One essential in e-mail marketing is continuous improvement. Sooner or later, and most probably sooner, your competitors will catch up with you, probably by the simple procedure of copying. What works for you now will, most likely, hold you back in the future.
We have discussed the ‘Subject’ and ‘From’ lines recently but, of course, there will be subtle differences between the subscribers on your email marketing list compared to those of your competitors and this can be a strength for you. The only function of these two variables is to ensure that your marketing email is opened. If you get slightly higher percentages in your open rate, then you get better returns.
The way to improve your open rate is to split your email marketing list. Take a low percentage and then change one feature in the ‘Subject’ or ‘From’ line and then see if this improves the open rate. The returns on your email marketing software will give you dependable pointers on the way to go.
Initially decide which of the two lines you wish to experiment with. For the sake of argument let’s go for the ‘Subject’ line. You might well have gone along the route of a clear and precise description of the offer, although obviously in brief. It might be that for some of your subscribers a different approach will be worthwhile.
Let us assume that you want to try a teaser, perhaps one that includes a question. Randomly divide your e-mail marketing list by a factor of, for instance, ten if this would give a statistically dependable return. They do the same again.
Send the marketing e-mail to both groups with the only difference being that for one you state that your software product has been rated as 10 out of 10 for productivity. For the other group ask what is the cheapest way of increasing productivity by 10%.
When you get the returns you will know not only whether the latter gives a better open rights but also which type of customer prefers it. It might be those under the age of 35.
If there is a significant delineation between age groups then split your lists for the remaining 80%. Simple, straightforward, and unarguable: the perfect experiment.
