How to Boost Email Program Response with Creative and Content Testing
• Jane Kaiser, Eclipse Direct Marketing
• Karen Talavera, President Synchronicity Marketing • Albert Gadbut, President AcquireWeb
Email Delivery & Measurement
Example of PV Measured InBox Delivery
How Wrong Creative can Kill Clicks & Opens
Best Measurement for Campaign Success & Brand Protection……Match-Back Analysis
• What is it?
• The comparison of the mailing list to the list of conversions across ALL channels. • Do this with a third party or with a trusted vendor with controls. • Don’t base results on promotion codes or tracking pixels
Match-Back Case Study #1
Records Sales Normalized Sales Net Sales
Marketed Control
26,647 28,947
571* 398*
17 188
336 398
205
Total Online Sales Total Offline Sales
Offline Preference 11:1
Allowable Cost to Acquire Value of Conversions
$75.00 $15,375.00
Program Cost based on 20 message program $1,065.80 Projected Email related cost to acquire $2.60
Importance of Subject Line and Testing
Subject Line Example
The Most Easily Tested Creative Element
• You have two seconds to make an impression • Subject lines can make or break a campaign
Actual Subject Line Test
A/B Test A= College Name Mentioned in Subject Line B= College Name NOT Mentioned in Subject Line
Date 8-Feb-05 8-Feb-05
Subject
Find Your Major at XXXX College Four Tips for Selecting the College That’s Right for You
Delivered 4,488 4,446
Opens 307 425
% 7% 10%
Unsubscribes 19 13
Clicks 49 58
Results four hours after campaign launch
The Subject Line
Key Factors The wrong subject line may cause your message to be blocked by the ISPS
Be consistent with the email message and not misleading
Must have a strong call to action
Incentives DO work in increasing engagement with the email ( Savings)
Examples of Doing Creative Ok and Then Better
How Wrong Creative and Kill Clicks & Opens
Effective Email Creative
What works? Understanding that every marketer’s successful formula is different
Key Basics for any email creative
Test, Test, Test – creatives, lists, direct mail, email Understand Current Legislation Establish and/or maintain your brand across all marketing channels Have a viable tracking mechanism – understand that a prospect will convert in the way they most feel comfortable so be prepared to track with that in mind. Track Lifetime Value
Creative Example “A”
Creative Example “B”
Retail “Multi-Touch” Campaign Example
Frequency and Consumer Interaction Analysis
Hallmark Head-to-Head Creative Test
AETV Case Study
• A “before” and “after” test/performance improvement scenario • A&E Television owns A&E, History Channel, Biography Channel.
– Each programming channel has an email marketing newsletter supporting viewership and shows
• Specific challenge: blocked images weren’t rendering, driving performance down
• What they did: Redesigned newsletters mid-2006 specifically to address the challenge
AETV Redesign Strategy
• Balance copy and images
– Adopted three-column layout where text flowed up and around images
• Use ALT-text tags
– Allow for insertion of descriptive copy behind images
• Keep ALT-text tag copy short
– Between two and eight words
• Implement rendering and deliverability design checklist
– Developed 13-pt. quality assurance process
Before – March 6, 2006
• Email is one solid image with text embedded • Preview pane area (upper left) not optimized to showcase content
After – August 24, 2007
• Multi-image and columnar format implemented • Good balance of text and images • Better preview optimization
AETV Results
• Click-throughs up 41% • Email-generated site traffic doubled • New newsletter design takes less time than previous
– Even with ALT-tag text insertion
• Quality assurance checklist created bridge between IT and marketing, eliminated recurring errors
Use of Email in Your Multi-Channel Strategy to Boost Overall results
Multi-Channel Case Study
• Breast Cancer 3Day wanted to utilize email within their marketing initiative for their 3day fundraising event. • They agreed to test a frequency program – (see prior slide) and asked for us to conduct the match-back analysis each week after each launch.
• 3Day utilizes radio, TV, print, direct mail and email over the course of 3 months to generate participants for the event.
• Results of the match-back • The email marketed file created a lift from the control file of 154% • When other channels went “dark” email also suffered a lower response rate but still out-performed the control file. • Without the match-back, there would have been no way to track the registrants • Through the match-back –we effectively illustrated that we lowered their cost to acquire to under $100 per participant
Creative Example “C”
Multi-Channel Case Study: The Limited/Intimate Brands
• Launched direct mail campaign to introduce Victoria Secret Dream Angels fragrance line • Campaign Goal
– Prompt customers to visit different channels – Introduce new product to current loyal lingerie customers who had not yet sampled
• Key Insight
– Customers buying Victoria Secret products through all three channels – retail stores, the web and catalogs – spent 3 to 5 times more than customers buying in only one channel
Multi-Channel Case Study: The Limited/Intimate Brands
• How Did They Do It?
– Segmented Victoria Secret multi-channel database to determine optimal targets for marketing campaigns – Decided to test if they could encourage current Web site or catalog buyers to try and buy the new fragrance retail
– Selected 125,000 sample of 21 million customer database • Loyal lingerie customers • Chose female customers based on spending patterns • Segmented into 5 cells (of 25,000), each with a goal of introducing customers to a new channel
– 3 segments of single-channel buyers (store only, Webonly, catalog-only), two of multi-channel buyers
Multi-Channel Case Study: The Limited/Intimate Brands
• Campaign
– Each cell received a similar direct mail piece with a different message
• e.g If customer was a store shopper, she was invited to visit the web site or order via catalog
– Direct mail piece included a scent strip
• Results
– Tremendous success – Parts of campaign earned a 400% ROI – Based on these results, The Limited planned another direct mail campaign promoting another line
Multi-Channel Case Study: The Limited/Intimate Brands
• Other Insights
– Before the multi-channel integrated database was implemented, data was scattered around the company in different databases
• It’s imperative to have a 360 degree view of customers across all channels
– Single channel view can’t give insight into customer needs – Without multi-channel view, you may mis-categorize customers – Multi-channel database will allow you to present one brand to customers, whether it’s store, catalog or web
You Need A Multi-Channel Database That Includes Email
• Do you have a multi-channel marketing database with integrated online and offline contact points and response history?
Email address linked to postal address? Separate permissions/contact preferences by contact point or channel? Online behavior liked to offline?
• Database capabilities at core of cohesive & targeted use of all customer information
Structure must support multi-channel marketing focused on individualized contact strategies Moving closer to the segment of 1
Testing the Multichannel Impact of Email
• Your back-end may not accurately be able to capture all conversions attributable to your email programs
– The more complex the sale, the more likely it will be completed offline
• To comprehensively measure the value of your email marketing, suppress at least 20% of your email list for a period of time (your “control group”) • Then compare the suppressed group’s conversion behavior over the same period of time to the remainder who did receive your email
– The difference is the impact of your email marketing