Member benefits in a donation email: +32% revenue per donation
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsExplaining member benefits in a Consumer Reports donation email raised revenue per donation by 32% and total revenue by 16%.
MECLABS Institute ran this test live with Consumer Reports at MarketingSherpa Summit 2016, sending to about 450,000 subscribers, and it was published as a MarketingSherpa case study.
The two treatments lost on clickthrough, so fewer people responded but those who did gave more.
- Revenue per donation: +32% for the treatments.
- Total revenue: +16%.
- Clickthrough and response: the treatments lost to the control. This is a negative result on engagement.
- The version that showed the $100 membership level produced the highest revenue per donation.
The change
The treatments explain member benefits; one used a call-out box, one laid out tiers.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The standard donation appeal email to about 450,000 Consumer Reports subscribers, with a historic clickthrough rate of around 0.54%.
Variant
Two treatments that explained member benefits: one added a call-out box listing the benefits, and the other laid out the membership tiers, including a $100 level.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- Spelling out what members get gives donors a reason to choose a larger gift.
- Showing a $100 tier likely anchored people toward higher amounts.
- Both treatments made the email longer and more complex, which may explain the drop in clicks.
Caveats: The treatments lost on clickthrough and won only on revenue, and results were reported for the treatments together rather than each one. The versions were chosen by a live conference audience, and significance was not shared.
Who ran it
MECLABS Institute ran this test and published the results (MarketingSherpa case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on MECLABS Institute →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we explain member benefits and show tier levels in our donation email, then revenue per donation will rise because donors see what larger gifts get them.
- Primary metric
- Revenue per email sent
- Guardrails
- Clickthrough rate
- Number of donations
- Average gift size
- Who should test it
- Nonprofits, membership programs and subscription businesses with tiered offers. If your goal is the number of sign-ups rather than revenue, watch out, since response fell here.
Questions
Can an email lose on clicks but still win?
Yes. Here the treatments got fewer clicks, but revenue per donation rose 32% and total revenue rose 16%.
Pick the metric that matches your goal before you test.
Does showing donation tiers increase gift size?
It can. The version that showed a $100 membership level had the highest revenue per donation in this test.
How many people were in this test?
The email went to about 450,000 Consumer Reports subscribers. The split between versions was not shared.
MarketingExperiments