MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

“The goal of an email is to get a click.” –Flint McGlaughlin, Managing Director and CEO, MECLABS

Editor’s Note: It’s a simple concept and you have likely heard it a lot if you’re a regular MarketingExperiments reader. If you can provide your prospect with enough value to get them to click out of their crowded, highly competitive inbox and onto your landing page, the email has done its job.

Of course, it’s one thing to be able to say what the goal of an email is, and another thing entirely to accomplish it. It takes a lot of experience testing and optimizing emails to develop your own internalized methodology for writing effective email messaging.

To fill that void, Adam Lapp, our Associate Director of Optimization and Strategy, was kind enough to lend us his years of experience in testing and optimizing emails and give us real optimization ideas for a specific audience-submitted email. By observing how Adam looks at a page, we can get a glimpse into the methodology he uses to optimize an email and draw out some transferable principles to apply to our own pages.

The following email was submitted by Zoe. The audience for the email is marketing managers and above. The objective is to introduce clients to the benefits of Data Enhancement through a free, downloadable whitepaper.

Email Sample: 

Click to enlarge

So from here, I’ll let Adam take it away.

4 ideas for getting more clicks in the email:

Overall, this is a relatively good email. There are several things marketers could take away from the email as it is. For example:

• There is a clear problem and solution presented
• The benefits of the solution are clearly articulated
• The whitepaper has an image associated with it to make it feel more robust/tangible
• The side column is used for supporting material
• Personalization is used in the signature

With that said, I came up with a few ideas to increase the performance. Here they are in no particular order: Read more…

Last week I spoke on the “Overcoming Operational Barriers to Optimization Implementation” panel at Optimization Summit. The buzz was loud there, the birds were flapping their wings, the bees were swarming, everyone was talking about Landing Page Optimization.

Aside from this event, there are start-up companies with a central focus around this one discipline. There are courses, webinars, books, and even theories about Landing Page Optimization. So here’s the million-dollar question, “Is it possible to optimize a landing page?”

I could sit down with you and tell you a number of ways that you could improve your page:

• Greet the visitor with a clear headline
• Eliminate multiple, equally weighted objectives
• Reduce the number of fields you have
• Be more transparent about your shipping rates
• Add or remove copy

And on, and on, and on…but none of this is landing page optimization.

Even if you tripled your sales by taking my advice, implementing what you saw in a webinar, or going live with a new design provided to you by an Internet marketing company, you still have NOT optimized a page.

To delve into what optimization really is, let’s take a look at the three types of marketing managers I most often come across… Read more…

In our July 21^st Web clinic, Live Optimization: What we’ve learned from 200+ experiments each year distilled into three basic principles – plus live-optimization examples, Flint McGlaughlin and the MarketingExperiments team will spend a full 45 minutes optimizing audience submissions to help you identify changes you can make today, based on our research, to improve conversion.

Send us your pages for a chance at free optimization advice during that Web clinic, or right here on the blog. Thanks to Regions Bank for submitting this landing page for optimization…

I don’t know about you, but I have opened very few checking accounts in my lifetime. I probably co-signed for an account when I was twelve or thirteen. Then when I was eighteen, I thought it imperative to have my own account (sorry mom, I don’t need you for that kind of stuff anymore). And since then, I’ve switched bank accounts only one other time.

So that adds up to three in my entire lifetime. I would guess many people share a similar situation. I mean, who wants to go through the hassle of transferring money, updating online billing, and waiting around in a cramped and cold office behind a rather large desk while an account manager slowly pecks at their keyboard.

With that said, my anecdotal evidence indicates that opening a new bank account is a big decision. I mean, most people will buy more automobiles than open bank accounts in their lifetime. So when I am at the precipice of making that decision, I am going to need a little bit more information than five short bullet points and a weird graphic that I think spells the word “save.” (click image for larger version)

Don’t get me wrong, short and succinct landing pages can be very effective…for selling a free Facebook account. But for banking, I just need to understand a little bit better what I am getting myself into.

So, how can we improve this page? We will get to that in a second, but first I need to communicate one caveat. Every idea, suggestion, or recommendation that anyone provides (including myself), or that you read online, absolutely and positively needs to be tested. You will never know what really works unless you measure and compare different strategies.

And I would not recommend anyone make any dramatic business decisions without the confidence that data provides. Changes to your web page must be measureable or you are just flying blind out there and most likely leaking dollar, dollar bills y’all. Read more…

“What else can I test?” This is one of the most comment questions we get asked at MarketingExperiments. Perhaps only after… “What should I test first?” and “How do I test?”.

Before I help you determine what to test next, you must honestly determine if you really have exhausted your own test ideas. Testing is both a meticulous and iterative process, so there are no short cuts. There are no silver bullets. If “Page Z” is the most effective webpage possible (most effective at the moment, since the universe is most certainly not static), then you need to test A, B, C, D…and so on in order to get to Z. By going directly from A to Z you will miss small subtleties and large revelations that would have influenced your design of page Z.

In order to exhaust your test ideas, there are two important stages to consider in a testing process:

• Radical redesigns
• Fine tuning

A shrewd procedure to adopt as you begin testing is to “Go radical, then fine tune.” This can apply to landing pages, home pages, shopping cart processes, etc. It’s an effective way to gain decisive knowledge in a short period of time. Read more…

Editor’s Note: Research Manager Adam Lapp is reviewing the battle between common Internet marketing practices to help you determine which optimization strategies are most effective and give you ideas for new tests. On Monday, we published Part 1 in this series. On Wednesday, Part 2. Well get ready fight fans, hold on tight to your Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, or Google Chrome browser, because here comes Part 3…

Heat Map vs. Data Analysis

Breakdown:

When Heat Map enters the ring, he’s very intimidating, and looks great on the surface. He always shows up in a flashy, beautiful silk robe and has crazy music playing when he enters. Heat Map was a wizard at getting attention and he values the things that give him attention the most. He points to the camera flashes and banners and professes his love with a big red kiss.

All of Heat Map’s theatrics are fine. It’s part of the show. However, he gets himself into trouble by making outlandish conclusions about his opponents, like being able to know exactly what punch his opponent would land just by looking at the color of his clothes. Many times when Heat Map thinks someone will punch him in the rib cage, they instead throw a cross to his temple.

For his fight against Data Analysis, he trained mercilessly in the gym – lifting weights, doing crunches, and hitting punching bags. When it came time to fight, he strolled into the ring confident that his opponent’s strength was the left hook. Why? Well because he saw a red and yellow tattoo of a python on his left bicep.

Too bad he didn’t actually watch footage of Data Analysis’s previous fights. If he had, Heat Map would have known that most of his punches come from the right. What a shame to see him knocked out in a matter of seconds.

Sometimes Heat Map is right about his opponent though. Sometimes the key to victory is written on one’s sleeve. But it’s very, very dangerous to rely on just “sometimes.”

Data Analysis on the other hand is subdued and quiet. A stark contrast to Heat Map. But under that calm exterior is a supreme confidence because, unlike Heat Map, he has been studying his opponent’s film for hours. He’s learned that Heat Map throws himself a little off balance every time he attempts a left hook. He knows that Heat Map doesn’t bob and weave, but instead focuses his attention on one thing…in this case it’s the tattoo of the python. Read more…

Editor’s Note: Research Manager Adam Lapp is reviewing the battle between common Internet marketing practices to help you determine which optimization strategies are most effective and give you ideas for new tests. On Monday, we published Part 1 in this series. Here is Part 2…

Flash Banner vs. Headline

The Breakdown: That was interesting, wasn’t it? Flash Banner entered the ring pumped up and ready to go and then, all of a sudden, his corner guy came flying into the ring bringing the bout to an abrupt halt. A very disappointed showing for all of the fans. Colors and images got tangled with each other, the message slipped to the canvas, and the product offering went flying between the ropes. And just like that, the fight was over and the fans never got a chance to understand what was going on.

Even though it looked good in concept, if the visitors don’t have a chance to understand who you are, what your best move is, and why you’re a better fighter, then what’s the point? Flash Banner didn’t even get a chance to show his patented left hook. He didn’t get a chance to show the audience all of the hard work he put into training. On to the next fight before bets could even be taken.

But there was a clever marketing pitch, some rhyming, a slogan. Flash Banner should have had a better showing. What happened? His objective eluded him. There should have been a click, a purchase, something. But can such a big decision really be made in a flash?

The results say no.

Does the Flash Banner on Adobe.com really convince me to buy Creative Suite 5? Does it even compel me to click forward? Well it was above “The Fold,” and we all know how that fight turned out.

Standing there in the middle of the ring and clearly the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world is Headline. As the flow was interrupted by Flash Banner, the headline spoke clearly to the audience telling them in just three to five short seconds why he was their best choice. He told them he has won 14 fights in a row, that he has trained non-stop for six months, and that he could match any fighter in the world’s offer.

Immediately the crowd stood and cheered for Headline to be given the next fight. The visitors decided that what Headline said that evening was worth the effort to continue on and not exit the arena.

Headline is the first text a visitor will see, so it has much potential for a large impact. The post-modern consumer sees through the Don Kings of the world. They are inundated with email, TV commercials, and even in-your-face displays at the grocery store. They have limited time and are deeply skeptical of salespeople whom they can’t even speak to. Read more…