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| EMAIL LISTS, Continued |
Test Variables / Best Practices
Just as with any direct mail campaign, when we do e-mail marketing, we need to carefully test the creative components, the list segmentation, and the timing. However, we should always remember to test only one variable at a time. The variables that we will test in e-mail marketing are shown below.
Subject line:
Subject line is one of the most important elements in our e-mail marketing mix. A carefully- tested subject line can make all the difference in the success or failure of our campaign. E-mail subject lines do not work like teaser copy in direct mail (“Dated Material”, “See What’s Inside”, or “Important Documents Enclosed”). Instead, what works will greatly depend on our product or service, our audience and the list demographics we select. We want to be creative, keep it brief, and always test subject line carefully.
From line:
Sometimes we will want to include not just our company name, but also a person’s name in our "From" line. This is especially popular with consumer e-mail marketing. For example, let’s say we’re a furniture retailer introducing a new line of sofas created by a well-known designer. In this case, we may want to consider putting the designer’s name in the From line.
You may also want to consider using the list owner's domain name or the name of the registered site in the from line. This will ensure the recipient that the e-mail is from a trusted source.
Offer:
We may want to test whether free shipping would be more effective at increasing our response than a 10% discount.
Copy:
Here we might want to test copy length, where the URL is situated in the e-mail, the tone of the e-mail, etc. For example, if our message is aimed at upper-management business people, we probably want to keep our copy as brief as possible, use bullet points and use industry-specific language. If we are marketing to teens on the other hand, we might want to use copy that is more cultural and colloquial.
E-mail Personalization
Many e-mail list owners and list managers are now offering e-mail personalization, and we may want to test this creative approach as well. For example, instead of sending out a generic e-mail to the entire list, e-mail personalization lets us get more personal by including personal information such as the first name of the recipient, ("Dear Josh, Dear Sue, etc.). This type of personalization can add a lot of value to our e-mail.
Medium:
We'll certainly want to consider testing the media we use in our e-mail: HTML or text-formatted, video, audio, Flash, etc. Does the medium we use match the capabilities of the audience segments we are targeting? If our message is going out to IT professionals, there’s a good chance we should consider text-based only. If it’s going out to teens, we might want to include video and audio.
List segments
We'll want to test all the list selects that we have chosen with the different creative elements of our campaign. If we're doing consumer marketing, people in different demographic segments will also respond to different types of creative. For example, different geographic regions and income levels will have more or less access to broadband capabilities. This will affect the type of media we use.
One option in list testing is to use an “A/B Split” (or “A/B/C Split”) to break up the list. A/B Splits work the same way for direct mail as it does for e-mail and can apply to any select within the list. In most cases there is a surcharge for an A/B split, unless one split satisfies the minimum list order quantities. In some cases when we want to split the minimum order up, the first split will be free, while all subsequent splits to that list will cost extra. These policies will depend on the list owner. Just be careful when you split up minimum orders, because you don't want to the split to be too small to see conclusive results.
Timing
Finally, we should test timing. This includes day of the week and time of day. When were the majority of our e-mails opened? What days of the week had the highest clickthrough rates?
Once we’ve figured out what elements we are going to test, we can analyze the results within each channel. Then we're ready to proceed with our e-mail list order.
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