Cleveland Clinic's Catalyst eNews: Opt-in Email Case Study
Synopsis
Online newsletter design has been a hot topic in the email marketing industry over the past two years. Because the layout and visual distribution of an email's content can significantly affect the way in which a recipient reacts to the message, companies must maximize their results with an engaging email template.
In March 2006, Fathom SEO created a new HTML email template for Cleveland Clinic's Catalyst eNews newsletter. The redesign of this template immediately improved recipient activity by more than 567%.
Company Background
Founded in 1921, Cleveland Clinic is a world renowned, not-for-profit hospital located in Cleveland, Ohio. This multi-specialty academic medical center integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Cleveland Clinic's vision is to provide outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Today, Cleveland Clinic is one of the largest and most respected hospitals in the country.
Institutional Development, which markets the content for the Catalyst eNews, is Cleveland Clinic's vehicle for raising online donations and awareness of philanthropy.
Strategy
The primary goal of the Catalyst eNews is to distribute philanthropic news and information regarding Cleveland Clinic. This includes stories about donation dollars at work, campaign updates, and the wonderful people involved in supporting the hospital. The Catalyst eNews also details patient success stories, as well as information regarding medical and research advancements.
The Catalyst eNews also helps to drive donations through Cleveland Clinic's website, iSupport. While this is not the main function of the newsletter, Cleveland Clinic does hope to maximize the potential for online donations.
Goals and Objectives
Cleveland Clinic chose Fathom SEO for their Opt-in Email Marketing services in 2005. Already a client for Search Engine Optimization services, Cleveland Clinic needed a full-service email marketing provider with the ability to monitor recipient activity. Because Fathom SEO offered superior inbox deliverability and expert content analysis, Cleveland Clinic ultimately decided to expand its contract with Fathom SEO to include PBM services.
Cleveland Clinic's Institutional Development began circulating the Catalyst eNews in September 2005 as an extension of its sister print publication Cleveland Clinic Catalyst, which recognizes Cleveland Clinic's philanthropic donors. Published on a monthly basis, the Catalyst eNews newsletter was to be distributed to a database of donors who had previously donated money to Cleveland Clinic. The original HTML template, as well as the message content, was provided to Fathom SEO by Cleveland Clinic.
In this way, the Catalyst eNews would be used to raise awareness about how donation dollars are used around Cleveland Clinic. By keeping donors informed about inspiring news stories, research studies and special events around the hospital, Cleveland Clinic hopes to share a greater understanding of the impact philanthropy has on Cleveland Clinic and the work of its physicians and clinical staff.
Techniques / Implementation
The original template for the Catalyst eNews included a two-column design: a main story centered within the email, and three small teaser stories on the right-hand side. The color scheme consisted of white and tan text boxes surrounded by a teal-colored frame.
Between September 2005 and February 2006, Cleveland Clinic sent five issues of the Catalyst eNews using this template. During these initial six months, the newsletter showed great success among its readers. Statistics show that between 27% - 29% of the database opened and read the message each month - numbers which are great for B-to-C email marketing (see Appendix A).
However, the statistics also show that the recipients were not following the links back to Cleveland Clinic's website after opening the message. The first issue of the Catalyst eNews boasted a CTR (Click-Thru Rate) of 15.66%; each of the next four messages showed that the recipients were quickly losing interest(see Appendix A).
In March 2006, Fathom SEO re-arranged the layout of the template and also re-coded the HTML, hoping to bring more visitors to Cleveland Clinic's website. By placing only a taste of the main story in the message body, the recipients were encouraged to visit Cleveland Clinic's website to finish the story. The smaller teasers were also moved to the left-hand side in order to make them more prominent in the view-pane.
Results / ROI
Looking at the statistics for March 2006, the open rate improved slightly, with roughly 31% of the recipients opening the message (see Appendix A). This improvement may, however, be due to several factors:
- Fresh subscribers were being added each month, which would be more likely to respond than older leads.
- Invalid email addresses, as well as addresses which consistently "bounced" were removed, improving the quality and responsiveness of the database.
More importantly, the CTR statistics improved from 5.01% in February 2006 to 28.42% - an increase of more than 567%. This dramatic improvement is a direct result of continuing the main story on Cleveland Clinic's website, and clearly shows that the recipients are very interested in the message's content.
Using their advanced recipient tracking technology, Fathom SEO was also able to provide Cleveland Clinic with detailed analysis regarding open and CTR patterns. By placing story teasers throughout the message, Fathom SEO was able to track exactly which stories were read most often - information which helped Cleveland Clinic cater editorial content to its subscribers.
With this information in mind, Cleveland Clinic asked Fathom SEO to create a new HTML email template for the next issue of the Catalyst eNews. Because the newsletter was significantly increasing website traffic, the request was made in order to correctly brand the newsletter with Cleveland Clinic's website and corporate logo.
Over the next few weeks, Fathom SEO developed the new template, adhering to Cleveland Clinic's strict corporate branding guidelines. The basic layout was similar to the previous template - a header graphic supported by two columns of content. However, Fathom SEO inserted new graphics in the header, changed the color-scheme, and replaced the main story with teasers for several articles. A table-of-contents near the top of the message would now appear in the preview-pane, providing more exposure for the content towards the bottom.
The new template debuted with the April 2006 issue of Catalyst eNews. Once again, the new layout and story teasers proved successful with a 30.34% CTR (see Appendix A). With 483 subscribers following a link to Cleveland Clinic's website, the importance of branding the Catalyst eNews could easily be justified. With the success of this newsletter in mind, Institutional Development wanted to expand their email communications to include present and former patients of Cleveland Clinic.
After receiving approval to expand their database, Institutional Development provided Fathom SEO with the content for the July issue. Using the new template, the Catalyst eNews was launched to 42,128 recipients (including more than 37,000 patients). Despite the huge addition of subscribers, the Catalyst eNews continued to see phenomenal CTR statistics. 3560 people, or 29.00% of those who opened the newsletter, clicked on a link and continued to read the articles hosted on Cleveland Clinic website (see Appendix A).
Summary
The success of the new design continued with the following launch in November 2006, and is expected to perform as well in future issues. Ultimately, placing teasers within the email significantly improved the responsiveness of the Catalyst eNews. With such an increase in website traffic, Cleveland Clinic can now focus on converting these visitors into online donors.
The analysis and insight of the Fathom SEO email marketing team were tremendously important in improving the statistics for this newsletter. By changing the layout and distribution of the Catalyst eNews content, Fathom SEO dramatically changed the way in which these recipients read and responded to the email.
As the Catalyst eNews moves forward with future issues, the ability to track recipient activity will better allow Cleveland Clinic to provide its patients and philanthropic donors with interesting and relevant content. By catering to their recipients' needs and interests, Cleveland Clinic will undoubtedly maintain high response rates while minimizing opt-outs and spam complaints.
Statistics by Month
Appendix B
