Hillsdale College

How sending from a person rather than an organization impacts open rates

Experiment ID: #4584

Hillsdale College

Experiment Summary

Timeframe: 04/12/2018 - 04/25/2018

Hillsdale College wanted to see if sending an email from an individual the subscribers will likely never have heard of (Bill Gray) would increase open rates. They decided to test this against the standard “Hillsdale College” sender.

Research Question

Does sending from a person rather than an organization make a difference in opens?

Design

C: "Bill Gray"
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600 [gform-image-choice-lg-height] => 366 ) ) )

Results

  Treatment Name Open Rate Relative Difference Confidence
C: "Bill Gray" 21.3%
T1: "Hillsdale College Online Courses" 16.3% -23.5% 100.0%

This experiment has a required sample size of 468 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 202,287, and the level of confidence is above 95% the experiment results are valid.

Flux Metrics Affected

The Flux Metrics analyze the three primary metrics that affect revenue (traffic, conversion rate, and average gift). This experiment produced the following results:

    23.5% decrease in traffic
× 0% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift

Key Learnings

Sending from a person gained an 23.5% increase to opens when compared to the email sent from an organization. However, it is important to note that this is a situational win. It is a tactic that "humanizes" the institution but, if the copy in the email does not continue this personal approach, the lift in opens will result in no significant change to actual engagement.


Experiment Documented by NextAfter

Question about experiment #4584

If you have any questions about this experiment or would like additional details not discussed above, please feel free to contact them directly.