An email blast A/B Test

1. Email Marketing Campaign
A/B Test
miami people

2. • an email blast for driving article views
• a/b test component analyzing subject line
effectiveness
• results of email blast
• reflection on what makes an effective email marketing
campaign
executivesummary
miami
people
2

3. email text &
imagery
The Three Keys to Effective Leadership
Hello (personalization token)!
I hope this email finds you and your family well and safe during these trying times.
Whether we're already best friends, old friends who haven't caught up in a while, or new friends waiting to be
made, I want you to know this is simply a one-time email, so no need to unsubscribe!
In search of some good advice, I recently turned to some expert friends and found there are 3 foundational
keys to being a strong leader.
(Read More Here button)
Strong leadership begins by taking a human approach to management. Click the link above to learn more
about how you can begin creating something bigger than the sum of its parts.
Thanks for reading! I wish you all the best as we work together to overcome these difficult times.
All the best,
Guillermo
Guillermo Page is a Marketer
specializing in brand & product
development, with experience in both
large & small brands, specializing in
sports & entertainment.
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4. email
Title
Intro (including personalized
greeting)
Appeal
Professional Background
CTA/Link to Post
Links to Social
Hero Image
Closing
Additional Links 4

5. a/btestcomponent
email a
Subject: Here's How We Can Become Great Leaders
email b
Subject: Trust the Experts, Here are the Basics for
Becoming a Great Leader!
methodology
The test variable for this A/B test was the email subject line. Every other component of the emails
was kept identical to isolate the difference in subject line performance.
Email A used a longer subject line which invoked the authority of the experts quoted within the
article and was slightly more expressive in terms of the contents of the email.
Conversely, Email B used a shorter, more direct subject line intended to quickly communicated
the general topic of the email.
The purpose of this test was to determine if future emails should use longer and more descriptive
subject lines as opposed to shorter and more direct subject lines.
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6. 1
2
3
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WHAT WAS VARIED AND WHY
WHAT WAS YOUR CALL TO ACTION?
My call to action was to “read more here,” inviting my
recipients to click on the button to take them to my blog
where they could read my article. My CTA was preceded by
a short description of my article which offered three key
traits of great marketing leaders.
HOW DID YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND
YOUR CONTENT?
My introduction used a conversational and familiar tone in
order to sound more human, reflecting that this email
would be coming from an actual individual as opposed to a
brand or some other distant entity. My content introduction
relied the authority of my experts and the value my content
offers. My continued introduction, after my CTA,
presented my core thesis in order to give my recipients an
idea of what they could expect from my article
WHICH VERSION DO YOU THINK WOULD
PERFORM BETTER AND WHY?
I expected my second subject line to perform more
effectively because:
• It is concise
• Describes what can be found within the email
• Creates a sense of importance
The email subject lines were varied from Email A to Email B.
The goal was to determine what kind of subject line yields
greater open rates
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7. 5
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SUMMARY OF EMAIL DISTRIBUTION
KPI RESULTS BY EMAIL VERSION (A & B)
• 200 Emails total were sent.
• Email A was sent to 100 recipients.
• Email B was sent to 100 recipients.
• Email addresses were sorted into alphabetical
order before database was split in half.
Email A Email B
Sent 100 100
Open Rate 46.5% 40.4%
Click Rate 11.1% 7.4%
CTR 23.91% 18.42%
Delivered Rate 99% 94%
Hard Bounce
Rate
1% 4%
Unsubscribe
Rate
1% 6%
Spam Report
Rate
0% 0%
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8. 7 A/B TEST RESULTS
OPEN RATES
- EMAIL A: 46.5%
- EMAIL B: 404.4%
CLICK-THROUGH RATES
- EMAIL A: 23.9%
- EMAIL B: 18.4%
CHI-SQUARE TEST
- Differences in click-through rates were
statistically insignificant
23.90%
76.10%
Email A CTR
Clicks No Clicks
18.40%
81.60%
Email B CTR
Clicks No Clicks
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9. 8
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WHAT WAS YOUR END GOAL?
DID YOU ACHIEVE IT? WHY OR WHY NOT
WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?
My original intention with my contact list was to target existing
professional contacts that I had accumulated throughout my
career in order to introduce them to my writing.
I then planned to supplement these contacts with new contacts
of individuals who I have either already connected with because
of their roles and experience or that I would like to connect with
because of their roles and experience.
For these supplemental contacts, I targeted sports marketing
professionals or agency professionals. However, I was
ultimately unable to accumulate 200 emails with this strategy
and had to resort to alternative strategies.
The end goal was to connect or reconnect with contacts
and introduce them to my writing and expertise.
With a 43.52% open rate and 21.43% click-through rate
across both emails, I successfully engaged with my
contacts and drove traffic to my website. My website
saw increased traffic rates as demonstrated by the
charts to the left.
Emails were sent April 21
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WHAT MAKES A COMPELLING EMAIL
FROM A DIGITAL MARKETER
The subject line is the first barrier of entry to consider
when creating email marketing campaigns.
Hubspot recommends several different pointers to keep in
mind, including writing concise subject lines that include a
hook, personalization, or promotion when appropriate.
Likewise, Marketo research found that seven words is the
optimal length for a marketing email subject line. These
recommendations can be applied beyond subject line
writing to include email copywriting in general.
Emails should be short and snappy. With the amount of
emails sent every day (Statista forecasts over 306B per day
in 2020), it has become increasingly difficult to capture
consumer attention. Therefore, emails should be short,
easy to read, and frontloaded with information or
promotions to increase the likelihood of conversions.
WHAT WAS YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
TO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?
My intro statement and content introduction were written
using conversational language to give the email a human feel,
setting it apart from other marketing emails the recipients may
receive.
In addition, the article introduction before the call-to-action
was meant to communicate the value that the article content
could deliver to readers.
Marketo Subject Line Optimization Research
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Statista
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11. email reflection
In a few sentences, what do email marketers do well?
Email marketers succeed when they can quickly and effectively communicate value.
Consumers simply will not take the time to open emails that do not guarantee them some kind
of value, much less actually engage with the emails. We need to consider every email we send
out as a transaction with the consumer where we are exchanging something of value for their
attention, and the consumer must always feel as if they are coming out ahead in this
transaction. The best email marketers create this effect with their email campaigns. A good
example of this is adidas, which typically leads off their emails with promotion details which
give consumers a reason to open and explore.
What do they do poorly?
Email marketers that do this poorly are often a reflection of their
brand. A good example of this is Everlane. While the brand makes
quality clothes, they are usually relatively high in price and the
brand has only ever run a sale on their site once.
Therefore, the overwhelming majority of their emails relate to
information that generally does not provide any actual value to the
recipients.
Furthermore, they also have a history of poor timing with their
emails. A recent email (below) was sent attempting to
communicate a sense of togetherness and unity with customers.
Typically this is difficult to achieve as a clothing brand, especially
as a young clothing brand. But, in this case, their timing made their
email completely ineffective because it was sent shortly after new
broke of labor issues between the clothing brand and their
employees who are in the process of unionizing.
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12. If you were in charge of an email marketing program, what would be your strategy for segmentation,
personalization (offers, messages, etc.)?
Segmentation: Email marketing campaigns need to provide relevant and valuable content to
consumers. If I were running email marketing campaigns for consumers, for example, I would
segment by past purchases and email engagement in order to create efficient campaigns that
deliver relevant information to the right consumers (source).
Personalization: Emails that include personalization tokens are far more likely to generate higher
open and click rates, according to Single Grain. However, personalization must go beyond simply
including a consumer’s first name. Using the same example from above, my campaigns would
leverage past purchase behavior to display the absolute most relevant content to consumers.
Offers: Generic offers must demonstrate a substantial value to the consumer in order to warrant use
in an email campaign. Otherwise, promotions and offers should be personalized to a consumer’s
preferences and purchase history. In addition, some effective brands, like adidas, send special
promotions to high-value customers.
email reflection
Messaging: As much as email marketers will always want the freedom to craft
their own town and messaging for their campaigns, the truth is that campaigns
need to keep the brand’s overall voice and tone. That being said, in general,
messaging should maintain a human tone (personalization helps with this) in
order to seem at least somewhat organic.
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