It’s time to take your email marketing back to school with some serious email testing. During this webinar, Joy Ugi, digital marketing coordinator at WhatCounts, and Jeffery Anderson, digital marketing manager at A Place for Mom, share strategies and tried-and-true examples for innovative email testing. Specifically, they discuss: How to test the From field to get the best open rates Testing optimized emails for images-off viewing Best day of the week to send

1. TAKE YOUR MARKETING BACK TO SCHOOL: THE SCIENCE OF EMAIL TESTING

2. TWEET! 2
Follow us on Twitter: @WhatCounts @APlaceforMom
Today’s hashtag: #EmailTesting

3. TODAY’S SPEAKERS 3
JOY UGI
Digital Marketing Coordinator, WhatCounts
Email: jugi@whatcounts.com
Twitter: @ugigirl
JEFFERY ANDERSON
Digital Marketing Manager, A Place for Mom
Email: jeffa@aplaceformom.com
Twitter: @jeffanderson253

4. INTRODUCING A PLACE FOR MOM
•An online resource for connecting seniors and their families to the right senior care.
•Uses the WhatCounts platform for email marketing.
•Tests email campaigns constantly.
•Won the Silver award for the WhichTestWon 2013 Email & Mobile Testing challenge.
•Won the Gold and Best-in-Show awards for the WhichTestWon 2014 Email & Mobile Testing challenge. 4

5. WHY TEST?
1.
You’re not your audience.
2.
Create program-specific benchmarks.
3.
Engage with subscribers.
4.
Grow your ROI. 5

6. HOW AND WHAT TO TEST
Use A/B split testing to find the best:
•
Subject line
•
Layout/design
•
Copy
•
CTAs
•
From name
•
Best day and time to send
•
Personalization
IMPORTANT NOTES:
•Make sure you’re tracking metrics.
•Never test more than one variable at a time.
6

7. FROM FIELD 7
From Field
Unique Open Rate
A Place for Mom
20.84%
A Place for Mom Partner Newsletter
20.43%
APFM Senior Living Insider
20.25%
APFM Partner Newsletter
19.46%
Senior Living Insider
16.95%
Top subject From Field, “A Place for Mom”, performed 23% higher than weakest From Field.
•
From Fields should be tested every time you launch a new email
•
It’s a simple test, but simple tests like From-Field can help move the needle.
•
The more you test, the more your email is optimized. Although any given aspect of an email may only bump up performance marginally, the cumulative effect of numerous marginal improvements is a significant improvement.

8. EASY TO IMPLEMENT TESTING 8

9. DAY OF WEEK TESTING 9
What time of day and day of week generates the most engagement? Test
•
Used full list for maximal sample size
•
Sent over 7 days
•
4 segments per day
•
Results checked precisely 7 days after send Results
•
10% higher open rate on weekend evenings than rest of week
•
15% higher click rate than other days / time periods

10. SCHEDULING AUTO REPORTS 10

11. IMAGES-OFF OPTIMIZED 11
You can get innovative.
•
Tested a tool that turns images into lo-res mosaics HTML tables so that image is visible (if in low-resolution)
•
Measured click-to-open rate, which tells us, of those who opened the email, what percent engaged
•
Image-off-optimized version had 13% higher click-to-open rate, which is a 27% lift.
48% total-clicks/unique-opens
61% total-clicks/unique opens

12. KEY TAKEAWAYS
1.
Make time for testing – it’s important.
2.
Sometimes a simple test is all it takes to move the needle.
3.
Best day and time to send is different for every email program.
4.
Don’t wait to copy the next big thing. Be innovative!
5.
Need help? Ask. 12

13. QUESTIONS? 13

14. COMING SOON! 14
Drag-and-drop lifecycle UI
www.whatcounts.com/lifecycle

15. SEE THE NEWSLETTER!
Subscribe to A Place for Mom emails!
http://www.aplaceformom.com/senior-care-resources/newsletter 15

16. REACH OUT TO US 16
3630 Peachtree Road, NE Suite 900 Atlanta, GA 30326
1-866-804-0076
www.whatcounts.com
Twitter: @whatcounts
jugi@whatcounts.com
jeffa@aplaceformom.com