Case Study:

Improving Email
Performance
Client: Major Technology Conference

Email opens and clicks

increased by 20 - 40%

Rules-Based, Data-Driven Method

Background: Baseline Emails vs. Improved Emails

For the 2013 conference, the client sent 20 promotional emails.

For the 2014 conference, the client sent 27 emails divided as follows:
The initial 17 emails in 2014 were sent prior to applying improvement
methods.
The final 10 emails in 2014 were improved using the methods
described in coming slides.
The last 10 sent in 2013 and the first 17 sent in 2014 served as the
baselines for comparison.

Measures of Email Effectiveness

Opens lead to clicks. Measure of the Subject Lines
effectiveness.
Clicks lead to downloads. Measures the effectiveness of
the content in the email.
Clicks/Opens provides an additional measure of the
effectiveness of Subject Lines and email content.

Method to Improve Subject Lines

Method:
One tool identifies Good Words and Bad Words in Subject Lines as
measured by open and click percentages.
The second scores multiple variables for improvement, such as number of
characters, too much punctuation,etc.
Then applied copywriting skills to use optimally performing words and
technical accuracy.

Rules to Improve Subject Lines

3 Simple Rules:

1. Insert one or more Good words that increase both Opens and Clicks.
2. Delete any Bad words that decrease Opens or Clicks.
3. Edit the subject line as suggested by the second tool.
Then edit subject line per rules above to include technical accuracy.

Email Groups Compared

Group of Improved emails = Last 10 in 2014
Against two unimproved groups of emails:

1st 17 emails in 2014

2nd 10 emails in 2013

Improved vs. 2014 Baseline = + 20%

All 10 improved emails:
Outperformed the
overall 2014 Opens
average for all 27
emails.
Lowest improved
email was 10% vs.
6% for 2014
baseline.

Email Group

% Opens

10 Improved Emails 2014

11%

17 Baseline Emails 2014

9%

Improvement

20%+

Improved Emails vs. 2013 Baseline = +40% Opens

Comparison of Improved 2014

Opens to Opens for the last 10
emails in 2013.

All 10 improved emails were 10%

or better.

Email Group

% Opens

10 Improved Emails
2014

11%

Last 10 emails in 2013

8%

Improvement

40%

Lowest single email Opens in 2013

= 6%.

Before and After Applying Rules-Based Method:

3 out of 4 individual emails = +60% Opens

The four email titles (at right) were sent in early

unimproved emails. The same titled emails
were re-sent following improvement in the last 10
emails.
Opens Comparison:

60% improvement for 3 of the 4 email titles.

Email Title

Opens
Improvement
%

Tech Subject #1

58%

Event Highlights

64%

Tech Subject #2

59%

Tech Subject #3

16%

Example of Rules-Based Method

Email Title: Silicon Photonics
1. Original Subject Line Sent on 9/24:
Get the scoop on (Tech subject #1)! Optical speeds at silicon prices!

2. Tool #1 - Identified Good and Bad Words

3. Tool #2 - Subject line was too long and two !!s
4. Edited version based on rules:
(Tech subject #1) for 100 Gbps Plus (+60% in Opens)

Results of Rule-Based Method

#1: The tools worked well, were easy to use, and could be quickly applied.
Improved emails outperformed baseline Opens by 30%.
#2: All 10 of the improved emails performed above the overall 2014 average.

Click % Increases 16%-35%

Clicks% is a measure of the quality of the

content in the body of the email.

Content includes every element in the body

of the email (graphics, layout, headline,
copy, etc).

Additional task: Also applied Good/Bad

word tool to improve headlines in the email
body copy.

Comparison of
Improvement in
Improved 2014 emails
Click %
to:

17 Baseline Emails
2014

16%

Last 10 emails in
2013

35%

3 of 4 Emails Improved clicks by 120-300%

Comparison of Same-Topic Emails

Same four email topics as in the Opens

comparison:

120-300% improvement for 3 of the 4

emails.

Email Title

Clicks %
Improvement

Technical Topic
#1

294%

Event Highlights

288%

Technical Topic
#2

120%

Technical Topic
#3

0%

Clicks/Opens Means Work on Content

All three email groups averaged

approximately 5% in clicks to opens
(includes both baseline groups and
improved emails).

Insight: Event emails need to improve the

quality of the body content to improve clicks.
(Includes graphics, body copy, registration
design, and thought-flow in the email.

Summary of 2014 Rule-Based Method:

Opens improved 22 - 38% compared to two baseline groups.
Direct comparison for same topic emails showed a big increase in both
clicks and opens.
Clicks improved by 16% vs. 2014 baseline.
Clicks/Opens for all three groups was about 5%.
See Next slide for Recommendations
* In-depth details on all data reported here available on request.

Next Steps....
I am committed to the process
of continuous email improvement.

Thank you!