To promote their successful Deal or No Deal formula, Endemol carried out a test mailing with E-mark Mail. Deal or No Deal had already sent out mailings prior to the test, but results were unsatisfactory because their marketing partner's level of professionalism left much to be desired.

Goals

Among other factors, the revenue model for these mailings depends on click-throughs to the website, especially with regards to the various gambling games offered there. Through testing, E-mark gives insight in the highest attainable click ratios. At the same time E-mark attempts to stimulate the overall brand experience and a sense of participation and inclusion by sending out e-mails, in order to ultimately secure a large group of dedicated followers (and through them better viewing scores).

Tests

The first test mailing resulted in good ratios, but E-mark still believed they could do better. With this in mind, the E-mark team decided to do a split-run on the next mailing. The database was divided into three approximately equal selections, with each selection receiving a different subject.

Subject 1: Just one Question Deal or No Deal?

Net Open Ratio: 44%
Net Click-Through: 56%

Subject 2: Deal or No Deal latest news!
Net Open Ratio: 42%
Net Click-Through: 54%

Subject 3: Deal or No Deal-October Newsletter
Net Open Ratio: 40%
Net Click-Through: 54%



This test was repeated another three times, and in these tests the lay-out and the time at which the mails were sent were varied. The subject "Just One Question: Deal or No Deal?" worked best for Endemol. The subject line is most important when it comes to improving the open ratio. Besides using the best subject line, the choice was made to include the best performing layout and the optimal send-out time. This resulted in the creation of a permanent format guideline which Endemol UK still uses for all their mailings.

But how important are these percentages really? Every percent point of improvement in the open ratio and Click Through Rate (CTR) easily represents a few thousand extra readers and potential conversions on the website.

Future

The cooperation is going so well that the database is growing with every mailing and hundreds of people request a position as a candidate on the show every week. Another interesting detail to note is that the database grew by over 96% in one year. Besides securing constant growth for the database and maintaining the current level of subscribers, raising the CTRs for the website is of the utmost importance.

Website

By now, Endemol UK and E-mark are working together to rebuild and setup www.dealornodeal.com, the international E-mark variant of the British Deal or No Deal website. At the same time, E-mark is developing a unique method to achieve the highest possible conversion rate per visitor for the new website. This is being done by adapting content and advertizing to the individual user's profile (e.g. based on country of origin) and click-through behavior. When a person from South-Africa visits the website, they will be served advertisements and click-through options that are predominantly relevant for a South-African.

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