Which Is Better: Plain Text Or Designed Emails?

Published:

By: Ceci Dadisman

In: Development, , Marketing & Communications

A new experiment looks for definitive data on whether a plain text or a designed email will result in more donations.

KUOW Public Radio is Seattle’s NPW news station. Their independent, nonprofit newsroom produces award-winning stories, podcasts and events. For a time sensitive fundraising campaign, KUOW decided to test their usual email design against a more simple, stripped down, less designed version to see if it would lead to more donations.

You’ll want to read the full report, but, in short, the plain text email resulted in a 28.8% increase in response rate and the click to conversion rate was 79.4% higher.

I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has used this approach for donations to see how your campaign faired. Feel free to share in the comments.

Ceci Dadisman
Author
Ceci Dadisman
Ceci Dadisman is a marketing professional with more than 15 years of experience creating effective communications campaigns utilizing innovative, forward thinking methods. She is nationally recognized as a leader in digital marketing and specializes in multichannel communications campaigns. A frequent public speaker, Ceci’s recent and upcoming engagements feature national conference appearances at NTEN, Museums and the Web, National Arts Marketing Project, Arts Midwest, American Alliance of Museums, OPERA America, Midwest Museums Association, and Chorus America in addition to many other local and regional events. Known for her easy-going and vernacular style, she creates open learning environments with an emphasis on information sharing and useful takeaways. She is a member of the National Arts Marketing Project Advisory Committee and the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts Visiting Committee, and is a mentor in West Virginia University’s Creative Consultant program. She also teaches the arts marketing course at West Virginia University’s College of Creative Arts and is on the faculty of Chorus America’s Chorus Management Institute. Ceci was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from West Virginia University’s College of Creative Arts. She currently lives in Cleveland, Ohio.
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