Email Advertising - How Ad Tracking Helped Create a Killer Ad

I recently undertook an email advertising promotion, using a number of advertising media. The exercise involved a program of mine called the Magical Marketing system.

As an email advertising Internet marketing exercise, I decided that I wanted to approach the members of some of the affiliate programs that are featured in Magical Marketing, and offer their members the chance to join this system, and reap the benefit of the multiple promotion methods that it employs.

And. as an email advertising marketing exercise, this has worked very well, and whilst an interesting exercise in Joint Venture Marketing in itself, it has produced a result so remarkable in my eyes, that I felt it worthy of a report.

With one particular featured program, I did a multiple ad test, to see what the comparison between three ads. It was the results of this that struck me, and prompted me to put this article together.

The three ads, which were very similar. This is good of course, because it means that any variance in the results can be explained in relatively few ways. So there are two points that need to be made about these ads, which may affect your thinking about how you write your own ads.

1. Use Of Variables in Headlines

I don't know about you, but I am always hearing that using someone's name in an advert can make a significant difference to the effect of that advert. Not all programs have this kind of facility though. It just happens the program that I ran the adverts with does, so I made use of it in the headlines for 2 of the 3 adverts, but not for one of them. I have used the variable in the body of all three ads, so some personalisation took place in all cases.

2. Bulleted Benefits

Again, all the books and articles that I have ever read tell you to spell out the benefits, and a lot of them tell you to bullet them to add emphasis. So, I have done this with all three adverts, but with a difference between ads 1, and 2 and 3. In the first advert, I just made single word references to the benefits, in the other two, I elaborated in order to explain the benefit better.

3. Conclusions

The results are so striking, that they are worthy of comment.

The ads were placed from 12th December 2004 to 18h January 2005. So, the time span is about a month, but, I use the program in question to send other ads out too. About every 3rd day, I will send one of these three ads, in rotation. So, each of the ads would have been sent about every 6 days or so.

Advert 1 pulled in 70 unique hits, with 19 action hits. The latter is where prospects followed through to the sign up page.

Advert 2 pulled 5 unique hits and 1 action hit.

Advert 3 pulled 4 unique hits and no action hits.

Headlines I have always advocated trying to keep headlines short, especially where email adverts are concerned. You only have the width of the email pane to enter your message, so you must tell your story within a few words.

I don't consider any of the Headlines that I have used to be excessively long. However, the first advert is very short, and perhaps that accounts in part for the huge number of additional clicks for the first advert?

In part, I believe that this is true.

However, I am now thinking that perhaps email prospects have become wary of seeing their name in emails from people that they don't really know. Think about how you react when you see such an email?

Do you open it immediately, or do you become suspicious?

Trust your gut feeling.

I have used the personalised approach in the body of the email, and maybe the psychology here is that once someone has opened an email, they have 'let you in' and are more amenable to your being personal.

Headline conclusion
I am more convinced than ever that email headlines should be short - as short as possible. I also recommend that if you personalise the Headline, you stop, and test your ads without it.

Bulleted Benefits
You can see that advert 1 has produced a massive amount of additional click thru's over the other two ads. Bearing in mind that each ad went out, probably every six days, the first two ads are not far removed from the norm with the program that I used. This makes the results achieved by Advert 1 even more staggering.

The change in headline may go some way to explain this, but the huge number of clicks tells me that something much more significant has occurred.

Thankfully, the body of the three ads are very similar in all aspects, except one; the bulleted benefits. In the first ad, I have given one word answers. In the other two, I have elaborated.

Bulleted benefits conclusion
One cannot escape the fact that keeping the benefits so short has had an impact. And not only in click thru's either. If you look at the graphic under 'Actions' column, you will see that I have tracked the prospect through to the signup page. You might expect that the 20% conversion rate be the same, but it isn't, it has increased to around 28%. So the shorter bullet points have also pre-sold more effectively, so the prospects likelihood of signing up has increased as well.

As a final note, please remember that all of this is courtesy of tracking my ads. If you don't do it, then you will struggle to make an impact in the marketing world.

Whether you are new to email advertising or not, you cannot ignore this statistically proven information.

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


RSS vs Email: Its Not An Either-Or Question

If you've been getting caught up in all this talk... Read More

Youve Got Mail

It seems that Google is revolutionizing the Net in more... Read More

Use the ?Reply All? Function in Email Judiciously

Type "email etiquette" into the search bar of any popular... Read More

Viral Marketing Tips: Greeting Cards

When we speak about viral marketing, we are not talking... Read More

Harnessing the Power of Email Marketing

Given the inherent problems with traditional marketing techniques, it`s important... Read More

Benchmark Study of Email Database Services

-- Email Appending and ECOA Match Rates Revealed --NEWTON, MA,... Read More

Email Marketing and Web Communication: Ten Key Tips to Get Your Messages Read

There's an old saying 'Manners maketh the man (or woman)'... Read More

12 Tips For Writing Winning E-mail

Learning to write more effective e-mail is a valuable skill... Read More

Is Your Email Address Blacklisted?

A lady emailed me yesterday very upset over the fact... Read More

7 Autoresponder Marketing Strategies To Automate, Build and Grow Your Business

Did you know one of the most important tools in... Read More

The Wrong Email Format Can Destroy Your Offer

Which email format is more effective to use, Text or... Read More

Increasing Email Deliverability

Most email marketers know that it is important spam-check email... Read More

Proven Techniques For Building A Responsive List

We've all heard those who have Internet business-success stories proclaim,... Read More

8 Tips to Increase Response in Email

Opt in email marketing is no different than normal direct... Read More

Email Deliverability Tips

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes... Read More

Why Does Nobody Visit My Web Site?

After endless hours of writing, designing and programming your brand... Read More

Click for Success!

Being online for the last five or so years has... Read More

Achieve Success With Your Own Money - Making Newsletter

To be successful with a newsletter, you have to specialize... Read More

What is Gmail?

Like most other prime search engines, the ability to freely... Read More

Combating List Building Frenzy: Take The Time To Promote

It is an accepted fact among the experts now that... Read More

How NOT To Appear Like A Spammer

Unless you use the Internet only for surfing and never... Read More

Autoresponder Tips

An autoresponder is useful for, well, responding to people who... Read More

How To Get People To Constantly Open Your e-Mail Promotions Or Your Newsletter

In this article I'm going to talk strictly from a... Read More

Is Your E-Address Unprofessional?

How much time did you spend on deciding on the... Read More

What A Newsletter Can Do For Your Business

Newsletters are often thought of as easy, do-it-yourself communications projects.... Read More

Do You Ponder the Automatic Responder?

* The Automatic Responder is generally referred to as an... Read More

Why Email Marketing Matters

According to a study by the Winterberry Group, email marketing... Read More

7 Wise Ways to Collect Email Addresses and Build Your Mailing List

=> Wise Way #1 - OFFER A FREEBIEYou have to... Read More

Why Use Permission-Based Email Marketing?

The goal of all marketing is to attract interest in,... Read More

Lost: 200 emails gone missing. Last seen on the 25.10.2003

Sound familiar? Ever wondered what happens to those unopened emails... Read More

Great Response by Auto Responder

1. Collect leads with your autoresponder. You will get an... Read More

Email Laws That Could Bring You to Jail Even if Youre Not Spamming

First things first, I'm not a legal expert and so... Read More

How to Develop the Email Marketing Mindset and Earn Thousands Every Month with Your Lists

Any business today, be it online or off needs a... Read More