How Hobby Companies

The Company

According to Mailchimp, hobby companies get over 5% CTR on their newsletter subscriptions. Our newsletter averages 2.05%. If you're someone who runs a newsletter or warm email drips, you know that CTR is the second most important metric. Reply rates are #1, but there are no good public statistics on RR.

Anyway, this week is special. I want to increase our CTR. I know we're no hobby company, but I thought I could steal a thing or two from them. So here's what I'm testing:

The Experiment

Hobby companies get the highest engagement because they sell activities that people genuinely, wholeheartedly enjoy doing: reading, listening to music, and watching TV. Goodreads, Spotify, Netflix, people naturally care about their recommendations. Our hobby is ad testing. Let's see if we can beat these behemoths.

Here's the test: I'm going to drop a few interesting links and sources on ad testing. I recommend you test them all.

Without further ado, the links:

1. Nick Kolenda's advertising psychology offers 27 ad tests to try yourself
2. Harry Dry's Marketing Examples notes 17+ visual tips for PPC copywriting
3. Academia tells us Emojis need playfulness, brands need coolness, and emotions matter

And my personal favorite, Are Advertising Agency Creatives More Creative Than Anyone Else? An Exploratory Test of Competing Predictions. Yeah, that's a mouthful, but it's a mouthful we all need.

The Results

Coming to a newsletter near you next Tuesday! Let's see if we can beat our averages. By the way, we've never gotten a reply to this newsletter, so if you're the first, there will be a one-time-only, special reward 😉