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How WhitePaper Fared Against Gift Cards And No Offers
By John Vinson
Expert Author
Article Date: 2011-01-13
When writing Whitepapers, have you wondered the true value that they can bring to a business? Considering their popularity, it's safe to assume that there are uses for the strategy. However, in certain situations can another strategy bring more to the table?
In this experiment conducted by Cisco, WhitePaper, gift card offers, and no offers were pitted against each to bring inactive email subscribers back to life. Which strategy ended up being the most effective? Read on to find out.
In early 2010, Cisco discovered that only 25% of subscribers on their email list were "actively marketable". Meaning that those who has signed up with Cisco had forgotten all about their emails. So, they ventured forward with an experiment to bring these inactive subscribers back. They took a small percentage of their list and divided the subscribers into three test segments.
The first segment tried to lure them back in with a $25 Starbucks gift card offer. The second offer was a free Whitepaper download, while the third segment made no offer. Each group both consisted of the same content, except the different offers. Each email had a "update now" call-to-action, headline text, the Cisco logo, and list of member benefits.
Here are the results for each group:
Gift Card offer:
Open rate - 17.10%
Clickthrough rate - 7.60%
Conversion rate - 6.10%
Whitepaper offer:
Open rate - 12.10%
Clickthrough rate - 2%
Conversion rate - 1.40%
No offer:
Open rate: 18.30%
Clickthrough rate: 6.50%
Conversion rate: 3.90%
The results are definitely surprising upon first viewing. Dissecting them further, things become a bit more clear. The gift card offer could sound like spam to some, and coming from a company which they hadn't been engaged with in awhile could be seen as fake. Whitepapers' success relies heavily on trust. Would you care to read a document from an author you had no idea about, or never opened emails from?
For Whitepaper experts, the lesson to be learned here is gauging how to effectively use Whitepaper when marketing. Make sure who you're sending Whitepapers to are those who you've established a relationship with. Otherwise, you'll see lower rates like the ones above.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for WebProNews.
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