I dream of Ginny: How a B2B email set a record click-through rate
When The Virginia Pilot piloted a Facebook Messenger bot named Ginny and offered the service to other newspapers, LocalMediaInsider put it in the newsletter along with various stories. The clickthrough rate was only 6%. So they changed various factors and got the top-performing clickthrough rate in the company’s history.
So what did they change?
First, take a look a the first item they posted in the newsletter (italics, ours):
Ginny, the Facebook messenger bot debuts at the Pilot
In case you missed the Digital Revenue Summit, one media company finally got into bot development and created Ginny. This Facebook messenger bot delivers news tips and takes customer complaints. Check out how they did it here, and be prepared to be charmed.
The click rate was just 6%, which is not great for a story that should have had more buzz at the time. So they decided to resend it after changing several elements.
Here are the five steps that can be applied to any email where clicks are essential: A. Make it an exclusive send, so there are no other elements on the email to split the clickthrough; B. Beef up the subject line; C. Turn the content into a compelling story; D. Increase the font size; and E. Keep it short.
Take each of these one by one in this example:
• The subject line
The first subject line, “MediaTechReporter: Ginny the FB messenger bot debuts…” had a decent open rate but just 21 unique clicks overall. The subject line was not the problem, but could it be better?
They enhanced the subject line: Should your media company use a social media bot? Even after sending the list of non-openers of the first email, they got 75% as many open – that is, from a smaller list of recipients who were not interested enough to open the first subject.
• The rewrite: Content that compels a click
Exclusive: Should you use a FB messenger bot?
It is always encouraging to see media developing new tools, and one of the more clever innovations we’ve seen this year is Ginny, a Facebook messenger bot created by the Virginia Pilot.
Why, you ask? And do you need one? Ginny is used to instantly route common customer service complaints and sign-up readers to sports and weather text alerts hands-free. How do you get one? In this blog, the Pilot explains how they built Ginny. If you are not up for that, we’ve included a contact at the Pilot, which plans to offer the technology to other media companies.
Spoiler alert: When I log on to test it out, Ginny is charming and reminds me, “Remember, I´m an (emoji image of a bot), so I may occasionally need a little help and some patience.”
So I lie.
I tell her that my newspaper was wet this morning.
Using a personal experience approach, the second email told a better story than a straight news item, a tactic we’ve seen in countless news articles where the author tests out AI.
• Changing font size
The last lesson is that they also increased the font size from 12 to 14 points. Larger font sizes work better, according to DirectIQ:
Most marketers and design professionals now agree that the minimum font size for body text in emails and blog posts is 12-point. Many suggest 14-point or even 18-point font because the screens of desktop monitors tend to be farther from people’s faces than the printed media they hold. Also, people do not experience text on a mobile device like on a paper sheet.
Larger font sizes are more comfortable for people to read. This comfort correlates to positive emotions that make readers more willing to continue reading and convert.
• Embracing brevity
They also kept the content more “friendly” in length; it took up just a few inches, making it simple to read without scrolling. The word count was under 200 words, far less than the typical information-packed newsletter.
Hubspot, based on the results from 40 million B2B emails, says that’s a good length:
Data suggests the ideal length of an email is between 50 and 125 words. Emails this length had a response rate above 50%. A similar study found emails with approximately 20 lines of text, or about 200 words, had the highest clickthrough rates. When in doubt, keep emails short and under 200 words.
Results
The exclusive send CTR went from 6% to 60%, an increase of 600% and the most clickthrough for a story in the newsletter’s history.
