The Effect of Email Headings on E-mail Response Rate

The e-mail marketing is a useful tool in digital market with higher customer response rate. E-mail marketing provides real-time connection and interaction between marketers and customers (Sterne & Priore, 2000). However, the effectiveness of email marketing depends on the structure of email body and head. The design of experiment (DOE) can help marketers to determine the cause-effect relationship in e-mail marketing.

Testing for Cause-and-Effect Relationships Using DOE

The DOE is important in identifying the cause-effect relationships in a process by determining the primary inputs and the outcomes (Goos & Jones, 2011). It comprises of controllable and uncontrollable factors (factor inputs), and levels (specific setting of the factors) and responses (outcomes). Factor inputs in this case include email body and email headings. The adjustment of these factors results in an outcome. The levels in the case include generic and detailed heading, text body or HTML body

The response includes the clients opening the emails or not opening. It also includes the rate at which the clients respond to the emails. The response assist in identifying the cause-effect relationship between email body and email heading. From the case, the plain text lead to higher response than HTML text. The clients can open the plain text emails easily compared to HTML ones and thus higher response rate. The email heading has small effect on the response rate of the emails. However, sending emails with detailed heading result in higher response rate when the email is opened.

2. Presentation of the Result of DOE

The interaction effect charts and scatter chart can be used to represent the findings of the DOE. The interaction effect chart gives numerical data on the level of response of each variable in consideration. The data help in comparing the impact of each variable to the email response rate of the client as shown in table 1. However, the scatter chart gives a graphic display of the customer email repose at generic heading and detailed heading. The graph allows for easy identification of the relationship between level of email heading and response as shown in Figure 1.

Generic (-)

42

57.5

Detailed (+)

36

74

Table 1: Integration Effect Chart

Figure 1: Scatter Chart.

3. Recommend for improving Response Rate to Email

The company needs to use short, pertinent and straightforward emails because most customers are busy and may not have adequate time to read detailed emails. The firm should also write the emails in plain text rather than use HTML to enable clients to open and read them with ease. The emails also need to be clear and concise to allow the customers to identify the envisioned message easily. It is essential for the firm to avoid integrating many themes in a single email because it leads to the loss of the objective of the emails (Sterne & Priore, 2000). It would also be crucial for the company to use several clients and platforms to test it emails to improve the email response. The use of multiple platforms assists in determining the efficacy of different channels used by the customer. The company can use tablets, mobile phones, and personal computers to test the response rate and identify the platform with the highest response from customers. Besides, the company should use professionally design email templet. It should employ branded template consistent with its marketing effort. Such other marketing efforts create a good impression on respondents.

4. Strategy for Developing a Process Model of Increasing E-Mail Response Rate

The best approach that the firm can use to enhance the response rate is to concentrate on improving the body of emails as well as other aspects that motivate the customers to open and read the emails. The data indicate that generic and detail heading have small differences. Thus, the firm can use either generic or detailed heading depending on the cost of using each of them (apply the one with the lowest cost). Nevertheless, the comp nay should concentrate on improving the email opening rates by the clients. Ass demonstrated in scatter chart; open emails have higher response rate compared to closed ones (Sterne & Priore, 2000). The firm can improve the chances of opening emails by using branded templates and including subjects that motivate the clients to open the emails.

References

Goos, P., & Jones, B. L. (2011). Optimal design of experiments: A case study approach. Chichester: Wiley.

Sterne, J., & Priore, A. (2000). Email marketing. New York: John Wiley & Sons.