CNET simplified welcome email: opens 32% to 46%, clicks 12% to 21%
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsOver a series of tests, CNET replaced its long welcome email with simpler versions and saw open rate rise from 32% to 46% and clickthrough from 12% to 21%.
CNET's email team ran the tests, and they were published by MarketingExperiments after a MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2015 talk.
The gains come from several changes tested one after another, so no single change gets the credit.
- Open rate rose from 32% to 46% across the sequence of tests.
- Clickthrough rose from 12% to 21%.
- CNET reported that each treatment improved both opens and clicks. The headline numbers cover the whole series, not one change.
- This was a bundled series of changes to content, subject line and ads, so the lift cannot be split between them.
The change
Four long sections became a short intro, one CTA and a content block.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
A long welcome email that tried to tell new subscribers everything: four sections (product reviews, tech news, more newsletters, forums), an ad, and the long-standing subject line 'Welcome to CNET! Let's get started.'
Variant
Five treatments tested in series: a short intro with one call to action to the homepage, an editor photo or an ad unit, a new subject line 'Thanks for joining! Let's get started.', a collage image, and a final version combining the winners with an ad and a block of high-traffic content.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- One clear call to action gives new subscribers an obvious next step instead of four competing sections.
- A shorter email is quicker to scan, which matters most in the first contact after sign-up.
- The new subject line thanked the reader rather than greeting them, which may have felt warmer and lifted opens.
Caveats: Changes were made across five treatments tested one after another, and the before and after figures cover the whole series. List size and duration were not shared, the data is from 2015, and CNET stressed the result was for its own brand.
Who ran it
CNET ran this test and published the results (MarketingExperiments). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on CNET →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we cut our welcome email down to a short intro and one call to action, then opens and clicks will rise because new subscribers can see the next step right away.
- Primary metric
- Welcome email clickthrough rate
- Guardrails
- Unsubscribe rate
- Ad revenue per send (if the email carries ads)
- Engagement with later emails
- Who should test it
- Lead-gen, media and SaaS teams whose welcome email tries to cover everything. Change one element at a time if you want to know what worked; CNET's series only shows the combined effect.
Questions
How long should a welcome email be?
Short often works better. CNET's long, tell-them-everything email lost to simpler versions with one main call to action.
Does the welcome email subject line matter?
It can. CNET changed 'Welcome to CNET!' to 'Thanks for joining!' as one step in the series, though its own effect was not reported separately.
Can I put ads in a welcome email?
CNET kept an ad unit in its final version because ads are a revenue stream for the brand.
Watch clicks and unsubscribes if you try it.
MarketingExperiments