How the tone of the email can affect the donor conversion rate
Experiment ID: #1926
Media Research Center
Experiment Summary
Timeframe: 08/19/2015 - 08/24/2015
When the Planned Parenthood videos were first starting to be released, the Media Research Center launched a petition with the goal of getting the major media networks to give the story the level of attention it deserved. By the time the 7th video was released, this petition had acquired more than 53,000 signatures. With each subsequent video, we wanted to update these signers on the progress of the petition and give them a way to contribute further with a “Quick Donate” option.
Previous emails had all used a “negative” tone by focusing on the continued lack of media coverage and what was needed to overcome the problem. We had a hypothesis that if we led with a positive tone by acknowledging the signers’ past action and the resulting progress, we could inspire them to take the next step and give a gift. We decided to split the email file and validate this hypothesis.
Research Question
Which messaging tone in the email will produce the greatest number of donors and revenue?
Design
C: Negative Tone
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T1: Positive Tone
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Results
| Treatment Name | Conv. Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | Average Gift | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Negative Tone | 0.11% | $29.21 | ||
| T1: | Positive Tone | 0.06% | -47.4% | 90.6% | $29.00 |
This experiment has a required sample size of 23,844 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 34,799, and the level of confidence is not above 95% the experiment results are not valid.
Key Learnings
The more negative email was able to produce 11% more opens but both emails had the same number of people click to the landing page to give a gift. However, those clicking from the positive email were not as incentivized to give a gift which led to a 46% decrease in donor conversion. Those visitors that had been inspired by the work left to do (the “negative” tone) and the urgency of the appeal were more highly motivated to give a gift once they made it to the page.
It is critical to remember, in an email appeal, the tone of the entire campaign can be impacted by every step of the process.