Internet Marketing Center Case Study

Customer	The Internet Marketing Center
Industry	Business Services
Email type	Marketing, Newsletters
Service	CertifiedEmail

About The Internet Marketing Center

The Internet Marketing Center (http://www.marketingtips.com) has led the field of online marketing since 1996, with online sales totaling $60 million. IMC develops resources and strategies that small and medium-sized online businesses can use to successfully market themselves on the Internet.

Core products, such as “The Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business on the Internet” and “The Insider Secrets To Email Marketing,” are revised and updated every year to reflect the changing dynamics of the online environment. Before recommending any product or marketing technique to its customers, IMC tests it; as a result IMC’s email campaigns are already highly effective. The company wanted to find out if CertifiedEmail would make a difference in its AOL conversion rates, and if CertifiedEmail would be a practical option for the smaller online marketers who make up its clientele.

CertifiedEmail Test

IIMC tested two emails promoting a new product: reprint rights to four eBooks, featuring well-known business experts. Recipients in both tests were given a link to the product landing page. IMC sent half of the emails via CertifiedEmail and the other half without certification.

Results

Compared to responses from non-certified email recipients, CertifiedEmail recipients showed the following increases:

Click-through rate	+22%
Site login:	+44%
Revenue per email:	+81%

Analysis

IMC’s mailing tested only one variable: the presence or absence of CertifiedEmail’s unique Blue Trust Seal. The presence of the seal indicates that a message is authentic and trustworthy. IMC’s emails consist entirely of text, with no images or attachments, so no one was required to click to view the message. The control and test groups saw messages in their inboxes that were identical except for the Blue Trust Seal.

The conclusion? The Blue Trust Seal alone was responsible for the notable increases in click-throughs, conversions, and revenues. The return on investment for IMC was 1,646%.

Terminology

Click-through rate	The number of emails that were clicked-through to the website divided by the number of emails received, expressed as a percent. A single email clicked.
Site login	The number of people who logged into the website divided by the total number of emails received, expressed as a percent. Multiple logins driven from the same email are counted as a single login (unique login).
Return-on-investment (ROI)	Revenue generated by a marketing campaign less the cost of the campaign (return), divided by the cost of the campaign, expressed as a percent. A positive ROI is one where the profit generated exceeds the cost of the campaign. For example, an ROI of 180% means an investment of $1.00 generated a return of $2.80.
Revenue per email	Per customer, the average revenue generated per email.