Testing email copy can make a significant difference in the success of your thon participant recruitment and fundraising campaigns.
Copy testing can get complex if you are exploring a lot of variables, but you can keep it relatively simple by testing one element at a time.
Here’s a simple approach suggested by the email marketing experts at Vertical Response (they offer a number of free guides on this and related topics here): Before issuing a major email, try sending 10% of the list one version with an element you want to test (e.g. subject line) and a version with a different take on that element to another 10%. Based on the open or clickthrough rates, send the more successful version to the remaining 80% of your audience.
Here’s a short list of variables to test.
From Name: Should emails come from a specific person within your organization or just the organization itself?
Subject Line: What will be most intriguing to recipients?
Button or Text Link: Some emailers have found significant increases in clickthrough rates when they offer a button to push instead of a line of text. Some achieve even better results depending on the color of the button!
Placement of Call to Action: Should it be up top or deeper down in the text? Should there be one or several? Worth testing.
Testimonials: Would the addition of a testimonial generate greater results?