How a plain, stripped down, email impacts engagement
Back to the Bible
Experiment Summary
Ended On: 12/09/2019
Back to the Bible offered people on their emailing file the opportunity to sign-up for a free Bible Reading Plan. The control email that was being sent used a marketing template and lots of images. We hypothesized that a stripped down email could help improve email engagement.
Research Question
Would a stripped down email help improve email engagement?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Click Rate | Relative Difference | Confidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Control | 0.82% | ||
| T1: | Plain Text | 0.97% | 19.4% | 98.9% |
This experiment has a required sample size of 27,337 in order to be valid. Since the experiment had a total sample size of 91,257, 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:
19.4% increase in traffic
× 0% increase in conversion rate
× 0% increase in average gift
Key Learnings
By sending a plain text email, we were able to increase email engagement by 19%. Not only that, but we also saw an increase in opens – even though the subject lines were identical. This tells us that we had increased deliverability and inboxing. People appreciate hearing from Arnie – as a person. The tone and copy of the email was believable that he actually sent the email to the file. By stripping the email of the marketing elements (images, template, etc) we were able to reinforce this sentiment as well.