Suzanne and her team tested Options $2$ vs$.3$ with a sample of customers who just purchased Xfinity. These customers received the normal $90$ day communications. In$$ addition, one$-$half of the test sample received an email with an actual promotional offer to sign up for Xfinity mobile service and receive a$$ $$500$ Visa gift card. The other half received an$$ "educational" email about the advantages of the service that$$ didn't include an actual offer$($but did include a$$ follow$-$up offer a few months$$ later$).$

Option$$ #$3$ carried the$$ day: Customers seemed to pay more attention to the content when the message was positioned as educational rather than when it was clearly a sales pitch. Figure $1.$x shows the two messages that customers received.

The data clearly showed that Option$$ #$3$ was more$$ effective: Customers were likely to open the$$ email, and more likely to click through to the ad$.$ Most$$ importantly, they were more likely to actually upgrade their service. In the world of$$ marketing, sometimes less is more.$$

Figure $1.$ Comcast Options

How Comcast Measures Success

Comcast relies upon several commonly used metrics to measure the effectiveness of an email campaign. These$$ include:

Unique Open$$ Rate: The percentage of consumers who open the email

Unique Click through$$ Rate: The percentage of consumers who click on a banner ad or offer in the email message

Conversion$$ rate: The percentage of consumers who purchase the offer directly from email

As you can see in the$$ Table, Option$$ #$3$ was more effective on all three metrics

Table $1.$ Relative Effectiveness of the Options

Question content area bottom

Part $1$

What was$$ Comcast's priority in regard to customer service when$$ "onboarding" customers?

A$.$

To offer all products that Comcast sells

B$.$

To be sure to let customers know all details about installation and activation

C$.$

To offer customers a wide array of marketing messages

D$.$

To stay in touch with customers

E$.$

To email customers about all$$ products, whether they currently subscribe to them or not