Does a Pinterest-Style Email Design Increase Click-Through?

Testing is a core marketing concept that marketers need to consistently practice to always be improving the performance of their marketing programs.

In a recent email test, I modified the design of our monthly blog recap with the goal of increasing engagement, measured by an increased click through rate.

Our monthly blog recap email is usually a numbered list design. Each line gives the title of the post and a short abstract of the post. There are also three images within the email to highlight specific posts. (See left graphic above.)

For the design test, I developed a Pinterest-style theme to incorporate more images in the email with the goal of increasing overall click throughs within the email. (See right graphic above.) From previous email sends, I’ve found that images are more likely to be clicked on than hyperlinked text.

The Data and Results

The new design didn’t dramatically increase the unique click through rate but better distributed the clicks throughout the email. In previous email experiments, it was found that the first link in an email receives about 75% of the clicks within the entire email.

The first link in this new design still received the majority of the clicks but the distribution of the links were more generous across all the links within the in the email rather than just focusing on the first one.

This wasn’t a perfect A/B test because the content wasn’t exactly the same as previous months but the data directionally shows some revealing insight. With a Pinterest-style layout, there is more interest shown throughout the email regardless of the specific content.

You can download the HTML for our Pinterest-style email to test this layout with your next email. I would love to hear about your results!

And also – subscribe to our blog and get the monthly blog recap!