eBook - Silverpop
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Real-Time Content Optimization:<br />
Testing on Steroids<br />
We regularly do testing,<br />
Q: but it adds several days to<br />
our campaigns. What can we do<br />
to shorten the time from creation<br />
to launch?<br />
Every time someone proclaims the<br />
A: death of email, new technologies<br />
emerge that make email fresh and new again,<br />
ready to retain its title as the technological<br />
heavyweight of the marketing world.<br />
The next generation of email is at the gate, even<br />
as we speak. It is evolving into an even more<br />
highly optimized channel that pulls in customer<br />
data and offers services and functions now available<br />
primarily on Web sites.<br />
For marketers, this means that recipients<br />
will potentially be further down the purchase<br />
decision path when they click through to the<br />
site, giving you and them a shorter path to<br />
conversion, whether it’s a sale, site registration,<br />
product download, demo request or completing<br />
an application.<br />
This isn’t pie-in-the-sky conjecturing, either. It’s<br />
happening right now, with technologies that<br />
operate in real time:<br />
• Testing services (e.g., Omniture Test &<br />
Target and 8Seconds) that perform A/B<br />
split or multivariate tests on live content<br />
and automatically serve up the winning<br />
combination within the same campaign.<br />
• Personalized product recommendations<br />
served into the email body reflecting a<br />
recipient’s preferences, past buying history<br />
or other interactions with a company<br />
(Certona, Baynote, etc.).<br />
• Up-to-date customer reviews personalized<br />
to reflect the recipient’s interests, previous<br />
purchases, transactions and other variables<br />
(BazaarVoice, PowerReviews, etc.).<br />
Real-Time Testing Optimizes<br />
Email on the Fly<br />
What’s exciting about this isn’t just the “ain’t-itcool?”<br />
aspect (although it is pretty cool to watch<br />
in action).<br />
This technology allows marketers to test content<br />
in real time, using automation that serves<br />
up the winning combination in the campaign<br />
during the send, instead of doing it piecemeal<br />
on samples of their lists and then applying the<br />
results to the list at large.<br />
This cuts the lag time between testing and<br />
optimization to hours rather than days. Think<br />
how that could have improved the last campaign<br />
you sent where the results didn’t quite meet your<br />
expectations.<br />
The software delivers the test emails randomly<br />
throughout your list and then tracks actions on<br />
the messages. As recipients open and act on<br />
the messages, the software calculates a winner<br />
and then delivers it to the balance of your mailing<br />
list once it reaches a desired confidence<br />
level (typically a 95 interval).<br />
Dynamic Content Moves<br />
Off the Web<br />
Serving Web content personalized for<br />
customer data such as pages visited, past<br />
purchases, demographics and preferences is<br />
standard operating procedure, and dynamic<br />
SILVERPOP.COM | PAGE 121
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