What’s one key lesson you’ve learned from the optimization and testing you’ve been able to do?

Something like 80% of clicks happen in the first quadrant of the email. So the first 25% of the copy. Adding a “learn more about insert-tool-name” right under the header has like 70% of all the click-throughs, which means that people don’t really want to read the full copy of the story in an email. They just want a way to get onto the site quickly.

Also, I’ve been playing around with preview text. I’m on the MadeWell email list, and they do a really good job of subject line, and then the preview text is this very alluring little snippet. And ours never had preheader text. We just had the start of the copy. And it just doesn’t read as easily. When you get an email on your phone, you see the title and then you just see a ton of words that aren’t necessarily clean because the way that we start copy isn’t always the clearest, most concise way to sum up the product. So, I’ve started creating the distinction where someone can get everything they need to get when the email pops up on their phone.

What’s one problem you still haven’t solved?

Segmentation is still something we’re looking to further optimize. We’ve learned through testing that segmenting based on type of business is less effective than focusing on stage of business — our theory is that, as entrepreneurs, we need tools that cover all the bases for running a business. A digital agency, a designer, and an accountant can all benefit from a similar bundle of tools for the fundamentals of their business. But as they grow and evolve, their needs change — that’s when things get interesting.

Any lessons learned on what *not* to do, that you’d be willing to share?

The more you email people, the more frustrated they get. Even when they’re good deals, people getting constant communication from you will make them agitated and the content can get lost because people don’t want to see three or four emails in a row from you. We tried that with Briefcase — we sent a Black Friday preview email, and then sent a midweek email, and then sent a launch email, and then sent a Cyber Monday email… and the number of unsubscribes kept getting higher even though the quality of the deal was so great. It’s just that people get conditioned to get frustrated and not want to read.