Email optimisation: Email Images & Buttons

A split test by Philips Norelco’s email marketing team resulted 79.4% more 'Buy Now' button clicks.

Both versions had identical subject lines, offers, and copy but the winning design used

• a button colour that contrasted with the rest of the page
• images that didn't distract from the offer
• an image of the product, as it would appear on a store shelf, vs. the product itself helping put recipients in a shopping mood. 

http://whichtestwon.com/archives/12413

5 email testing ideas

1. Opt-in incentives - Providing a tangible incentive for new opt-ins such as a coupon or free gift.
   Dell offered 20% off select products resulting in 14x lift in average opt-in rate during the holiday season.
2. Personalisation - The closer you can get to creating a sense of one-to-one communication, the better the response is likely to be. Expedia sent emails from a real travel consultant i.e."Cathy Cruiser" resulting in 5.5% higher opens, 23% higher CTR and less unsubscribs and spam flags. Personalising the subject line with the recipient’s first name e.g. "Dave, Your 7 Day Alaskan Cruise Awaits.", resulted in 10% lift in opens.
3. Call-to-action (CTA) placement and button size - Increasing the size, shape or color of buttons and the placement of CTA, can often increase clicks. Salesforce.com moved the CTA from a small box on right side to just below the message’s headline and made buttons larger resulting in 26% increased in CTR.
4. Video links - Watching online video is one of the most popular activities on the Internet. Promote video content in your messages by displaying a screenshot of the video and embedding a link for video playback. Interactive Intelligence, included video screenshots and playback links in their email newsletters resulting in double or triple the number of clicks as text links.
5. Email frequency - Testing the point at which you maximize revenue from messages without increasing the rate of unsubscribes. An ecommerce company who sell special-occasion gifts identified a highly motivated and loyal segment and tested various message frequencies, ranging from one message every other day to one message every three weeks. Sending an email once every other day increased revenue 3x compared to sending email once a week. Unsubscribe rates on a per-message basis did not rise significantly. 

Example email creative

Ten Tips for Best Email Results

10 great tips on how to be the best at email marketing

Probably the best advice is to put yourself in your recipient’s position. Go to your email inbox and look at which messages you read, which ones you don’t even open because they make you think ‘spam’ and which ones go straight into your junk folder - then use that information to help you design your campaigns.

Don't do what spammers do and keep your messages simple and short!

9 best practices for optimising one-off emails

9 best practices for optimising one-off emails

1. Timing is Everything - B2C weekends, B2B weekdays
2. Keep Subject Lines Short and use numbers and details
3. No Scrolling
4. Split test subject lines, copy, landing pages, offers
5. Use Your Competitor as a Pilot Fish - use their lists
6. The List Owner is Your Friend - ask what the list respond to
7. Get a Copywriter
8. Beware of List Fatigue
9. Ask Where New List Members Come From
10. Bonus Tip: Top Link, Bottom Link