1. Email Copy Tested
How adding urgency increased
clickthrough rate by 15%

2. Experiment: Background
 Experiment ID: Internal Urgency Email Test
Location: MECLABS Research Library
Research Notes:
Background: This email was sent to the MarketingExperiments list of about
85,000 marketers informing them about an upcoming Web clinic.
Goal: To increase email clickthrough.
Primary Research Question: Which messaging will generate the highest
clickthrough rate: urgent or non-urgent?
Approach: A/B Split

3. Experiment: Control Control
While the control has many
of the elements of an
effective email, the reader
has no urgent reason to
click the call to action.

4. Experiment: Treatment Treatment
To produce an element of
urgency in the email, we
simply added 3 words to
the bottom of the email:
*Limit 1,000 attendees

5. Experiment: Side-by-side
Control
Treatment

6. Experiment: Results
15.4% Increase in clickthrough rate
The treatment generated 15.4% higher clickthrough than the control
Version Delivered Emails CTA Clicks* CTR Rel. diff Stat. Conf
Control (No Urgency) 44,225 354 0.80% - -
Treatment (Urgency) 44,079 407 0.92% 15.4% 95%
 What You Need to Understand: By adding a level of rate by 15.4%. the
treatment out-produced the control in clickthrough
authentic urgency,
*Primary call-to-action clicks only