Consumer Reports Leverages Public Test with Readers of MarketingExperiments and Convince & Convert to Improve Email Marketing

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MarketingSherpa's sister publishing company, MarketingExperiments, has teamed up with top digital marketing blog, Convince & Convert, to help one of America's favorite nonprofit organizations, Consumer Reports, increase donations from membership renewals through a more effective email marketing campaign.

The annual competition invites leading marketers, writers and creative thinkers to submit email messaging that will help a nonprofit organization improve its email marketing results while discovering its most effective value proposition. Consumer Reports is the world's largest and most trusted nonprofit consumer organization working to improve the lives of consumers by driving marketplace change.

"We hope to learn from America's leading marketers who can give insights with both their 'e-marketing' hat on and with their 'consumer' and 'potential donor' hat on. What resonates with them? What would make them decide to give a contribution to Consumer Reports?," said Dawn Nelson, director of fundraising, Consumer Reports.

This year, readers of the MarketingExperiments and Convince & Convert blogs will be asked to select one of three pre-determined, Consumer Reports' value proposition focuses or create a new one. Then, based on the selected statement, they will be given the opportunity to write a compelling email message. There is no specific format or word count. Submissions can be posted in the blog comments section of the MarketingExperiments post or the Convince & Convert post, with a January 17, 2016 entry deadline. Official rules are available here.

The MECLABS Institute team (parent research organization of MarketingExperiments and MarketingSherpa) will then select four email messages—one from each category that they think will be most successful—and test them with Consumer Reports' audience on January 21. These tests will help to move past educated marketing guesswork and determine what Consumer Reports' donors care about and what motivates them to give.

The writer of the message that performs the best will win a free ticket and two-night stay at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for MarketingSherpa Summit 2016. The results from this test will be used to inform the popular Hands-On Live Test conducted at the Summit, in which the audience will learn how to improve their own marketing by engaging in a test that is conceived, launched and reported on before the two-day event is over.

"Understanding what is most valuable to your customers is the key to successful marketing campaigns," said Daniel Burstein, director of editorial content, MECLABS. "This contest will help Consumer Reports identify the messaging that resonates most with donors and empower the organization to connect with them on a deeper and more personal level to, ultimately, help fund the good work for which the consumer advocacy organization is so well-known and respected."

"Customer feedback is the petri dish of business success. Companies that blindly market to their customers without first listening to them are relying upon fortune, not strategy. MarketingExperiments knows better, and we're delighted to partner with them on this initiative," said Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert.

About Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports is the world's largest and most trusted nonprofit consumer organization working to improve the lives of consumers by driving marketplace change. Founded in 1936, Consumer Reports has achieved substantial gains for consumers on health reform, food and product safety, financial reform, and other issues. The organization has advanced important policies to cut hospital-acquired infections, prohibit predatory lending practices, and combat dangerous toxins in America's food supply. Consumer Reports tests and rates thousands of products and services in its 50-plus labs, state-of-the-art auto test center, and consumer research center, and fights for pro-consumer laws and regulations in Washington, D.C., the states, and in the marketplace. With more than seven million subscribers to its flagship magazine, website, and other publications, Consumer Reports remains staunchly independent by accepting no advertising, free samples, or corporate contributions of any kind.

About Convince & Convert
Convince & Convert Media is a digital education company that publishes online magazines, podcasts, email newsletters and other resources for marketers and business executives. The Convince & Convert Consulting division provides marketing and customer experience advice and counsel to some of the world's most important brands including The United Nations, Cisco, and Adidas.

About MarketingExperiments
MarketingExperiments is a publication that curates and shares the recent research from MECLABS Institute, the first Internet-based research lab to conduct experiments in optimizing marketing and sales processes. MECLABS research team has developed the world's largest collection of optimization-related experiments and case studies, which is disseminated (free) via MarketingExperiments.com. The MarketingExperiments Blog complements this research with additional news, insights, analysis and interviews.

About the MarketingSherpa Summit 2016
MarketingSherpa Summit 2016 has expanded from its original email marketing orientation to become a showcase of research-based best practices in digital marketing programs for a broad spectrum of global marketing leaders and practitioners. Building off of Email Summit's 10-year heritage, the three-day 2016 Summit will highlight some of the most successful digital marketing campaigns using email, data, mobile, social media and content, including award-winning case studies presented by brand-side marketers. There will be breakout sessions that offer interactive roundtables for marketing technology tips and advice from industry experts and brand-side marketers, as well as networking opportunities to exchange experiences.

SOURCE MarketingSherpa

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