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Email marketing optimization
is an exercise in understanding your audience and leveraging the data you can collect on them. Most email software provides you with metrics like open rate and click-through rate, but with some advanced tools, your analysis can go much deeper and provide you with data that can be even more helpful.
We recently took a look at the timing aspect of our own email sends. Primarily, we wanted to know how many days are needed to see the full effect of a campaign. The email we sent contained a call-to-action to download one of our newest ebooks. So the question for this campaign was, how long did it take for this specific email to generate landing page conversions? Through the tracking tools available in HubSpot and Performable, we were able to track campaign performance at a granular level.
The Email Marketing Test
Specifically, we looked at an email that was sent on a Thursday, and we graphed the percentage of conversions that took place over time. We found that:
- 70% of conversions took place within the first day.
- 82% of conversions took place by the 2nd day.
- 92% of conversions took place by the 5th day (in this case, a Monday).
We followed up this analysis with another test to see if day of the week had an effect on any of the results. This time, we analyzed a send that was initiated on a Tuesday. Despite the change in day of the week, we saw similar results:
- 69% of conversions took place within the 1st day.
- 83% of conversions took place by the 2nd day.
- 91% of conversions took place by the 5th day (which this time, was on a Saturday).
Marketing Takeaway
Based on our two tests, the majority of conversions (about 70%) from our email sends occur within the very first day of the send, and there wasn't a major difference in the data between a Tuesday and a Thursday send.
However, depending on your own audience and content, you will likely see different trends in your data. If you can access such information about your own campaigns, it might help you plan your campaigns accordingly and make smarter marketing decisions based on concrete data. While our data didn't vary substantially, yours might!
Have you tested for trends in your email marketing in order to optimize your efforts? What have you learned?
Photo Credit: Horia Varlan
Free eBook: Top 7 Inspirational Email Tests