Email and Landing Pages: What worked? What didn't?
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The document outlines various testing methodologies for email and landing page effectiveness in nonprofit fundraising, revealing insights on subject lines, copy length, and visual formats. Results indicate that provocative subject lines boost open rates, while segmented audiences outperform general sends in engagement and revenue. Additionally, optimizing landing pages and mobile formats enhances conversion rates and average gift amounts.
Email and Landing Pages: What worked? What didn't?
- 1. What’s working in email and landing pages for nonprofits?
- 2. Questions? Text EMAIL to 30644
- 3. “Example isn’t another way to teach, it’s the only way to teach” - Albert Einstein
- 4. Survive to Five Challenge • Hypothesis #1: Is it better to try a more provocative subject line or stick with a traditional format that our audience has been conditioned to? • Hypothesis #2: Does longer, more copy heavy email still work in the evolving mobile/desktop space? Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 5. Survive to Five Challenge • Offer: Help children reach the critical age of 5 by providing emergency food and medicine • Audience: Existing donors • Testing Methodology: • 25/25/25/25 Split • Subject line: Traditional VS Provocative • Format: Short Copy VS Long Copy
- 6. Survive to Five Challenge • Subject Line #1 (Control): Your gift triples to help children survive • Subject Line #2 (Test): Join the Survive to Five Challenge and save children’s lives Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 7. Control Test
- 8. Open Rate: What subject line worked?
- 9. Click-Thru: What got them engaged?
- 10. Revenue: Show me the money!
- 11. Survive to Five: Conclusions • A more provocative subject line improved open rates, but not conversion • Longer copy is not dead (at least for our house audiences)
- 12. Email Test: Image vs. Letter Format • Hypothesis: Are more visual, less copy- driven emails more effective?
- 13. Email Test: Image vs. Letter Format • Testing Methodology: • 50/50 Split • Creative the only variation • Test run over a range of appeals Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 15. Offer: Holiday Card (with thank you video) Control: Letter Format Test: Image Format 15
- 16. ✔ Image Format=WINNER! • 9% lift in CTR • 107% lift in Average Gift • 107% lift in Income
- 17. Offer: 7X the smiles - help rush blankets and medicines to waiting children Control: Letter Format Test: Image Format 17
- 18. ✔ Image Format=WINNER! • 40% lift in Click Through Rate • 44% lift in Average Gift • 83% lift in Income
- 19. Offer: Double your gift – Join our Holiday Matching Gift Challenge Control: Letter Format Test: Image Format 19
- 20. Image Format=mixed winner • 21% decreased CTR • 53% lift in Average Gift • 38% lift in Income
- 21. Image vs. Letter format: Conclusions • For this file, with these appeals, there was lift in revenue • Reduced CTR was noted on a few examples, which should be monitored • Freshness a likely factor in lift – must keep innovating • Not the right fit for all needs
- 22. Segmentation Testing • Hypothesis: Can we target our email audience and reduce send quantity while still maintaining revenue goals? • Less unsubscribes = more long-term email revenue Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 23. Segmentation Test Setup • Test run on 3 email sends with 3 different offers • Audience: Existing donors • Testing Methodology: Match back on “modeled” select versus “all file” send
- 24. Creative
- 25. Results & Conclusions • A segmented audience out performed in every metric: • 25% better open rate • 39% better click-thru • 72% drop in unsubscribe rates • 26% increase in revenue (with 1/5 of the audience!)
- 26. Catalog Email Promotion: Letter vs. Ecommerce Test • Hypothesis: Will an ecommerce style email format work better to promote a holiday catalog than the control letter style? Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 27. Control Test
- 28. ✔ Ecommerce Format=winner • 148% lift in Revenue
- 29. Results & Conclusions • For catalog promotion, ecommerce email format is a clear winner: • 148% revenue lift • A cleaner handoff from ecommerce email creative to the catalog experience • Audience is already in shopping mode when they click through
- 30. Gift Catalog Father’s Day “Format” Test • Hypothesis: Will long-copy product descriptions increase conversion & revenue over our promotional control format?
- 31. Gift Catalog Father’s Day Email • Offer: Meaningful Father’s Day gifts that change lives • Audience: Existing donors & Prospects • Testing Methodology: • 50/50 Split • Email creative the only variable Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 32. Control Test
- 33. Father’s Day Email: Results • Existing Donors: • Click-thru was flat • Control had 17% better conversion • Control delivered 112% lift in revenue • Prospects: • Click-thru was flat • Test had 60% better conversion • Test delivered 16% increase in revenue
- 34. Conclusions • We can use shorter formats with our house audiences who have high brand awareness • Prospects require more information, so it’s worth developing a unique creative approach for this audience
- 35. Ways To Give Test • Hypothesis: Can we increase revenue by combining an ecommerce style Ways To Give page and a more tangible offer on the giving page? Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 36. Ways To Give Test • Audience: All web traffic • Testing Methodology: • 50/50 Split • Ways to Give Page and Giving Page creative are the two variables • Due to time and budget, unable to test these separately
- 37. Ways to Give Control Ways to Give Test
- 38. Giving Page Control Giving Page Test
- 39. ✔ Test formats=winners
- 40. Ways To Give Test: Results • 4% lift in Conversion Rate • 19% lift in Average Gift • 20% lift in Median Gift • 21% lift in Revenue
- 41. Conclusions • Average Gift improvement was achieved by prominently merchandizing tangible offers • Non-critical elements were reduced • Minimal gains in Conversion Rate were achieved with usability and credibility enhancements
- 42. Gift Catalog Landing Page Testing • Hypothesis: Can we increase revenue and conversion by driving email traffic to a specific landing page versus our general e-commerce site Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 43. Gift Catalog Landing Page Testing • Offer: Gift Catalog Christmas Promotion • Audience: Existing donors & Prospects • Testing Methodology: • 50/50 Split • Landing Page destination the only variable
- 44. Control Page – Gift Catalog Website
- 45. Test Page – Special Landing Page
- 46. Results: Landing Page Testing • Open and click-thru rates remained equal for all audiences • The special landing page showed a revenue increase of 5% to over 50% depending on the audience
- 47. Landing Page Enhancements • Clearly organizes top items • Takes away additional distractions • Clear credibility statement • Allows them to browse full catalog if they choose
- 48. Conclusion: Landing Page Testing • For major campaigns or initiatives you can see increased revenue and engagement by limiting the clutter and focusing on the key message
- 49. Search Landing Page Test • Hypothesis: If Search traffic needs more persuading than general website traffic, can we increase search revenue with a redesigned Search Landing Page? Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 50. Search Landing Page Test • Offer: Help people vs. Meals and more • Audience: All paid search traffic • Testing Methodology: • 50/50 Split • Landing Page destination the only variable
- 51. Control Test
- 52. ✔ Test Version=winner • 4.1% lift in Conversion Rate • 30.2% lift in Average Gift • 37.4% lift in Revenue
- 53. Conclusions: Search Landing Page Test • The conversion rate increase was lower than expected • Highly motivated audience possible cause (likely givers were undeterred by usability problems) • Increased gift amount achieved with better offer treatment for search traffic
- 54. Responsive Design/Mobile Courtesy: see3 communications
- 55. Responsive Design/Mobile Clearly picture your user flow across platforms and contexts •Will someone in bed with an iPad watch an engaging video? Absolutely! •Will they share it? Yes, if it’s compelling •Will someone in line at the DMV with their phone key in billing info? Maybe. Let’s test!
- 56. Suggested Mobile Test • Hypothesis: Revenue is lower on mobile than desktop because conversion pages (with forms) aren’t optimized for mobile. • By optimizing conversion pages using responsive design, we can reduce the platform revenue gap. Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
- 57. Suggested Mobile Test What you might see: •Optimizing content for platform will yield a very important lift in mobile engagement •Optimizing conversion pages will yield some lift, but real money will be elusive UNTIL one-click mobile payments are the norm •These are 1 to 2 years off (Google Wallet, Isis, and PayPal are all in the running)
- 58. Key Take- A-Ways • Know your audience and talk to them accordingly • Email isn’t free, pay attention to your unsubscribe rates • Keep the message relevant in both messaging and timing • Make it EASY! Don’t let system limitations hinder your email programs
- 59. Brian Tucker Evan Blackford Director of Acquisition, Director of Digital Production Diversified Products Russ Reid World Vision 626.463.9275 253.815.2313 eblackford@russreid.com btucker@worldvision.org Questions: Text EMAIL to 30644
Editor's Notes
- #16: *Note – average gift was low because there were a large number of monthly sustainer gifts FY11 Subject Line - Your Operation Smile team membership
- #18: *Note – average gift was low because there were a large number of monthly sustainer gifts FY11 Subject Line - Your Operation Smile team membership
- #20: *Note – average gift was low because there were a large number of monthly sustainer gifts FY11 Subject Line - Your Operation Smile team membership