Competition for space in your inbox is fierce, but a new study from Silverpop, an e-mail marketing service company, may provide some helpful tips for increasing your click-through rates.
Silverpop reviewed and analyzed 612 e-mail messages sent from 430 companies to 100 or more recipients between mid-April and mid-August 2006. The study evaluated and compared 147 B2B messages and 465 B2C e-mails.
Here are a few of their findings. (The complete report is available at Silverpop's Website, with registration.)
Of the e-mails sent, 27% were opened — with no significant difference between B2B and B2C e-mails.
Messages that included the company name or brand in the subject line had significantly higher open rates — as much as a 12-point increase.
Images are not always more compelling than text. Silverpop found that B2B e-mail messages that were mostly text or had an equal amount of text and images generated higher click-through rates than image-heavy e-mails.
Silverpop classified messages into seven different format categories.
• One column
• Two or more columns of equal size
• Two or more columns of varied size
• Letter
• Newsletter
• Varied cell blocks
• Postcard
The data clearly show that consumers prefer the newsletter format, and businesses prefer the postcard or varied block format.
The take-away message from the study is that small changes to creative elements of an e-mail message can make a significant difference to its success. With spam and e-mail filters making e-mail marketing increasingly challenging, fine tweaks and regular testing of different formats and design elements are necessary elements to any long-term e-marketing strategy.