True.com is an online relationship service that takes the time-consuming guesswork out of online dating by providing a safer, smarter, more scientific approach to compatibility. As a social network, True.com relies on email to connect their users, match their interests and communicate important information about their dating preferences. More importantly, True.com relies on email to convert free members into their paid subscription services.
Last December, True.com experienced dramatic shifts in its email delivery rates with key domains that represented a sizeable portion of the member base. True.com needed to resolve the problem as quickly as possible during the critical holiday season.
Return Path analyzed True.com’s email streams and found that True.com had an opportunity to decrease their complaint rates. As a next step, Return Path worked to figure out the root cause of their complaints and was subsequently able to identify two email promotions that were causing the bulk of their complaints. They were the WINKS and CRM email promotions. WINKS are emails that promote interest between True.com members. CRM emails prompt users to “do something” on their website. Based on this information, Return Path was able to make two key recommendations.
Return Path recommended that True.com reduce their sending frequency to customers with low activity and remove users who have not opened mail in the past six months. This would reduce the amount of complaints by eliminating the group of subscribers who complained the most and reduce the likelihood of sending email to unknown users – two factors that greatly contribute to email reputation.
Next, Return Path suggested that True.com make their unsubscribe link more prominent by moving it to the top of all email promotions with clearer unsubscribe language. Before, the unsubscribe link, which navigated members to their existing email options page, appeared in the footer and was difficult to locate. Therefore, members who no longer wanted to receive True.com email found it easier to hit the spam button rather than search for ways to unsubscribe.
To validate these recommendations, True.com decided to run three tests over a two week period to a limited group ranging from 70,000 – 90,000 members. They tested their current email messages using a control against a separate group who received emails with the unsubscribe link displayed prominently at the top of the email message. This allowed members easier access to the existing email options page that allowed them to opt-down or out of messages. They also stopped sending email to members that had fewer than two messages in their inbox.
Tests revealed that when given the choice, more members chose to click the unsubscribe button than press the spam button. Once on the email options page, the link for which was now more prominently displayed, members could proactively opt-out of the WINKS and CRM emails instead of opting out of TRUE emails altogether. During the tests, open rates increased from 5 to 12%, click-through rates increased from 1.5% to 23% and their paid subscriptions increased by 40%. By sending less mail and targeting their communications to their most active users True.com achieved better inbox placement and, as a result, better response.
“When we saw our delivery rates begin to shift, we knew we had to improve them ASAP. Return Path was able to quickly determine that complaint rates were contributing to our delivery problems. With simple creative testing and by limiting the frequency of the problematic mailstreams, we not only experienced exponential increases to our open and clickthrough rates, but also a 40% increase in paid subscriptions to our service. These small adjustments resulted in a big success.”
—Josh Ryan, Email Campaign Manager
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