'No time to test' is no excuse

A Jupiter 2006 report indicates that only 40% of email marketers incorporate email testing on a regular basis. Some industry experts speculate that the lack of testing is due to emails’ low perceived cost but we believe it’s more a resource issue. The average email marketing department is small (1-2 people) and few emarketers make the time. Testing can be simple…examine your email program and highlight the key drivers in your message (tip: targeting and offer variables have the biggest lift). If you outsource, make testing part of your agency deliverables .

The payoff can be dramatic and we typically see an increase of 50% in click-through-rate engagement. Jupiter reports that bottom line conversion rates average 1%-2% but improve to over 3% with testing. Inbox agrees and a large Inbox Marketer client recently improved their cross-sell rates by 300% through a series of sequential targeting/offer/creative tests. They are now armed with a powerful control package to drive their business.