September 25, 2012
Chart

Marketing Research Chart: Most popular email elements to test

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SUMMARY: Which email elements do you test most often? Which elements do your peers test most often?

Read on to see the most popular campaign elements to test, and then let us know which elements you test (and why) for a chance to be published in a future blog post.
Editor's Note: Share your top tips and tactics based on this marketing industry data for a chance to be featured in a future blog post. Include your advice on the MarketingSherpa LinkedIn discussion board, as either a comment or a link to your blog post where you offer advice based on this data.

Chart: Subject lines most popular email element to test

Q. Which of the following email campaign elements do you routinely test to optimize performance?

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The impact subject lines have on open rates, and the ease in which marketers can substitute them, makes experimenting with subject lines the most popular email element to test. The subject line is the readers’ first impression, and needs to quickly grab attention as they scan their inboxes.

Successful subject lines are brief, branded and truthful to the intention of the email, so many marketers experiment with testing length, personalization and other factors.

Testing layout and images was also a popular component for marketers to test. While the time to change layouts, images, fonts and colors can be time-intensive, the results may lead organizations to discover how finding the right size and color of the graphical elements (such as calls-to-action) can positively impact conversion rates.

On the other end of the spectrum, mobile layout and images was the least tested email element among survey respondents. However, with the mass adaption of smartphones and tablets, look for the number of marketers testing mobile layouts and images to dramatically increase as we approach 2013.

On September 27, at 1:00 p.m. ET, learn how testing helped a MECLABS Research Partner overcome some very common -- but significant -- mistakes, to produce an even more significant result during the latest free MarketingSherpa webinar, "Email Marketing: How Overcoming 3 Common Errors Increased Clickthrough Rate by 104%."

And, for more charts and analysis of email campaign testing, see this free excerpt from the MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report.

Useful links related to this research

MECLABS Research Partners

Email Research: The 5 best email variables to test

Quick Lifts: 4 ideas to increase email clickthrough

Case Study: Creativity vs. clarity in email subject lines


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