EMarketing Copywriting Tips

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E-Marketing Copywriting Tips

• Sara Baugh, Online Manager
• Electric Word Plc.

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• From Lines
• Subject Lines
• Headlines
• Case Study on our top 2008 campaign Superbundle
  
• Testimonials

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From lines

• Dont forget them!
• - Recipients use it to determine whether to
  delete an email
• Think about your motivation for wanting to test
  but dont rule it out
• Use a brand-related personality whether real or
  invented

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From line tests Example 1 B2B

• Sport Business Group's email newsletter
  newslines has an average opening rate of 14
  The first change ever made to this was to send
  an email from the editor of Sport Business
  magazine, Kevin Roberts. The opening rate for
  this email was 42

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From lines tests Example 2 B2C

• The emails subject line was (for both)
• Never too late for Gold Medal Glory.
• 50 received from Sports Performance Bulletin
  (control) and 50
• from The 85-Year-Old Record Breaker.
• Result
• The 85-year-old Records Breaker was opened by
  24.7 more people and this translated to a
  proportionate increase in sales.

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Subject Lines

• Motivate people to actually open the email
• Always think of them as a key marketing tool
  (whatever your editorial teams may say)
• Test regularly (we test every day). Is this easy
  to do with your service provider?
• Stick to 45 characters (or whatever you determine
  as the optimum for your list).
• They dont have to reflect the (whole) content of
  the email
• Never use the word sale

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Subject line testsExample 1 B2B
Split run test on offer for Secondary Assembly
File (a resource for teachers) Subject Line A
Jim Carrey and Personal Development? Written by
the marketing team Subject Line B Help
Colleagues to Share the Responsibility of
Assemblies Written by editorial A was opened
by 28 of our list B was opened by just 16
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Subject linesExample 2 B2B We sent out (in
error) an email with the subject lineenter
subject linethis had an opening rate of 18
against a list average of 12.
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Headlines B2B

• Whats worked well (average CTR for list used
  is 14)
• Testimonials
• This is all SO helpful. I learnt so much -
  inspirational!'- I. Forbes, SENCO, Pershore
  High School Click here to book your place on
  this years SENCO Update conference
• Click through rate 28
• Statistics
• 72 agree that all SENCOs should have QTS
• Click through rate 22

Poor response from Offer led headlines
Sign up for Into Teaching now and receive a
FREE bonus issue and 15 reduction for a
limited period only. Click through rate 8
against an average of 13 from list Invitations
Join me for 21 days and Ill show you
how to make it through the next year in one
piece. Click through rate 7 against same
average of 13.
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Headline test B2B

• Headline 1
• Updated guidance and legal obligations
• Child protection in education
• Fourth annual one day conferenceClick here to
  register now Click through 12 Sales
  1395
• Headline 2
• High quality speakers at a very well-organised,
  smoothly-run event - M Dorrity, Broomhill Bank
  School
• Updated guidance and legal obligations
• Child protection in education
• Fourth annual one day conference
• Click here to register now
• Click through 19
• Sales 4185

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Headlines B2C

• Whats worked well
• highlighting the precise saving on strong offers.
  An 85.3 discount Click through 38
• warnings. Don't see a physio until you've read
  this message  There is something missing from
  your physios basic training that could affect
  you... Click through 41
• Personal invitations. This is your unmissable no.
  31 of 213 invitations to footballers inviting you
  to join us today as a member of Peak Performance
• Click through 32

• Poor response from
• rounding savings up. an amazing price - over 90
  off Click through 13
• questions Why havent more athletes, coaches,
  and sports medicine professionals been told these
  facts about preventing back strain and pain when
  exercising or playing sports?
• Click through 15
• Quotations / testimonials (alone) With this new
  personal training program we have all been given
  the chance to perform to our full competitive
  potential.Click through 11

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Case Study E-Marketing Campign o the year
SuperbundleFor several years, the B2C part
of our business has published special reports in
which we collect together articles from the
newsletter and target focused areas, eg swimming,
distance running, shoulder injuries. These
special reports cost 20 each as hard-copy books.
We have a large email database which, in May
2007, stood at approximately 200,000 leads. We
had the idea of selling a bundle of our books
with the aim of bringing in a large amount of
revenue quickly. We decided to include every
special report, but quickly worked out that
shipping costs would be prohibitive, especially
as so many of our audience are outside the UK.
The superbundle would consist of all of our
special reports in PDF format, plus a number of
additional mini-reports which already existed as
premiums. The cost of putting together the
product was effectively zero.
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Case StudyOur E-Marketing Campign of the year
Superbundle Offer All of our special
reports in PDF format, plus a number of
additional mini-reports which already existed as
premiums.

• Headline A.
• Buy the Ultimate Online Library for
• Athletes Coaches at an amazing
• price over 90 discount!
• Click through 13
• Sales 59 bundles - 5,500

• Headline B.
• 22 Books, 1 Amazing Offer, 5 Days and 1341
  worth of information
• Buy The Ultimate Library for Athletes
  Coaches at an amazing 86.8 discount!
• Click through 38
• Sales We sold 316 bundles - 29,000

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More notes on Superbundle

• Repeating the campaign
• We sent the Superbundle email again in August
  2007, adding the books we had published in the
  meantime. This time we sold 203 (37,961). The
  response was lower but we expected that because
  it was only three months after the list had seen
  it before.
• Total superbundle revenue from these two sends
  was 97,053 (approx 48,526). Total revenue for
  Peak Performance books in 2007 was 195,000, so
  the superbundle accounted for a quarter of this,
  for just two weekends of activity.
• Challenges and going forward
• We have found that we have to limit the number of
  times we send the superbundle (we are aiming for
  four in 2008) because of the dangers of
  cannibilisation of individual book sales, so we
  have to monitor this to make sure we get the
  balance right.
• We also have to refresh the copy each time to
  make it look new, and introduce new twists, such
  as offering 30 books in email one, then adding in
  another book in email 2, or a mystery gift at
  later stages. But its well worth it. We have
  sold 40,000 worth of Superbundles in the first
  half of 2008 so its contribution this year will
  be even greater.

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Testimonials

• Collect regularly, explain why you want them and
  offer an incentive. Most people enjoy being
  quoted.
• How they are used best to every list is
  different. Test long list of positive feedback
  against testimonials dotted throughout the copy.
  Both have worked for us.
• Dont underestimate their effect

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Testimonial collection, example of email copy
Dear Peak Performance Subscriber, We are
currently compiling our 2008 campaigns to build
on the success of Peak Performance's ever strong
subscriber base of the top competitive sports
people in the world. We have decided to feature
testimonials about Peak Performance and the
benefits a subscription offers you.  As someone
who has shown great support to Peak Performance
we wondered if you would be able to provide us
with your opinion about the newsletter and how it
has helped you. To make this as easy as
possible we have set up a short online survey for
subscribers
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Summary

• Dont forget about From lines
• Use subject lines creatively
• Test both!
• Have a system in place for collecting
  testimonials for your products regularly
• Find out how to use them most effectively to your
  list with frequent testing