We recently ran a Helio test, on our own product, that provides insight for app builders. We found that people are 14% more likely to activate their account from a transactional email that includes the sender name and organization.
We tested 3 types of email greetings for inviting team members into Helio. In each version, we tracked how many people would activate their account right away, and which one would convince them to provide their information upon sign-up.
Variation A
Our first email didn’t use any personal names at all, and simply relied on recognition of the account name.
Variation B WINNER
Our next iteration uses the account name as well, and adds the full name of the invite sender.
Variation C
The last email included the account name, full name of the invite sender, and the first name of the email recipient in the header.
Here’s what we found.
Variation B did the best job of building trust with our platform.
Variation B, with the sender name and account name, produced the most participants who said they would provide their full name upon sign-up. Up to 14% more participants said they’re likely to provide their own full name upon sign-up compared to the other 2 variations. This shows how the right email can have a lasting impact beyond the email action and into the platform itself.
The variations that used the sender’s full name produced the most positive reactions.
Variations B & C had significantly greater positive reactions than Variation A, mainly in the area of feeling confident. We also asked participants what they need to see in an invite email to be convinced, and many mentioned they expect to see their co-worker’s full name before confidently clicking into an account invite. These participant expectations and preference for Variations B & C show that the sender’s full name is the most crucial piece of information in the invite email.
To make an email more trustworthy it should come from a legit website or commonly used email platform, with the senders full name
Marketing Manager
Positive reactions make participants more likely to activate their account.
Our best testing email, Variation B, resulted in the most participants using their first click to activate their account. Up to 14% more participants would immediately click the primary CTA in Variation B compared to the other variations. In Variations A & C, participants were more likely to click into alternate links to learn more about Helio before activating their account. This is an example of our best testing variation producing more immediate trust with the email, and our platform.
Our main takeaways from this study:
- Variation B, with the sender name and account name, did the best job of building trust with our platform.
- Emails that used the sender’s full name produced the most positive reactions.
- Positive reactions make participants more likely to click your primary CTA.
Leave the frills at home. You don’t need to act like you’re best friends with this new user, or that they can be part of some secret society with code names and avatars. People just need to be convinced that the invite they receive is coming from a person they trust, and the best way to do that is by being upfront about who that person is.
Choosing the right email version (Variation B) should help us drive more users to our platform with the release of our new Unlimited Viewers feature.
To see the data itself, check out the full Helio survey we ran!
