In the first post in this series, I posed some questions you should be asking yourself when reviewing and analyzing your message reports. In the next couple of blog posts, I’d like to cover some tips and ideas around what to test to lift your engagement metrics: opens, clicks and conversions.
Consider testing…
- An open incentive - Opens are the gateway to your marketing message. Consider providing an incentive to procure the open. Southwest recently ran a promotion where a subscriber could win simply by opening their marketing messages. When running a promotion like this I would caution you to think carefully about your end goal. While Southwest’s open rate likely spiked, click-through rate may not have improved, or even potentially dropped off.
- A click incentive - Could a teaser call to action increase click-throughs, and ultimately boost sales? Banana Republic took on this challenge with an email centered around a “mystery gift” where subscribers had to click-through to see the gift. You will want to measure your landing page’s bounce, or abandonment, rate to ensure that the payoff for your call to action is not just one big tease.
- Tying in helpful tips with products - Does informational content around how to or ways to use a product provide a lift to your bottom line? Does it help get subscribers over the uncertainty hump? Would explaining the benefits of a product encourage subscribers to picture themselves using your product?
- User-generated content - User-generated content encompasses customer reviews, comments in your forum or on Facebook, tweets from followers, and so on. Would seeing what others had to say about a particular product increase the likelihood a subscriber will click-through, spend more time on your product pages and ultimately buy? Julie Waite discusses the benefits and types of product review campaigns in detail in this post. If subscribers see others engaging with your brand are they more likely to as well? Would seeing their name in lights, so to speak, create goodwill and long-term customer value?
- Size, color and importance given to calls to action - Test not only the language used but also the visual treatment of calls to action. Does changing the color from blue to red increase click-throughs, for instance? Do links or buttons provide the bigger draw? This article from Jacob Gube provides examples and recommendations for making your calls to action stand out.
- Pairing high ticket/margin items with low ticket/margin items - Would placing like items, one that’s high margin, next to one that’s low margin boost clicks/conversions? As Dan Ariely discussed in Predictably Irrational, it’s all relative. Placing a product you are looking to move next to a high-priced model of the same type of product (in his example, plasma TVs) could positively impact sales of the lower-priced model.
- Matching products with accessories - Pushing accessories is a best practice in transactional emails when a product has been purchased. In your marketing messages, would matching products with accessories help increase average order size and improve sales of both items? Does the accessory serve as the impulse buy after subscribers decide to buy the main product as in “Might as well get the accessories while I’m at it”?
- Pushing compliments next to a big ticket item - Would pairing products that are typically sold together in an email help increase sales of both products?
Have you tested any of these tips already? Share your experience and thoughts in the comments below.
In the next post in this series, I’ll walk through additional ideas on what to test and provide a wrap up so stay tuned!
Kelly Lorenz
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto
@KNLorenz
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a really great post. I especially liked the “Tying in helpful tips with products” suggestion.
Thanks for your feedback, BetterRetail! Do come back and let me know if you end up testing any of these ideas.
Thanks again,
Kelly@Bronto
You got it!