Have you seen the movie "Gone in Sixty Seconds"? If you thought the time it takes professional thieves to drive away with expensive cars is unbelievably fast, realize it's a virtual lifetime when it comes to grabbing the attention of email recipients. Email users - even those who asked to receive messages from you - will give you only a three- or four-second glance before hitting the delete button.
In fact, a poorly executed email campaign can do more harm than good. JupiterResearch found that 16 percent of consumers report forming negative opinions about a company because of email newsletters or promotions they received.
What does it take to get recipients to stick with your message? What enticements work best and which layouts boost clicks? Where should you place the logo, and how many links are too many; how many are too few?
To help marketers identify creative elements that can really improve results, Silverpop undertook a comprehensive study of both BtoB and BtoC email messages, evaluating a variety of creative elements and comparing open and click rates. The study revealed some interesting and surprising results.
The study evaluated the following elements:
- Content of the "From" line
- Subject line content
- Location of logo
- Ratio of text to images
- Various design layouts
- Number of links
- Type of links (text vs. image)
- Presence and location of navigation bar
- Inclusion of lifestyle photography
- Feature offers
- Location of call-to-action
Key Findings
- When navigation bars were included in email messages, those positioned on the left side of BtoC creative formats showed much higher click rates than when the bar was located elsewhere. For BtoB marketers, the best location for the navigation bar was at the top.
- Placing the call-to-action above the fold is critical for BtoB marketers, lifting average click rates by 3.5 percentage points.
Surprisingly, it didn't make a significant difference in the click rate for BtoC messages.
- A somewhat counter-intuitive finding in the study showed that BtoB emails in a postcard format generated high average click rates, while BtoC messages in newsletter formats generated high click rates.
Methodology
This comprehensive study was completed by a team of Silverpop email marketing analysts under the auspices of the company's Strategic Services Group. The team collected, compiled and analyzed data on 612 emails sent by 430 companies to 100 or more recipients. Messages were sent between mid-April and mid-August, 2006. Reports of opens and click rates were evaluated to identify creative elements that work best.
When reporting the improvement in response rates, this study will provide two calculations for some circumstances. The first will be the difference in percentage points - a jump to 12 percent from 10 percent is an increase of two percentage points. Where warranted to make the difference clear, it also will be expressed as a percentage increase. So if a company sent out 10,000 messages and obtained a 10 percent open rate, 1,000 messages would be opened. Increasing the open rate by 2 percentage points would mean 1,200 emails would be opened, for a 20 percent increase.
Calculating the Art of Email
Email is a valuable part of most company's marketing programs. MarketingSherpa reports in its "Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2006" that on average, companies' spend 13 percent of their total marketing budget on email marketing.
Internet Retailer magazine reports that email remains an important marketing tool for online retailers, often considered among the more sophisticated email marketers. Nearly half of e-retailers rate email as more effective than other marketing. The magazine also reported in August, 2006 that just over half of retailers participating in its monthly survey said that 6 percent or more of their sales are generated by email campaigns, and an impressive 25 percent said they generate more than 11 percent of sales through email.
The competition for space in the inbox is intense and growing. Online users receive an average of 35 emails a day, while business email recipients average nearly 100 a day. Additionally, consumers are becoming increasingly selective about which emails they will open and which they will click on.
