Hello,

In the style of this wonderful forum and Michel's generous approach to sharing marketing data and info, I want to share with you all an unusual email marketing test my partner just ran with our 75,000 + list of subscribers... (internet marketing theme) and the results.

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It was entitled:

"Help me to understand if this works..."

Dear...

This morning I woke up with a crazy idea!

A promotional idea came to mind that I have never tested before that might help the click through rates and results of this newsletter.

I sincerely don't know if this will work because it depends on you. It's in your hands!

This nutty idea goes like this:

1) I will GIVE you... (he listed an excellent SE software/information package that he created as a viral marketing package, giving a list of the SE package gift benefits here).

Furthermore, in the next newsletter, I will tell you exactly how this test went (CT%, Results, feedback, etc.)

So, if this idea works, you can clone the promotional strategy in your own site and newsletter.

2) You, in EXCHANGE, read this brief article, where I talk about 3 interesting case histories dedicated to Search Engine Positioning:

(Article link here)

3) After you have read the article, just respond to the simple QUESTION that you will find at the bottom of the page.

If you give the CORRECT answer, you will enter into a reserved page where you can download ... (free SE gift package we offered).

This is a bit unusual, I know. Perhaps it will work, perhaps it will be a total flop! Who knows?

The only way to know this is to test. And you yourself will find out what I mean by reading this article: (link to article again)

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Our results?

By "obliging" the reader to read an article, in exchange for an electronic guide (ebook) - the feedback was mixed, some giving their positive feedback and appreciation of the idea, some telling us to go to...(you know where), claiming to be "innocent victims" of this test.

But speaking of actual numbers, how did the test go?

We have some incredible numbers to report...

But first, let me explain our goals with this test.:
1) Increase the number of CT (click through) with this newsletter
2) Get as many downloads of this viral SE Guide (the gift) as possible.
3) Get as many sign ups as we could for our next 3 day seminars.

Looking at the FIRST GOAL, when we sent out this newsletter we had 75,553 opt-in subscribers. In the prior 4 newsletters we had a median CT% of 2.15% (not bad). Almost twice as much as the market normal standard.

In this newsletter, 5,237 people clicked, that's a CT% of 6.93%! That's more than 3 TIMES better than our past median CT%!

Looking at the SECOND GOAL, we wanted these 5,237 people to go on to download our viral free gift. In this case, a little bit of effort was required on the part of the reader to do this - answer the question correctly at the end of the article.

Well, 78.17% of these readers answered correctly! This is a high value. Keep in mind that in the past, when we allowed the reader to download a free gift, without effort, we have NEVER seen anything more than 50%.

It goes to show, that if you make someone do even a little effort, the desire and motivation to "possess" your product or service grows exponentially.

The MORAL: It is far better to ask something in exchange (even symbolic, or virtual), rather than give away freely.

Looking at the THIRD GOAL, we wanted to sell sign ups (indirectly) to our 3 day seminars (high ticket items). Here things changed a bit, normally we get around 15 sign ups each time we send out a newsletter, this time we got only 7 (less than half!)

It seems like this part flopped... at least in theory.

However, going in and analyzing things a little closer with our tracking data, the problem wasn't in the newsletter, but rather in the link strategy. In other words, the problem wasn't in HOW, but rather WHERE we promoted the seminars. The links were placed poorly, in places that weren't very prominent.

Out of 75,553 subscribers, 129 clicked on these seminar links - if we stopped here, we would have thought, "what a flop!" But digging further, we see something else surfacing... 129 clicked and 7 ordered, that's a CR% of 5.42% - Holy Smokes! 10 times better than normal for us with this high ticket item!

So, MORAL TWO: Even though we gathered less actual orders (in the short run), the promotion is a powerful one that will bring fruits over time as more and more individuals see it (remember it is viral), and we can change the placement of the links.

This shows the power of tracking and how important it is to try new things - that idea in the shower might just make you rich! And to analyze your data carefully, not just on a quick superficial level - you might accidentally throw out the part that is actually working!

I hope this info is helpful to you.

Tim

Brilliant!

Peter Stone

Nice example of using metrics to track email CTRs and alternative marketing approaches - thanks!


ken