The big impact of small changes

Branded Response integrates best practices from branding and response marketing. One best practice from response marketing is to pay attention to detail. That’s because little changes can make big differences.

Here’s an example. One of our clients wants investors to register for further information and newsletters about their company. Active, sophisticated investors are legendary information hogs. Timely knowledge is how they make money. These investors have some of the highest rates of opt-in agreement for online offers and information. So we recommended that they include email as a way to engage with this otherwise expensive to reach audience.

As smart communicators, we tested and tested again. One surprising result was that even a subtle difference in the email subject line created a significant difference in open rates.

Here are the two subject lines:

1. Private equity for any investor
2. Private equity for every investor

One simple word was the only difference between the two lines; “every” vs. “any”. And yet the difference in people opening their email was dramatic. Can you guess which line performed 49% better? Follow the link to see.

“Private equity for every investor” won hands down over its opponent, even though Websters Dictionary lists them as nearly direct synonyms. Why? We can only guess that “any” implies that the message is intended for good and bad investors, while “every” implies big as well as small investors. We don’t really know. In any event, both lines, although opened by over 15% of viewers, were significantly beaten by yet another subject line – one too valuable to share in a blog.

The real lesson here is that in a world where marketers are subject to ROI measures like never before, even the slightest detail often warrants testing and validation – practices inherent in effective Branded Response.