Top Rated Products Improve Email Performance

The Challenge
Today's top marketers are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to improve the performance of their email marketing campaigns. As email lists continue to grow, even the slightest improvement in open-rate and click-through rate can make a significant impact on gross demand and revenue per email.

The Solution
Golfsmith, one of the premier retailers in the golf and tennis industry, conducted an A/B email test. They sent two identical emails, with just one change: one email included customer ratings under the product image; the other one did not. The email that featured ratings used a Top-Rated Products headline. The two emails can be seen here: http://www.bazaarvoice.com/GS_email.html.

The Result
There was a 42.44% increase in gross demand generated from the email that featured customer ratings. There was also a 42.36% increase in revenue from the email featuring ratings. Also, click-through rates increased 13.94% and the open rate was up 15.23% for the email that featured customer ratings.

Conclusion
Emails featuring ratings and reviews are proven to perform better than emails that do not include any mention of ratings and reviews. Key metrics commonly used by marketers, including open-rate, click-thru rate, gross demand, and revenue per email, all improved as result of adding ratings and reviews to the email campaign.

Credit Information
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Client: Golfsmith
Agency: Bazaarvoice
Budget: Not Disclosed
Contact Name: Matt Corey, VP Marketing