Study: Small E-mail Creative Changes See Big Returns

Small changes to the creative elements of e-mail messages can boost customer response by 50 percent or more, according to a study recently released by e-mail solutions provider Silverpop. For instance, business-to-business e-mails with the company or brand name in the subject line experienced an average open rate of 32 percent, compared to just 20 percent for messages without branded subject lines. Following are other data Silverpop found it its analysis of 612 e-mails sent by 430 companies.

* Business-to-consumer e-mails with the brand or company name in the subject line received open rates of 29 percent on average;
* B-to-C e-mails without the brand or company name in the subject line were opened about 22 percent of the time, on average;
* 55 percent of B-to-B e-mails used the brand or company name in the subject line;
* 46 percent of B-to-C e-mails used the brand or company name in the subject line;
* Text-based e-mails sent to consumers saw a 4.7 percent average click rate, while image-oriented e-mails saw a 7.1 percent average click rate; and
* Conversely, all-text e-mails sent to businesses saw a 5.4 percent click rate, while messages with an equal ratio of images to text saw a 3.5 percent click rate.

For a copy of Silverpop’s study “E-mail Creative That Works,” visit http://www.silverpop.com