# Clearer value and lower-commitment CTA in email: +104% clicks

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Email (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Email copy, Value proposition, Cta copy
- Date shared: 2011-11
- Test run by: [MarketingExperiments](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/marketingexperiments/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://marketingexperiments.com/a-b-testing/email-treatment-test
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/rented-list-lead-email-clarity/

Rewriting a lead-gen email to a rented list with a clearer value proposition and a lower-commitment call to action lifted clicks by 104%. The MECLABS team ran this test for an anonymized research partner and published it on MarketingExperiments. Several copy changes were made together, so the lift belongs to the full rewrite.

## Result

**+104% clicks**

- Clicks: +104% for Email B over Email A.
- The publisher credits three things together: a clearer value proposition, less commitment in the call to action and better flow.
- Lead conversions after the click were not reported.

## Control

Email A went to a rented list to generate leads. The original creative was only shared as an image.

## Variant

Email B stated the value more clearly, asked for a smaller first step and led readers through the ideas in a tighter order.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- People on a rented list do not know the sender, so they need the value spelled out fast.
- A smaller ask feels safer to a stranger than a big commitment.
- A clear order of ideas keeps readers moving toward the button instead of skimming and leaving.

## Caveats

Several copy changes shipped together, and the source gives no sample size, duration or confidence. The test is from 2011, and clicks are not the same as leads.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we state the value of our offer clearly, lower the commitment in the call to action and order the copy around one idea, then more rented-list readers will click because the benefit is obvious and the next step feels low risk.
- Primary metric: Click-through rate per delivered email
- Guardrail: Lead conversion rate on the landing page
- Guardrail: Lead quality
- Guardrail: Unsubscribe and spam complaint rate
- Who should test it: Lead-gen businesses sending to cold or rented lists. It matters less for warm house lists that already know your offer.

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Credit: MarketingExperiments ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/rented-list-lead-email-clarity/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.