Hey Guys vs Hey {Name} - Split Test Results

by pdrs
41 replies
I ran a little split test today to one of my lists - it's just a small but pretty targeted list in the IM niche ~250 people.

I split the emails 50/50 and sent the exact same title and exact same message to both lists however for one message I opened with Hey Guys, and for the other I opened with Hey {Name} (the personalized name feature in aweber).

Maybe this is common knowledge to most list marketers but I'm fairly new to the game and found it very interesting.

The opens and clicks for the 'Hey Guys' email were almost exactly twice that of the Hey Name email.

Hey Guys - 40 opens, 25 clicks

Hey Name - 21 opens, 12 clicks

Just thought it was interesting!
#guys #hey #results #split
  • Profile picture of the author tooAlive
    That's a huge difference, specially if the results continue to be the same on a larger scale.

    And this is actually great news, considering how even asking for their name in the first place greatly reduces optin rates.

    Thanks for the insight. I'm sure many people with change the way they reach out to their lists after reading your post.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Harris
    Hey pdrs,

    Was that just in the body of the email,

    or were you doing that in the title as well?
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    • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
      If you sent the exact same title to both segments, then why would one of the segments have double the open rate of the other segment? Something doesn't add up here.

      Also, if I received an email that started with "Hey guys", I would be a little bit confused, because... I am just 1 person!
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      • Profile picture of the author pdrs
        Originally Posted by quantumtiger View Post

        Hey pdrs,

        Was that just in the body of the email,

        or were you doing that in the title as well?
        It was in the body of the email, the very first line - subject line was the exact same for both mails

        Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

        If you sent the exact same title to both segments, then why would one of the segments have double the open rate of the other segment? Something doesn't add up here.

        Also, if I received an email that started with "Hey guys", I would be a little bit confused, because... I am just 1 person!
        Well I'm sure that most of us look at the preview of the email (such as in gmail you can see the opening line) - also I often address it as Hey Guys or Hey There or whatever as I often send out messages just addressed to the list as opposed to trying to make it sound like I'm just talking to them - i think most of us are smart enough to realize when we're being mailed from a list these days?
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        • Profile picture of the author Michael Harris
          Originally Posted by pdrs View Post

          It was in the body of the email, the very first line - subject line was the exact same for both mails
          Cool.. Thanks for the tip,

          It is an interesting result..

          Are you thinking about doing a bigger test?

          I'd be interested to hear how it went if you did..
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          • Profile picture of the author pdrs
            Originally Posted by quantumtiger View Post

            Cool.. Thanks for the tip,

            It is an interesting result..

            Are you thinking about doing a bigger test?

            I'd be interested to hear how it went if you did..
            Unfortunately I only have one more list in the IM niche which is related to my blog and it's only about 70 people at the moment - I wish I had a bigger list to try it out... maybe some day

            If anyone else with a larger list wants to give the same experiment a try I'd be all ears! (eyes?)
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          • Profile picture of the author Lance K
            So you have a 62.5% CTR vs. a 51.7% CTR with 37 total actions.

            Had the "Hey {Name}" version received 40 opens as well, you would theoretically have a difference of 2-3 clicks between the versions with about 50 total target actions.

            Good to see that you're testing. Just make sure that you continue to test as your list grows.
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            • Profile picture of the author pdrs
              Originally Posted by Lance K View Post

              So you have a 62.5% CTR vs. a 51.7% CTR with 37 total actions.

              Had the "Hey {Name}" version received 40 opens as well, you would have a difference of 2-3 clicks between the versions with about 50 total actions.
              I think I follow - but isn't the open rate fairly important?
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              • Profile picture of the author Lance K
                Originally Posted by pdrs View Post

                I think I follow - but isn't the open rate fairly important?
                ABSOLUTELY. But it depends on how confident you are that the salutation is what caused the difference in open rates.
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        • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
          Originally Posted by pdrs View Post

          Well I'm sure that most of us look at the preview of the email (such as in gmail you can see the opening line) - also I often address it as Hey Guys or Hey There or whatever as I often send out messages just addressed to the list as opposed to trying to make it sound like I'm just talking to them - i think most of us are smart enough to realize when we're being mailed from a list these days?
          I wasn't doubting you... just curious... as those are some VERY strange stats, to say the least!

          But that's cool that you're testing things and figuring out what works the best. More power to ya!
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      • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
        Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

        If you sent the exact same title to both segments, then why would one of the segments have double the open rate of the other segment? Something doesn't add up here.

        Also, if I received an email that started with "Hey guys", I would be a little bit confused, because... I am just 1 person!
        I was thinking the exact same two thoughts.
        How can the open rate change with the exact same title? But I new see that Lance gave a good answer to that.

        And "Guys"? I would have tested "Guy". as, like you, I am just one person.

        In fact, every time I see the beer commercial with "The world's most interesting man", and he says "Stay thirsty my friends" I want to choke the copywriter of that commercial. It should be "Stay thirsty my friend". Unless they ran a test similar to this and found that beer drinkers were more receptive when thought of as part of a group, instead of as an individual. (These questions keep me awake at night!)

        Anyway, I'm very grateful for the test results, and to be honest, I would have expected the opposite results. Now I'm going to be wondering why the huge difference by calling someone "Guys" instead of their name. Good test. Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author pdrs
    Again I'm no list expert or anything and maybe since it was such a small test group it's not really all that conclusive/doesn't mean much - but I thought the differences were enough to be interesting at least

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  • Profile picture of the author jacktackett
    pdrs,
    thanks for the post! every little data point helps all of us so kudos for sharing. First for actually split testing - soooo many people - even very experienced marketers - do not test. There are statistical methods to see how accuate you're results are - even on a small sample (just more margin for error the smaller the sample). If you PM an email address I'll send you some information.
    thanks again for a great post!
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    • Profile picture of the author pdrs
      Originally Posted by jacktackett View Post

      pdrs,
      thanks for the post! every little data point helps all of us so kudos for sharing. First for actually split testing - soooo many people - even very experienced marketers - do not test. There are statistical methods to see how accuate you're results are - even on a small sample (just more margin for error the smaller the sample). If you PM an email address I'll send you some information.
      thanks again for a great post!
      --Jack
      thanks Jack! pm sent
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  • Seems very odd?

    Perhaps the split just managed to hit the more active subscribers anyway.

    Best thing to do is test one similar heading for 2 weeks of broadcasts on the full list then switch to a different style for 2 weeks and see what the open and click rate was.

    so 2 weeks of non (name emails) and the other 2 weeks of personal welcome emails.

    This is presuming your getting optins each day onto the list as naturally numbers dwindle over time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Everest Affiliate
    This is interesting, I got the opposite results from you. I guess it depends on how personal you build the relationship with your subscribers.
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    • Profile picture of the author pdrs
      Originally Posted by Everest Affiliate View Post

      This is interesting, I got the opposite results from you. I guess it depends on how personal you build the relationship with your subscribers.
      I'm going back through my stats now to look at the various emails where I opened with 'Hey Guys' or something similar as opposed to 'Hey {name}' to see what else I can find out.

      I've never really given my list maketing much real thought until the last couple of weeks - but I love stats so it's been pretty cool
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  • Profile picture of the author PaulBaker
    Hi pdrs,

    Thanks for posting your findings.

    Would be interested to see results of you switching the test around. ie sending a 'hey guys' email to the 50% of your list that you sent the 'hey name' email to last time. Should get an idea if the data is consistent or not.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    I stopped asking for names on opt-ins a long time ago.

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  • Profile picture of the author Des Lau
    iiiiinteresting. I think the 'Hey {name}' opening has a spammy stigma to it nowadays.

    I make sure to always open my actual email content with Hey {name} though, it is more personal and sets the tone abit better IMO.

    I've read alot of marketers who have regretted leaving out the name field on their squeeze pages, but your results are definitely worth a thought!
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  • Profile picture of the author Kal Sallam
    I have also found that not using names converts higher.
    Also when building a your list asking for just an email
    Address converts way better! IMHO
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  • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
    Originally Posted by pdrs View Post

    I ran a little split test today...

    The opens and clicks for the 'Hey Guys' email were almost exactly twice that of the Hey Name email.

    Hey Guys - 40 opens, 25 clicks

    Hey Name - 21 opens, 12 clicks

    Just thought it was interesting!
    I ran a similar test and got similar results, with much larger numbers. My assessment is people don't want to get left out. By saying "Hey John...", you are making it a one on one conversation and easy to ignore. By saying, "Hey Gang...", you are talking to the group and John may not want to feel left out.

    I could be way off base on the "why", but I know what works best, for my list, anyway.
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    • Profile picture of the author retsced
      Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose View Post

      I ran a similar test and got similar results, with much larger numbers. My assessment is people don't want to get left out. By saying "Hey John...", you are making it a one on one conversation and easy to ignore. By saying, "Hey Gang...", you are talking to the group and John may not want to feel left out.

      I could be way off base on the "why", but I know what works best, for my list, anyway.
      That's a very good point Brian, and I can totally see how that makes sense. However, just like anything else, there's always a trade off. When using the persons name, you can get much more personal, So, if I want to send an email to a segment who have not taken my advice, or not purchased from me, or whatever... I like to send a message to those people using their name, and asking them why they are not taking action, what problems are they having, is there anything holding them back that I can help them with... and so on. This works so, so much better when you use the person's name.

      Sending a message with "hey folks" why haven't you taken action with the recommendations I have been sending you recently? This can sound like a lot of people are not buying from you. "Hey John" why haven't you taken action with blah blah... works so much better.

      Like anything in life and business. Each has their advantages and disadvantages.

      I am currently testing this myself with two lists promoting the same offers and haven't seen much of an increase or decrease either way. It's early days but for specific messages and relationship building, I still think the "first name" works best.
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  • Profile picture of the author mikefrommaine
    Very interesting results. I've actually stopped asking for their name in my optin form...it's just another barrier. It also looks so spammy when you read an email with your name in it but it's obviously not just for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author blazingskull
    pdrs,

    That is a interesting observation which you have here. I ran some similar test earlier and the results of my tests are below.

    I had a list about medical tourism and being niche list, my open rates ad click rate were usually pretty high.

    Based on the starting sentence which comes up in the preview next to the subject line the open rates and click rates were:

    "Are you kidding me?" ~75% open rate; ~45% click rate
    "You will not believe this..." ~65% open rate; ~45% click rate
    "<Name>" ~45% open rate; ~30% click rate
    "Hey Buddy" ~55% open rate; ~35% click rate

    I guess the starting sentence which created some kind of a curiosity worked to increase the open rates for the emails.
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  • Profile picture of the author Benjam1n
    I can see why it works.

    People like to feel like they belong to something. "Hey Guys" suggests that they are part of a group, all working hard to meet the same goals.

    Hey "name" may make people feel slightly isolated and that they are struggling on their own.

    Also, it may give you more credibility because "Guys" suggests you are helping out more than one person, it is not just the receiver of the email that has decided to take advantage of your offer/knowledge.

    It feels more like you are their mentor, rather than just some bloke on the internet sending them emails.

    Just my 2 cents.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chetz Togom
    Thanks for sharing.

    I also don't use my subscriber's name in my email, especially if you're in IM niche, I think a lot of them already know you're sending through an email list.

    Chetz
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Yes, this has been my experience as well.

    Get rid of personalization because it's now what spammers do.

    Personalization was great when it was new and no spammers were using it, but now it just makes your emails look spammy and impersonal.

    It also means one less box on your optin form which means more options also.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by drunkenmonkey View Post

      ^If your operating in the sodden spammed to hell "every trick in the book" IM Niche like all the other sheep than you'd be right with that statement more times than you'd be wrong.

      People like the "Oooooh he's talking to me" approach, rather than "who the heck's he talking to"?
      I've always said.

      When you are emailing your best friends and family, the people you are really close with, how do you normally address them?

      Is it like this?

      ---------

      Subject: Jason, beer tonight?

      Hi Jason,

      This is Will. I was wondering if you'd like to go for a beer with me tonight?

      If you would, please call me on my phone.

      To your success,

      WILL

      ---------

      Hell no. Most of my emails to close family and friends barely even have a subject line most times. The content of them is about the same. I very very rarely would ever address them by their name and if I did, it would usually be a nickname or some other shortened and familiar version of their name.

      Which type of relationship are you trying to imitate with your subscribers? Close and personal or cold and distant?

      I like the first one and that's why I never use personalization anymore. It's overused.
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  • Profile picture of the author retsced
    Originally Posted by pdrs View Post

    I ran a little split test today to one of my lists - it's just a small but pretty targeted list in the IM niche ~250 people.

    I split the emails 50/50 and sent the exact same title and exact same message to both lists however for one message I opened with Hey Guys, and for the other I opened with Hey {Name} (the personalized name feature in aweber).

    Maybe this is common knowledge to most list marketers but I'm fairly new to the game and found it very interesting.

    The opens and clicks for the 'Hey Guys' email were almost exactly twice that of the Hey Name email.

    Hey Guys - 40 opens, 25 clicks

    Hey Name - 21 opens, 12 clicks

    Just thought it was interesting!
    Am I missing something here? Surely your open rates are irrelevant if you sent the same message with the EXACT same subject line. Isn't it the subject line that gets them to open in the first place? If this is the case, then your click throughs are irrelevant also, as the opens where higher for the first segment anyway. Therefore the clicks would obviously be higher.

    the test would have been much more important if you used the "hey guys" vs "hey name" in the subject line. Anything else is not worth mentioning. Now, if the open rates where the same because of the same subject line, but the click where higher for the message that started with "hey guys," then you have a successful test.

    Have I got this right? Am I missing a beat here? Am I going mad? Is everyone else asleep in this thread?

    It's great that you are testing these things anyway.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lance K
      Most email clients show the first X number of body characters beside the subject line before you open the email.

      Originally Posted by retsced View Post

      Am I missing something here? Surely your open rates are irrelevant if you sent the same message with the EXACT same subject line. Isn't it the subject line that gets them to open in the first place? If this is the case, then your click throughs are irrelevant also, as the opens where higher for the first segment anyway. Therefore the clicks would obviously be higher.

      the test would have been much more important if you used the "hey guys" vs "hey name" in the subject line. Anything else is not worth mentioning. Now, if the open rates where the same because of the same subject line, but the click where higher for the message that started with "hey guys," then you have a successful test.

      Have I got this right? Am I missing a beat here? Am I going mad? Is everyone else asleep in this thread?

      It's great that you are testing these things anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neil AM
    Thanks for the data - cool result. We're going to try the same test and see what happens.

    Even though the pool was small, that's still a significant result - I've run a stat test and there's about a 1% chance it was just caused by randomness.

    Of course, that doesn't mean it was the guys/name thing... it could be that one half of your list is just more disposed to opening e-mails. It'd be worth taking Paul's advice and trying the same test with the segments switched - that should control for list differences.
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    • Profile picture of the author Shaun OReilly
      Did you track all the way through to see the effect on
      sales?

      Open rates and click through rates are 'nice to know'
      but what really matters is the split-test results tracked
      through to SALES.

      I split-test my autoresponder sequences and my e-mail
      broadcasts to check out the effect of things like e-mail
      frequency, etc.

      However, you need create your own test for your list
      and market. Results are not necessarily transferable.

      Dedicated to mutual success,

      Shaun
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      • Profile picture of the author pdrs
        This I did not do and was definitely a rookie mistake!

        Opens and CTR's are great but what really counts is the SALE - obviously

        Next time Gadget... Next time!

        Originally Posted by Shaun OReilly View Post

        Did you track all the way through to see the effect on
        sales?

        Open rates and click through rates are 'nice to know'
        but what really matters is the split-test results tracked
        through to SALES.

        I split-test my autoresponder sequences and my e-mail
        broadcasts to check out the effect of things like e-mail
        frequency, etc.

        However, you need create your own test for your list
        and market. Results are not necessarily transferable.

        Dedicated to mutual success,

        Shaun
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  • Profile picture of the author Jillian W
    That's really intersting to know. Split testing is key when it comes to any kind of online marketing.

    I thought people would like it more if the email is addressed to them (as with your "Hey {name}" because is more on a personal level. But again, split testing is always there to tell which is working and which is not so we can dump the one that isn't and just keep improving upon it to make it better.
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  • Profile picture of the author gcbmark20
    Interesting all the same!

    I suppose subscribers see their first name most of the time.

    This is why using this kind of approach makes them look at the emails in a different light.

    I suppose it wouldn't do any harm to test this out.

    Thanks a lot for the post and all the best with future testing!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author louie6925
    It might not make a world of difference, but I only ever use a name a fix, I'm sure I read somewhere that by doing so you are less likely to have your message go to a spam folder!.......not sure if I've ever believed that or not but would love to know wethers its fact or fiction!
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  • Profile picture of the author VilPietersen@
    hmmmm interesting but have you considered that it is because your list is in the IM niche and us guys all know dem tricks!!
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  • Profile picture of the author slicka
    I have actually had very similar results, glad to see someone posted this with the same findings
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  • Profile picture of the author WinsonYeung
    Hey Guyz,

    Just give me a reason to remove the "name" section in my opt-in.
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