yourself in the Blanket of Mass Appeal Groupon lt noreply r groupon com gt Unsubscribe Aug 4 3 days ago to me GROUPON Local Goods Getaways Reserve Top Sellers near San Francisco Jamba Juice Jamba Juice 43 Off Freshly Squeezed Juice Multiple Locations Freshly squeezed juices are delicious nutritious and a great way to get daily vitamins and minerals your body needs to fuel the day 42 07 9
18. s quickly Keep all of the hypotheses variations and results in one place with an A B test archive We use one at Optimizely to keep track of every test We refer back to it often especially when we re writing new emails We ve turned it into a template for you to use with your email testing FREE RESOURCE Email A B Test Results Archive Template Open the Google Spreadsheet Template The archive is more than just a track record of what you ve tested it also shows results The template archive includes formulas to calculate statistical significance based off the sample size you ve tested In other words the formulas in the spreadsheet will let you know whether your results are accurate or false positives or false negatives PRO TIP USING A LARGER SAMPLE SIZE WILL ALWAYS HELP YOU REDUCE FALSE POSITIVES AND FALSE NEGATIVES In order to calculate whether or not our email A B tests are Statistically significant we export results from our email marketing software and do the analysis ourselves in a spreadsheet The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Deciding What to Test 16 Email A B Test Results From the Optimizely Archive At Optimizely we A B test every email that goes out to over 2 000 contacts This is a snapshot of some of those test hypotheses the variations and results Subject Line Tests HYPOTHESIS A RESULTS Leads are more likely to open and click if the subject
19. ther is the amount of it in our inboxes The average professional receives 121 emails per day For people receiving emails this means less attention on each message more skimming and probably more filtering out of the inbox For people sending emails people like you this deluge of email is a challenge and incentive to figure out the elements of email subject lines calls to action images from name etc that work best with your audience BUT HOW DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF ALL THE EMAIL Staying organized is pivotal especially if you are increasing the number of emails you send or collaborate with people on other teams to write them Sending emails about writing emails commenting and editing is cumbersome Here is a template to organize every email you will ever write FREE RESOURCE Email Marketing Blast Template Open the Google Doc Template The email marketing owner fills in a few parts and the email writer fills in the rest By using this template at Optimizely we have dramatically decreased the time it takes to go from brainstorming an email to hitting send 02 Why A B testing email is essential The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Why A B testing email is essential 7 YOU RE A MARKETER NOT A MIND READER It s your job to add value to the business through email marketing But the email subject line you want people to open or the button you think people will click is not alw
20. tice with clearly quantifiable results 6 REASONS EMAIL MARKETING IS A GREAT INVESTMENT It s possible to attribute and quantify value You can attribute key business goals to specific emails You measure whether contacts who receive monthly newsletters engage more with content compared to those who don t e It s highly targeted By filtering your contact lists you can control exactly who will receive an email e It scales quickly Building an email campaign for 100 contacts takes the same amount of time as a Campaign for 100 000 contacts e It s ubiquitous Email is a central part of communication 4 1 billion email accounts exist today more than the number of Twitter and Facebook accounts combined e It has high ROI Emails prompt purchases at least three times more often than social media Average order value for a customer who shops from emails is 17 higher than social media e It s personalized You can make email personal by including unique or behavioral information you have about a contact Emails triggered based on user behavior is another way to personalize eMarketer Nearly Half of B2Bs Expect Marketing Budget Bump in 2014 http optimize ly 1pEr5p0 2 Radicati Email Statistics Report 2014 2018 http optimize ly IkLxtvT The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing Why email marketing is a great marketing investment THE IMPORTANCE OF EMAIL IS CERTAINLY NOT WANING and nei
21. ve social media is valuable to your business ABOUT OPTIMIZELY Optimizely is the world s leading optimization platform providing A B testing multivariate testing and personalization for websites and iOS applications The platform s ease of use empowers organizations to conceive of and run experiments that helo them make better data driven decisions With targeting and segmentation using powerful real time data Optimizely meets the diverse needs of any business looking to deliver unique experiences to their visitors San Francisco Office 631 Howard Street Suite 100 San Francisco CA 94105 Amsterdam Office Nes 76 1012 KE Amsterdam The Netherlands O QO O The Toolkit for Higher Performing Email Marketing 25
22. westgiftcard R Sign Up n Save Help Espa ol Travel Tools Special Offers Air Hotel Car Vacations Flying Southwest Rapid Rewards Great Travel Deals What to k Before You Ga Parr award Fights carter INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL gt Rapid Rewards Promotions Quick Air Links About How to Earn How to Redeem Partners Promotions Check In gt Change Flight gt Check Flight Status Account Login Rapid Rewards Promotions oe Take advantage of all the great offers available from Southwest Airlines and our Rapid Rewards Partners F Er E gt Earn 1 200 Points and Save 10 with Dollar Rapid Rewards Tiers amp More C Remember Me Log In Need help logging in P Rapid Rewards Earn 1 200 Points and Save 10 with Dollar EMAIL Reduce image height Visual design is a strength of this email A negative result of an image heavy email is the text is pushed down and less visible Southwest could try reducing the height of the Rapid Rewards banner image to make more room for the text under the main promotion Make one call to action button stand out This email gives recipients many options Based on the subject line the main focus is buying the Dollar rental car promotion Southwest could add a button to the promotion image banner to reinforce the call to action LANDING PAGE Test adding personalization By using information about the user on this page like name recent trips

Higher Performing Email Marketing

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