How Using Landing Page Copy in the Body of a Prospecting Email Directly Impacts Revenue
The Heritage Foundation
Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is a research and educational institution—a think tank—whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.
Experiment Summary
Ended On: 02/25/2020
Heritage Foundation had been using unique email creative for their email prospecting campaigns in an effort to increase Membership sign-ups and ultimately, revenue. To see if revenue would increase, they experimented with inserting the entire copy directly from their Membership landing page into the body of the email.
Pre-Experiment Hypothesis: The Heritage Foundation Membership landing page provides the best information for why individuals should become a Heritage Foundation Member. As opposed to having to attract individuals first with an email before they see any relevant information, why not present the relevant information immediately to them in their email inbox?
Research Question
Will using landing page copy in the body of an email increase revenue for email prospecting?
Design
Results
| Treatment Name | Revenue per Visitor | Relative Difference | Confidence | Average Gift | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C: | Control | $0.01 | $32.29 | ||
| T1: | Treatment #1 | $0.04 | 170.4% | 100.0% | $62.50 |
This experiment was validated using 3rd party testing tools. Based upon those calculations, a significant level of confidence was met so these 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:
0% increase in traffic
× 39.7% increase in conversion rate
× 93.6% increase in average gift
170.4% increase in revenue
Key Learnings
*Important note: For this experiment, except for adding an intro and outro paragraph, Heritage Foundation did not alter any of their Membership landing page copy.
There was a validated increase in revenue:
With a 100% level of confidence, revenue per visitor increased 93.6%, and the average gift doubled.
Conversion rates improved:
With a 50% level of confidence, conversion rates increased by nearly 40%.
Email Click-Thru-Rates Increased:
With a 99.4% level of confidence, email click-thru-rates increased by 55.2%.
*Note: Increasing Click-Thru-Rates are particularly important for optimization and performance lift. Click-Thru-Rates are step #1 in increasing revenue in a campaign, as you are obtaining more traffic to the page.
Conclusion:
Providing relevant information up front for individuals, as opposed to shielding information behind a click, increases the overall performance of email and ad campaigns by increasing click-thru-rates, revenue, and average gift amount.