emailInsider – the inside line on email marketing – posted the following article on its blog on 9th January 2012, written by Morgan Steward.
Morgan Stewart is Co-Founder and CEO of Trendline Interactive.

Read more …

In 2001, Return Path started to review new product concepts to add on to Return Path’s original offerings. Return Path interviewed almost its entire customer base and found two issues that were most interesting around which to build an additional business: deliverability and email message optimization. Return Path chose deliverability.
“When we later heard that 8seconds was tackling multivariate optimization and decided to check it out.”

How our US on-line retail client earned $75K extra with 8Seconds, explained by George Bilbrey

Smart email marketers know that call to action content that has been tested will always generate better ROI results than taking a “best guess” at which offer to send out. The operational challenge is finding the time to do this quickly and cost effectively. With this in mind, we looked at the 8Seconds real time call-to-action optimization solution which promised to do exactly that: optimize the best call to action, with minimal effort. So we chose one of our own Return Path clients to run a test. George Bilbrey, Co-Founder & President, Return Path

Test campaign details:

The client was a large US retailer of apparel, outdoor gear and home goods. We set up two campaigns sent out to two separate segments of their email marketing data base:

- the first was a segment of subscribers who had made an online purchase over the past 12 months;
- the second was a segment of subscribers who hadn’t made a purchase in the past 24 months.

Both campaigns tested the use of different images and calls-to-action to see which combination would drive higher engagement, click-throughs (CTRs) and conversions.

The results:

As the result of using the 8Seconds optimizer tool, one campaign saw a lift of 16% and the second saw a lift of 20% for a combined revenue increase of approximately $75,000 extra. The winning combination of images for each campaign drove a revenue increase of 57% and 33% respectively.

Based on these results, we recommend that email marketers make it a top priority to use an automated call to action optimization solution like 8Seconds when seeking ways to optimize ROI and improve customer engagement experiences.
By George Bilbrey, Co Fournder & President, Return Path.

Return Path provides a suite of powerful solutions for reaching the inbox and protecting your sender reputation. For more information on Return Path’s solutions please visit: http://www.returnpath.net

“Mobistar moves as provider of mobile, internet and digital TV in a very competitive market, so it is necessary to stay ahead of competition. Not only by building a strong brand which promises to make life easier: for Mobistar, life is the combination of 3 dimensions: ‘Love’, ‘Work’ and ‘Play’. Besides a strong brand, we measure and improve every communication we do.
In this direction, we have optimized more than 10 email campaigns with the technology of 8Seconds. With an average gain of 251%, we had excellent ROI results on these campaigns. We discovered that optimizing calls-to-action is not a one-off exercise. All kinds of factors influence audience behavior that can impact how they respond such as the weather, time of year, demographic mix, economics, competitor communications, and things we could not even imagine. So a colour or offer that worked last week or last month, may not work so well next week. So, we intend to keep on testing and learning continuously on future campaigns.”

Pierre Cordier, Online Channels Traffic Manager, Mobistar

The challenge: Mobistar promoted My25 fee which includes more than 100 free minutes, sms’s and mobile internet. For the promotion of the product, Mobistar sent this emailing out to a segment of the database: 43.900 persons in total.

The results: Mobistar puts a lot of attention to the call to action-buttons as this is the button that really pushes people to sales. For this acquisition emailing, Mobistar choose for 8 different versions of the call to action button. The following results show that with a very small difference in creation and tone of voice, you can make a big difference in results.

It is clear by these results that “I discover…”, works better than the more sales oriented CTA-buttons: “I activate now” or “I switch now”.

The winning version of the email was sent to the rest of the database in real time. In other words, 8Seconds adapts the content of the emailing in real time as soon as a statistical validity is achieved. The total gain for this campaign was 398% when compared to the losing combination.

Here are the key changes summarized:

8Seconds has from now on 2 versions in the 8Seconds’ Optimizer:

RT Image Optimizer – browser version

This is the classic real time optimization solution from 8Seconds that our results oriented, pioneering clients have grown to enjoy. You can get started now and it works on any e-mail marketing platform, anywhere. There are no changes on this release.

RT Enterprise Optimizer – API

This is the truly advanced version for the marketers who are ready to take multivariate testing to a totally new level. It is a fully featured application that includes:

• subject header
• body text
• image testing
• advanced KPI reporting

And the following NEW features for this version:

Eliminate losers one-by-one

This is like that game called “Last Man Standing”: Instead of choosing 1 winner which will automatically be shown to the rest of the database, you will have the possibility to continue the optimization by continuously dropping the lowest performer until there is just one winner left. In this case, only the best working version(s) will be shown to the rest of your database.

Social Impact

Not everyone wants to measure success based on CTRs. Some mailings are intended to trigger a social impact by being forwarded to friends and colleagues, for example. When social is the basis for your optimization, now you can have it. You can measure such things as how many times your email was forwarded to other recipients. You can also add the links to your social pages and track how many recipients go to your social pages through the email. LinkedIn, Facebook and Facebook ‘likes’, and Twitter, so the main social media.

How can you implement this feature?

Easy, as always at 8Seconds:

For ‘Elimination’ or ‘Social Impact’ just tick the box:

Check out the stories of top 1% performers here:

Consumer Lifestyle products – Philips
FMCG – Ijsboerke
Media – De Telegraaf
Telecom – UPC

Get more for your e-mail marketing investments without the IT hassels. Register for our E-Mail RT Impact Webex training today at: optimizer@8seconds.net

Send us an email and give us your availabilities. In 30 minutes, we will show how you can:

• Boost your monthly ROIs with 45%+;
• Achieve KPIs that will impress your boss, client and management team;
• Save so much time you will be able to truly enjoy a cappuccino, or other relaxation treat while your competitors struggle to catch up;
• Put your company into the top 1% percentage performer in its sector.

8Seconds, an agency specializing in real time multivariate email optimization, links its expertise with CheetahMail, a global expert in email marketing campaigns to provide relevant real time testing.

Belgian company specialized in the field of interactive marketing, 8Seconds has developed a tool that allows multivariate testing by email in real time to improve performance and profitability.

In a common desire to meet their clients needs, CheetahMail and 8Seconds have joined their expertise to get the best of email marketing: “Marketing in general and especially online marketing is increasingly becoming more analytical. Marketers and large volume email senders like CheetahMail understand everyday more and more how effective email testing can be to improve the response rate and ROI of their email campaigns. With 8Seconds Optimizer, we offer marketers the ability to test and adapt their email campaigns, in real time. These marketers see immediate benefits and increased response rates. We are really excited to work together with CheetahMail.” says Sofie Andries, Account Strategy Director at 8Seconds.

To meet a growing demand from their mutual customers, both partners have chosen to work together to help marketers to identify the most relevant content to display in emails. This partnership provides marketers the ability to automatically test many combinations of elements and so effortlessly detect the most effective variables. In other words, it is now possible to optimize the content of its email campaigns by analyzing the behavior of its customers and this in real time. Moreover, beyond reading basic email marketing key indicators for each combination (openers rate of clickers, reactivity …), it is also possible to follow the final conversion rate of the operation.

“This partnership with 8Seconds represents a breakthrough for our customers. Indeed, today it is essential to stand out to demonstrate responsiveness and precision. Not only our customers require getting to manage real time feedback with access to a powerful platform but they also want new functionality that make all their campaigns successful and enable their final customers. To achieve this goal, 8Seconds is the best solution on the market, and we are proud to have demonstrated the relevance of our association“, added Jean-Philippe Baert, CEO of CheetahMail France.

Press contact:
Sofie Andries
Account Strategy Director
+32 479.98.95.19
sofie@8seconds.net

To learn more about this partnership, please contact Loïc Dilly – ldilly@experian-cheetahmail.fr.

About 8Seconds

8Seconds is a Belgian company active in the interactive marketing sector. One of the founders of 8Seconds developed a tool that increases the success ratio of all online marketing efforts through statistical analysis and optimization techniques. The tool was developed because of the lack of any comparable tool that was effective in optimizing electronic advertising in real time and efficiently.

8Seconds Email Optimizer increases the conversion rate of email campaigns by testing and optimizing email campaigns based on the customer’s clicking behavior.

CheetahMail around the world

CheetahMail is an e-mail marketing service provider which uses intelligent client technologies working for some of the largest advertisers in the world. Having some of the largest customer service teams in the e-mail industry using advanced e-mail functionality technologies and providing a large range of data management options, CheetahMail allows advertisers to construct pertinent communications campaigns in conjunction with their customers. Being a partner of some of the best known international brands, CheetahMail has a highly-diversified worldwide customer database which includes Barclays, Auchan, KLM, Neiman Marcus and HP. CheetahMail is one of the business units of the Experian Ltd group (LSE : EXPN), it was founded in 1998 and is based in New York. The company has offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Johannesburg.

For more information please contact: info@cheetahmail.com.

About Experian

Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 80 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2011 was US $4.2 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 41 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; California, US; and São Paulo, Brazil.

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.

What do you have to do?

Buy a subscription or campaign credits

Execute and optimize your campaign(s)

Send email confirmation to participate

The prize

The campaign with the highest gain wins this competition. The winner will appear in our next newsletter and that company will be given a 3 months subscription of up to a maximum of 2 campaigns per month FOR FREE.

Well executed optimization and execution speed are vital for any marketing professional who wishes to beat competitors in the same sector, getting more ROI for less efforts. Based on our experience, when e-mail images are properly tested, campaigns will increase the number of CTRs by 45% and often more.

Have some fun with this

Why not have your colleague to guess which version of your test will win? Offer a reward to those who can guess the winning image(s).

For more information regarding this competition contact me today: sofie@8seconds.net

Conventional A/B split testing

Most of our clients are familiar with A/B split testing : you send out two or more different emails to a random sample of your target group, i.e. 5 000 email addresses for each creation. Typically after sending you can start analysis after a few hours, the CTRs for each image per email.  IF you are lucky you may have a statistically significant difference between email A and B.  In this case you can send out the winner the rest of your database. But suppose you are unlucky, and there is no significant difference, what then?  You have to start the testing process all over again. And suppose you have more than just two images to test, then the scale of complexity grows exponentially.

8Seconds’ MVT (multivariate testing)

With the 8Seconds’ RT Image Optimizer there is no need to split your test into random sample groups to test.  It automatically shows the different images and combination of images of your email campaign to exactly the number of sample groups required to get a winning result. 8Seconds measures the CTRs on the images to be optimized, and finds the best clicking image or combination of images. Once a winner is identified, only the winning combination will be shown to the rest of your database – all of this in one step, in real time. So no more waiting, no more guessing if your sample groups were statistically significant enough, no more unnecessary double work. In other words: 8Seconds goes one step further to help you make the best choices each time, the first time.

The 8Seconds’ advantages, compared to A/B split testing:

1. No more samples : you send the different creations/combination of creations at once to your whole database.
2. No more A/B : 8Seconds goes much further. You can test more images and also combination of images in one single email.
3. No more analyses : we do this for you. In real time, our algorithm decides which image works best, and only shows the best working image or combination of images to the rest of your database. Hours and days of analyses and setting up campaigns becomes automated with a statistical significance.
4. No more wasting time : we do everything in real time. 8Seconds measures the difference in CTR on the different images you optimize. And in real time we send the best working creation to the rest of your database.
5. No complexity : you do not need to be an IT specialist to implement the campaigns in 8Seconds Optimizer. Within the hour, your campaign is set to be sent.

If you ask 5 persons to chose the winning call-to-action from 5 creations, there is one certainty: NON will like the same creation! Marketers, the sales manager, the CEO … everybody starts following his or her guts feeling. This until a decision is taken and the chosen creation will be sent out to the target group.

Quite some companies make one essential mistake by doing this : they do not listen enough to their target group.

8Seconds’ advice to every e-marketer is stop guessing and start testing. And take advantage of the medium you are using: email marketing is oh so measurable and moreover very flexible and cheap to change creations. With 8Seconds, it is even possible in real time.

What does  8Seconds do? The 8Seconds’ Optimizer shows the different creations of your email campaign to your target group/database. 8Seconds measures the CTR on the images being optimized and in real time, 8Seconds finds the best clicking image or combination of images which will be shown to the rest of your database. In other words : 8Seconds listens to your target group as They decide what They like best.

Well, to be honest, it is hard to tell ! As it depends on different elements:

The open rate of your emailing should be big enough. You can have a database of 500 000 but a very low open rate. The lower the open rate, the longer it takes to find a winning combination.

The CTR (click through rate). It speaks for itself that also the CTR is important as this is the key of measurement at 8Seconds. If few people click, it might take longer for 8Seconds’ Optimizer to get to a statistical validity.

The number of combinations/or images : the higher the number of combinations, the longer it might take to find a winner.

The difference in creation : this is  really important ! the difference in creation between the images should be big enough. Trying radically different images is what pays off.

The target group: your target group is the one which is clicking, so the difference in creation should make a difference on his/her behavior as well. And the same set of creations can have a different result with a different target group.

Timing: the day or time of day is an important factor as well.

Basile Fattal, Sr. Manager CRM and Consumer Engagement, Philips Consumer Lifestyle

The challenge:

The CRM and e-mail marketing team supports all of Philips Business Groups with the mission to execute the most effective campaigns for their internal clients. Every week many campaigns are sent out by this team. Resources and time are a scarce resource to be managed carefully. The Shaving and Grooming category asked the Philips e-mail marketing team to create the best campaign based on the following:

• 8 creative versions of the e-mail;
• 3 image variables within each mail version: top banner, the product image, and the call to action button;
• Audience of 116,000 e-mail addresses.

The Pain: 50% + potential loss:

In the past such a test may have taken between 72 hours and 8 working days before a winner was found. And it risked using more data than required to find a winner, based on the typical practice by most brands to choose random sampling sizes per variation work out the winner without using the carefully thought out mathematical probabilities.

The Gain: +100%:

Using the 8Seconds RT Image Optimizer the newsletter was sent to 24,000 consumers and a winner was found in real time after 389 unique views. The winning combination was then sent the remaining 116K consumers with a different shaver head model.

Basile Fattal adds, “ The 8Seconds RT Image Optimizer helped us achieve 3 goals:

1. Cuts valuable time and resources required for testing by over 80% (a step we previously often just skipped as it was just too much trouble to run tests);
2. More than doubles our ROI per campaign in clear, measurable terms; and
3. improves our customer experience delivery by engaging them with images that trigger a positive behavioral response.“