December 30, 2014 at 14:03Should I write long letters in the mailing list? Data on 390 million letters
What should be the perfect writing? Long to explain everything to the smallest detail? Or is it still short so that the person would like to immediately follow the link?
How many companies, so many letter options. Someone sends out long letters (more than 10 screens), someone capacious and short (no more than 1 screen). If you rephrase Master Yoda: " Do not try to guess - count ." UniSender conducted its own unique in the CIS market research of email newsletters. In this article, you will learn whether to write long letters.
We analyzed data on 390,268,887 letters sent through UniSender in October 2014, and found answers to such questions:
But before that you need to find out a few points:
Now let's move on to the study itself.
As we learned, companies from different industries write letters of different lengths.
Consulting companies are characterized by the largest letters with detailed explanations. In second place is e-commerce with letters, which lists a large number of products. Banks prefer to send short letters - everything is clear and to the point; as a rule, we are talking about offering a specific service or a short alert.
Now let's see how the length of the letter affects the number of transitions. We compared the three largest (by the number of subscribers) industries - tourism, e-commerce and education:
The graph shows that the longer the letter from the online store , the more likely it is that a person will click at least one link.
Another situation with travel agencies - the optimal length of the letter is 20,000 characters (3-4 screens). The letters of travel companies are noticeably lower than CTOR: even if they open the letter, a much smaller number of people go to the site than, for example, in e-commerce.
The education is also lower CTOR, than at online stores. However, in this industry a high percentage of clicks to the site from short (up to one screen) letters. Usually these are invitations to webinars or letters as stylized as plain text.
To calculate this dependency, we need to know CTOR and the length of the letters. We measure the length in characters.
The result is this dependence:
As you can see from the graph, the longer the letter, the more likely it is that the subscriber will go to your site.
And this is not surprising, because the larger the letter, the more opportunities to convey its advantages to the reader. It is much more interesting why people click less in letters ranging in size from five to ten thousand and from 30 to 35 thousand characters.
The fact is that up to 5 thousand characters are plain text, or short letters in a template. They are usually placed on the first screen. The man opened the letter and immediately realized what they wanted from him.
After 5 thousand characters, the letter no longer fits on the first screen- need to scroll down. 5-10 thousand characters is a letter on 2-3 screens, 30-35 thousand is a letter on 7-8 screens. Based on this graph, it can be argued that when a letter is received on two or 7 screens, subscribers are less likely to go to the site. They just don’t finish to the end and do not get to the right link.
You can subscribe to the results of the study on this page . Each week new articles and answers to questions appear.
Write your questions in the comments - we will find answers to them in the following articles.
How many companies, so many letter options. Someone sends out long letters (more than 10 screens), someone capacious and short (no more than 1 screen). If you rephrase Master Yoda: " Do not try to guess - count ." UniSender conducted its own unique in the CIS market research of email newsletters. In this article, you will learn whether to write long letters.
We analyzed data on 390,268,887 letters sent through UniSender in October 2014, and found answers to such questions:
- Does the length of the sent letter depend on the industry of the company?
- How does the length of the letter affect transitions?
But before that you need to find out a few points:
- The indicators used in the studyThe article mentions indicators such as CTOR (interest in the text) and p (click density). In short, CTOR (Clickers-to-openers rate) is the percentage of people who clicked on a site who opened a letter. A p is the average indicator of how many times a person clicked in a letter. You can learn more about them in the previous part of the study.
- What is 5 thousand characters?In a mailing letter, 5 thousand characters is not at all the same as 5 thousand characters in Word. In a regular html-letter, all elements are registered using code. That is, for example, this red text will be written like this: This text is red. As a result, the standard letter is greatly “inflated” by the number of characters.
5,000 characters fit on approximately one screen. This means that a person will open such a letter and it will almost completely fit on the computer screen.
Now let's move on to the study itself.
Does the length of letters differ in different industries?
As we learned, companies from different industries write letters of different lengths.
Consulting companies are characterized by the largest letters with detailed explanations. In second place is e-commerce with letters, which lists a large number of products. Banks prefer to send short letters - everything is clear and to the point; as a rule, we are talking about offering a specific service or a short alert.
Now let's see how the length of the letter affects the number of transitions. We compared the three largest (by the number of subscribers) industries - tourism, e-commerce and education:
The graph shows that the longer the letter from the online store , the more likely it is that a person will click at least one link.
Another situation with travel agencies - the optimal length of the letter is 20,000 characters (3-4 screens). The letters of travel companies are noticeably lower than CTOR: even if they open the letter, a much smaller number of people go to the site than, for example, in e-commerce.
The education is also lower CTOR, than at online stores. However, in this industry a high percentage of clicks to the site from short (up to one screen) letters. Usually these are invitations to webinars or letters as stylized as plain text.
How does the length of the letter affect the transitions to the site?
To calculate this dependency, we need to know CTOR and the length of the letters. We measure the length in characters.
The result is this dependence:
As you can see from the graph, the longer the letter, the more likely it is that the subscriber will go to your site.
And this is not surprising, because the larger the letter, the more opportunities to convey its advantages to the reader. It is much more interesting why people click less in letters ranging in size from five to ten thousand and from 30 to 35 thousand characters.
The fact is that up to 5 thousand characters are plain text, or short letters in a template. They are usually placed on the first screen. The man opened the letter and immediately realized what they wanted from him.
After 5 thousand characters, the letter no longer fits on the first screen- need to scroll down. 5-10 thousand characters is a letter on 2-3 screens, 30-35 thousand is a letter on 7-8 screens. Based on this graph, it can be argued that when a letter is received on two or 7 screens, subscribers are less likely to go to the site. They just don’t finish to the end and do not get to the right link.
Tip:
- Combine the “short” and “long” letters : first the main idea and the ability to switch from the letter (link, button or any other Call to action), then additional information.
- Remember the "screens . " A person opens a letter and sees a certain amount of information. If he does not see anything important in the first screen, it is highly likely that he will not scroll further.
- Let’s value in the letter . The more useful information you put in the letter, the more likely it is that subscribers will go to your site. If you offer a turner from Moscow to buy time management training in Kazakhstan, it does not matter how long the letter is.
Where to get the rest of the study?
You can subscribe to the results of the study on this page . Each week new articles and answers to questions appear.
Write your questions in the comments - we will find answers to them in the following articles.