My sister has 14 children.
Ok. I may have exaggerated a bit (she has 4 children). However, the point is that when my first nephew was born - 7 years ago - my sister signed him up with a Upromise account, which I contribue to regularly. For every child following, the allocation was divvied up equally.
I used to receive more regular email communications from Upromise. If I recall correctly, they historically have sent out a monthly account update. Nothing fancy. No huge sales pitch. Just a reminder to login and see the activity in my account. I’ve always thought they could do more, but (hopefully) they have a strategy behind their email campaign frequency and content.
A few weeks ago, the following email appeared in my inbox.
I immediately opened, read, clicked-through to the landing page, and “converted.” How was Upromise able to drive me through the conversion funnel so successfully?
An oversimplified conversion funnel for email engagement goes something like this:
1. Open: The far majority of open vs delete/junk/unsubscribe decisions are made based on the from name and/or subject line. If the from name is not recognized (i.e., donotreply) the email may not get opened. If the subject line is not compelling (i.e., January Update), it may go unnoticed. (Example of a killer subject line? Check out SideStep email).
- What Upromise did: The from name was clear and recognizable (Upromise). Subject line (The Upromise Annual membership requirement) led to my immediate open.
2. Read: The preheader and above-the-fold message must be interesting enough to capture attention. Keep the copy relatively short with links to “read more” or “learn more.”
- What Upromise did: The Upromise logo and entire copy was above-the-fold. Almost all of the entire email was readable with images turned off. The only difference was no logo and no signature. The link was clear and visible. Great use of white space.
3. Click-through to Landing Page: Once a subscriber has opened the email and read some of the content, clicking-through to a relevant landing page is critical. This landing page is where the buy/no-buy decision is made (Landing Page Optimization: 6 Ways to Attract Higher Conversions).
- What Upromise did: When I clicked on the link (upromise.com/profile), I was taken to a relevant landing page. The only misstep by Upromise was that they required me to log in. That extra step may have prevented me from moving forward. If you have the data to personalize the copy (”Dear DJ”), you should be able to provide login info. However, this could also be due to cookies and browsers.
4. Convert: Most often, the conversion is where the big payoff is. It’s great to have a high open or click-through rate, but conversions increase your ROI and ultimately keep your company in business.
- What Upromise did: In this case, a conversion was not a sale, but Upromise was able to fulfill on their goal. I updated my preferences and essentially confirmed that I am still an active customer.
It will be interesting to see how - if at all - my interaction with this email changes how Upromise views me as an customer. They now have behavior data (I opened, read, clicked, and converted) that can be used to further segment. Crossing my fingers…
DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto
Related posts:
- Bronto Tracking Reports Get New Metrics Bronto is including a few new metrics on the Message...
- Shop.org: Effective Reengagement Strategy? In August of 2007, I registered to attend Shop.org’s annual...
- Now That You Have My Attention… [Kodakgallery.com email review] Yesterday morning - 12:26AM to be exact - I...
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great information - it’s kind of scary with so many investments sinking right now, lets hope college funds don’t go down with the rest!
I love Upromise and we use it regularly to put a few coins away for our 3 kids.
I suspect your relationship won’t change now that they have your data. If I had to guess, a lot of the data become out dated in the last six months as peoples credit limits changed and cards canceled.
@Tara - I’m crossing my fingers too!
@Alan - I totally agree with your comment, “I suspect your relationship won’t change now that they have your data,” but am trying to remain optimistic.
dj
–
DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto