Item — HN Reader

I would have liked to see more data. Step 1 - change text email to graphics every thing else stays the same. Step 2 - Change the wording. Step 3 - Leave step 2 wording and go back to ext email.

This way you can compare like for like and figure out what is actually causing the increase/decrease for the CTR.

As it stands, the article didn't include enough data to see if their changes actually fixed the situation.

1 comments

Sebg

True. The overall CTR dropped. The main difference b/n the two emails was having that button. Stats showed a low # of clicks to that button vs. other links.

Thanks for the reply. I agree with shanonm on this one in that while it looks like the "main" difference between the two emails was having the button there were actually a ton of changes made. Because the one thing that can easily be measured is how many times the button is clicked, that is the first place to start.

That said, it also looked like that was the only way to see if the changes worked. So the button itself could have made your percentage change down, but the rest of the ad make it change dramatically up, so overall the effect is up. But, if the lesson you learned was button = less CTR and didn't test the rest of the changes, it might hurt you in the long run.

The heading changed. A blurb was added. The content was re-ordered. Price is now in bold. No longer any mention that the deal expires.

Believe or not, I didn't even realize the emails were advertising the same product.