While improving your email subject lines, pre-headers, copy, mobile design, and calls-to-action may seem like an endless set of possibilities, there is a patented strategic formula you can use to add method to the madness and better control and analyze outcomes. This session will teach you a strategic formula for optimizing promotions and newsletters via email and provide case studies on companies that have done so successfully.
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#CNX14 - The Strategic Formula for Email Conversion Success
1. Track: Email Marketing
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The Strategic Formula for Email
Conversion Success
Jon Powell,
Sr. Manager, Executive Research and Development
MECLABS
@JonPowell31
2. Track: Email Marketing
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Three Experiments
The Strategic Formula for Email Conversion Success
7. Track: Email Marketing
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Isn’t it good to provide more options for the
customer?
What if they’re not interested in the main
product/service that I’m featuring?
What if they don’t have enough information about
the offer?
8. Track: Email Marketing
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Consumer Behavior
• The human sensory system sends
the brain about 11,000,000 bits of
information each second.
• The actual amount of information
our conscious mind can handle
has been estimated to be
somewhere between 16 and 50
bits per second.
Source: Mlodinow, Leonard. (2012) Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. Pantheon Books.
9. Track: Email Marketing
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Consumer Behavior
• The human sensory system sends
the brain about 11,000,000 bits of
information each second.
The mind will make itself up without our
consent; helping us in some instances,
• The actual amount of information
our conscious mind can handle
has been estimated to be
somewhere between 16 and 50
bits per second.
confusing us in others.
Source: Mlodinow, Leonard. (2012) Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. Pantheon Books.
10. Track: Email Marketing
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Consumer Behavior
• Since the early 1800s, scientists
have been uncovering laws of
mental processing through classic
experimentation, from E. H.
Weber’s discovery (1834) on
sense to William Carpenter’s
thesis on unconscious thought
(1874).
Source: Mlodinow, Leonard. (2012) Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. Pantheon Books.
11. Track: Email Marketing
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Consumer Behavior
There are hundreds of documented
• Since the early 1800s, scientists
have been uncovering laws of
mental processing through classic
experimentation, from E. H.
Weber’s discovery (1834) on
sense to William Carpenter’s
thesis on unconscious thought
(1874).
studies that demonstrate the
influence of the unconscious mind on
human behavior.
Source: Mlodinow, Leonard. (2012) Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. Pantheon Books.
12. Track: Email Marketing
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Science-based
Optimization Institute
Conducts both primary and secondary
media and messaging research and
strategy from actual behavioral tests with
real customer data.
20 years of active research, including
over:
• 20,000 sale path experiments
• 1 billion tested emails
• 500,000 executive interviews
• 2,200 brand-side case studies
13. Track: Email Marketing
#CNX14
Science-based
Optimization Institute
Conducts both primary and secondary
media and messaging research and
strategy from actual behavioral tests with
real customer data.
People make the same type of judgments
in the digital experience as they do in the
physical experience.
20 years of active research, including
over:
• 20,000 sale path experiments
• 1 billion tested emails
• 500,000 executive interviews
• 2,200 brand-side case studies
14. Track: Email Marketing
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The Digital Dating Experience
Did You know?
For ladies, the type of profile photo
displayed has been tightly correlated
with the likelihood that an initial
message will result in an actual
conversation.
Source: Rudder, Christian. (2009-2014) The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures. http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-4-big-myths-of-profile-pictures/
15. Track: Email Marketing
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How can I ensure that my emails
aren’t prematurely dismissed by
customers while simultaneously
maximizing response?
22. Track: Email Marketing
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Relevance
Key Observations
• Customers aren’t trying to open and click your emails, they are trying to eliminate
them.
• To prevent elimination, the most effective strategy a marketer can take is to ensure
an immediate personal connection with the customer. This can be established on
two levels:
• A customer’s internal biases
• A customer’s external events
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23. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies
From This
PadiAct Takes Your Targeted Subscriptions
to a New Level
Don't Kill the Romance: 7 Email Marketing
Buzzkills to Avoid
Effective Marketing: It's All About Your
Subscribers
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
24. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies
To This
PadiAct Jon,
Takes Your Targeted Subscriptions
to a New Level
Jon,
Don't Kill the Romance: 7 Email Marketing
Buzzkills to Avoid
Jon,
Effective Marketing: It's All About Your
Subscribers
25%
In Click-rate
7%
In Open-rate
19%
In Click-rate
7%
In Open-rate
In 2nd Orders rate 25%
In Click-rate
3%
In Open-rate
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
25. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies
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85%
In Click-rate
288%
In Sales-rate
31. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies To This
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
410%
In Click-rate
13%
In Daily Total Rev.
32. Track: Email Marketing
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Meta-analysis eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
Personalization
100+ creative samples Brand-side studies
300+ pages of data
Controlled experiments
To gain a greater understanding of relevance and personalization in email, we
conducted a meta-analysis of all MarketingSherpa and MECLABS case studies that
explicitly used terms such as “personalize,” “personalization,” and even
“customization.”
33. Track: Email Marketing
#CNX14
Meta-analysis eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
ROI
Low High
Simple Complex
Installation Complexity
Personalization
Results revealed an
area of personalization
that offers the most
potential gain for the
least potential energy
investment.
34. Track: Email Marketing
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Furthermore, we also
observed that one
could double, even
triple their ROI by
simply combining
these tactics into a
single campaign.
Meta-analysis
Personalization
Deeper analysis of that
opportunity uncovered
three consistent
categories of tactics
present in all
campaigns achieving a
significant ROI.
www.meclabs.com/CNX2014
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
38. Track: Email Marketing
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Offer
Key Observations
• You may think that the offer is the product that you want to sell.
• In reality, however, the offer is the additional information a customer receives
in exchange for a “click.”
• What is the most effective way to get a click?
• Is it to give them an entire product pitch? Or just part?
• Is it to draw them through clever statements? Or just clarity?
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
39. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies
Subject Lines
From This
[Known Audio Company]
NEW Wave SoundTouch System | Free Shipping
The New York Times
Get Unlimited Access to NewYorkTimes.com with Home Delivery
Barack Obama
Stand with me today
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
40. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies
Subject Lines
[Known Audio Company]
NEW
Wave SoundTouch System | Free Shipping
The New York Times
Barack Obama
Stand with me today
To This
product released just in time for the holidays
Get Unlimited Free Access to NtheewYorkTimes.com Owinthlin Heome Delivery
Hey
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
52%
In Revenue
10%
In Opens
34%
In clicks
16%
In Donation Revenue
49. Track: Email Marketing
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Friction
Key Observations
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
• We often generate unnecessary problems in our emails by the amount of
content we have and/or the way we display it. To the customer, this is perceived
as:
• Unnecessary Difficulty
• Unnecessary Length
• In most cases, the objective is to minimize, not eliminate friction. If you
eliminate all friction, you eliminate “the click.”
50. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies
Each of these case studies are a prime example of how unnecessary
difficulty can significantly impact behavior.
From This To This From This To This From This To This
621%
In Purchase Rate
46%
In Purchase Rate
42%
In Click Rate
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51. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies
Difficulty – Mobile
From This
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
52. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Studies
Difficulty – Mobile
To This
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
15%
In Click-rate
53. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Study
Difficulty – Desktop
From This
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54. Track: Email Marketing
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Case Study
Difficulty – Desktop
To This
Click here to learn more
Click here to learn more
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11%
In Click-rate
59. Track: Email Marketing
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Anxiety They’re just hard water stains…
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60. Track: Email Marketing
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Anxiety
Key Observations
• Anxiety is just as lethal to conversion as friction.
• Try and mitigate anxiety rationally and you are likely to fail…
eme = rv(of+i) – (f+a)
• Though created from legitimate concern, its impact in the mind is often
disproportionate to the reality of risk.
• In email, anxiety is most often experienced as a form of intense “knee-jerk”
skepticism and caution.
67. Track: Email Marketing
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Final Case Study
Brand: (Protected)
Location: MarketingExperiments Research Library
Protocol ID: TP20184
Background: A company selling audio equipment and accessories.
Goal: To significantly increase email click-through rate.
Research Question: Which email copy approach will generate the highest click-through
rate?
Approach: A/B split test
75. Track: Email Marketing
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Final Case Study
43%Increase in Purchases
The email design that utilized the strategic formula produced a statistically significant
increase in clicks, purchases and revenue.
Email Design
Click-through
Rate
Purchase
Rate
Revenue per
Email
Version A 0.6% 0.017% $0.044
Version B 1.6% 0.024% $0.066
% Relative Change: 167.6% 43.2% 48.2%
77. Track: Email Marketing
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Summary
Key Observations
• Customers aren’t trying to open and click your emails, they are trying to
eliminate them.
• To prevent your emails from being prematurely dismissed by customers, you
must significantly increase perceived value and significantly decrease perceived
cost.
• You can achieve this when you use the email effectiveness index as a strategic
guide to optimizing and creating your email campaigns.
78. Track: Email Marketing
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connected to the strategic formula.
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captured presentation on email
personalization.
• Get $100 off on tickets to
MarketingSherpa’s 2015 Email Summit.
79. Track: Email Marketing
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Session speaker info
@JonPowell31
@MktgExperiments