Secret #7: Test and Test Again

Secret #7: Test, Test, and Test Again

Time flies when testing multiple variables

Highly effective email marketers never bet their entire budget on a single list or just one email blast. One of the great benefits of email marketing is the ability to find out what works and what doesn't in a matter of days, not months. So take advantage of this capability by running tests to see which list, message or offer will generate the highest response.

Variables you should test include:

The subject line.
Body copy, remember to right size it.
Type of offer, be generous.
Number of URL links in the message and where they are located. Most response comes in the first 5 links but that is usually only 60-75% of the total potential.
Previews and postscripts.
Text, graphical or rich media creative formats. Remember that only about 35% of Internet users prefer HTML or rich media email and less than 15% have DSL or cable modems at home.
Synchrographics of the day and time that the message goes out. Weekend are currently the best days for achieving higher click-through rates when email to home addresses.
Of course, you should test multiple lists as well.

Email and email again

Set reasonable goals. Don't expect your email campaign to work miracles overnight. In a postal direct marketing campaign, a measly 2 percent response rate is considered good and a 1 percent response rate is considered acceptable. Email blast campaigns can be successful with typical rates of 0.5% to .75%. Instant Offer campaigns, by contrast, can generate much higher response rates that are typically 5 times that of traditional email blasts. What's more, opt-in email campaigns produce results much faster than any other direct response media because the list members have pre-qualified themselves by signing up to receive email messages about various targeted topics. Success is a multi-factored numbers game. For example:

A Rolling Thunder email campaign for Dell produced over $300,000 in sales of Dell high-end XPS multimedia PCs in just 14 days from an opt-in newsletter list of 250,000 subscribers.
"Max Ransom's" weekly email campaign produced over 70,000 customers and more than $4 million in gross revenue over a seven month period.
A campaign to MP3 fans produced over 30,000 downloads of a cool new media player in just five days.
The launch campaign for ShopNow achieved 22% click-through and over 75% sales conversion within the first week.
An email test campaign for qBolt generated 1,750 customers with an AOV of $840 within just ten days.
SunExpert recorded response rates for their B2B campaign that were five times higher than those they received from postal direct mail.
The long copy email campaign for Intel achieved 151% of goals.
Yet, a low responding campaign that produced only 1-2% click-through also was relatively successful because it acquired website registrants at less than $5 each and paying customers for less than $20 each with a lifetime value of more than $300.

But there are no guarantees of success, since every campaign depends:

40% on List
40% on Offer
20% on Creative

Remember: Even the most responsive list won't work miracles if the email copy and the offer don't sparkle, too.

The Good News Is...

If you get good response the first time, you'll very likely get it again when you mail a second time. A good example is the case with one of my campaigns that produced a 12.1% click-through rate on the first mailing. It actually climbed to 12.3% response from unduplicated customers when emailed a second time just two weeks after the first email. And that's more the norm than the exception.