The document discusses a study conducted by Dr. Flint McGlaughlin on the effectiveness of letter-style emails compared to promotional emails in generating conversions, revealing that a letter-style email resulted in an increase of 181% in conversion rates. The research emphasizes the importance of empathy in email marketing, suggesting that engaging with customers as individuals in a conversational manner leads to better results. Key learnings include the significance of empathy in crafting effective email messages that resonate with recipients.

1. Are Letter-Style Emails Still Effective?
New research reveals how customers read emails today

2. We’re sharing on Twitter!
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3. Today's Speaker
@FlintsNotes
Dr. Flint McGlaughlin – Managing Director, MECLABS
Flint McGlaughlin is the Managing Director of MECLABS Group. The organization has
partnered with key market leaders including The New York Times, Microsoft
Corporation, and Reuters Group.
Dr. McGlaughlin also serves as the Director of Enterprise Research at the
Transforming Business Institute, University of Cambridge (UK), as the Chairman of
the Board of Governors for St. Stephen’s University, and as a Trustee for
Westminster Theological Centre. Dr. McGlaughlin originally studied Philosophy and
Theology at the University of London’s Specialist Jesuit College.
Today, his primary research is focused on enterprise as transformative agent. His
work has won multiple awards and has been quoted in more than 13,000 online and
offline sources.

4. Experiment: Background
Experiment ID: TP2137
Record Location: MECLABS Research Library
Research Partner: [Protected]
Research Notes:
Background: A large international media company focusing on increasing
subscription rates.
Goal: To increase the number of conversions based on the value proposition conveyed
through the email.
Primary Research Question: Which email will generate the highest conversion rate?
Approach: A/B multifactor split test

5. Experiment: Control
CONTROL: Promotional style email
• Uses popular design principles to
create balance and hierarchy on the
page.
• Heavy use of images and graphics to
catch the reader’s attention.
• Multiple call-to-action buttons for
increased points of entry.

6. Experiment: Treatment
TREATMENT: Letter style email
• Designed to look and feel more
like a personal letter.
• Limited use of graphics and
images.
• One call-to-action button
Subject Line: Get Unlimited Access to [Product] with
Home Delivery

7. Experiment: Side by side
Treatment
Control
Subject Line: Get Unlimited Access to [Product]
with Home Delivery
Subject Line: Open this now for Special Savings
VS.
181%
Increase in Conversion

8. Experiment: Results
181% Increase in conversion
The overall conversion rate increased 181% due to a
clearly stated value proposition.
Conversion Rate
Treatment – Letter-style Email
0.04%
0.12%
Relative Difference
181%
Control – Standard Email
!
What You Need to Understand: By limiting the amount of graphics, and focusing on engaging the
customer in a conversation, the treatment outperformed the control by 181%

9. Why?
Subject Line: Get Unlimited Access to [Product] with
Home Delivery
Why did the
letter-style email win?

10. Effective Email Messaging
F
Key Learnings
1. An email message is not a monologue; it is a dialog. People don’t buy from emails;
people buy from people.
2. If the marketer can learn to participate with the prospect’s conversation, they can
guide it (with messaging) towards a satisfactory conclusion (the purchase).
3. Therefore, effective email messaging requires one often overlooked skill on the part
of the marketer: Empathy.

11. Effective Email Messaging
Empathy: For the marketer, empathy is their ability to discern – through
listening and hearing – the ontology (nature or being) of the customer.
• Selfishness, if a benign version, is the primary driver of sales velocity. It is the selfishness of the
prospect which empowers the transaction.
• The concept, selfishness, has a negative connotation. But this can be unfortunate…how can a
self be faulted for being self(ish)? In one sense, selfishness is essence(tial).”
• Empathy enables the marketer to identify with the market and experience its “selfishness”.
Empathy is the marketer’s intuition.
• The marketer does not eliminate their self; we seek to empty ourself, identifying with the "self"
of the prospect – This paradoxical move enables us to achieve that empathetic messaging
which powers true conversion.

12. Effective Email Messaging
Problems with the promotional style email:
• The control is not empathetic toward the
customer. Commanding the customer to
act in the subject line and CTA.
• Feels like a promotional email, therefore
customers feel like they are being
marketed to, not communicated with.
• The email is relying on a design approach
to grab the customers interest, rather than
a conversation.
Control
Subject Line: Open this now for Special Savings

13. Effective Email Messaging
Why the personal style email won:
• More conversational in the subject line
than control.
• Empathizes with the customer, using a
personal email style, the customer feels like
they are having a conversation.
• The design is crafted into one clear
message.
Treatment
Subject Line: Get Unlimited Access to [Product] with
Home Delivery

14. Summary
Control
Subject Line: Open this now for Special Savings
Treatment
• With the use of empathy,
we were able to craft an
email message which…
1. Connected to the
recipient in a personal
way.
2. Engaged the participate
in an actual
conversation.
3. Increased email
response by 181%.
Subject Line: Get Unlimited Access to [Product]
with Home Delivery

15. Live Optimization
Email Style Tests

16. BECOME A CERTIFIED EMAIL
MARKETING PROFESSIONAL
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