So, did you arrive at this blog because of the gimmicky link in our email? Or because you searched for gimmicks in email and google sent you here? Let us know in the comments section below.

The question going round the display block offices every time a new gimmick comes out or someone uses some kind of obfuscation in their email to get you to click is “Do these things really work, do they just offer a short term uplift and does that hurt the brand in the long run”. The truth is we didn’t have the data to support what is pretty much a universal gut reaction. Gimmicks in email are just that gimmicks and ultimately have no real long term effects. However, it is also felt that some gimmicks can have a positive effect on the brand and some are completely negative and leave the recipient feeling duped. So we have decided to test out some of the more obvious gimmicks in email over the next few weeks and months and see what the impact is on our open and click rates. We, and you are now the guinea pigs in this experiment and at the end of our testing process we’ll outline the gimmicks we’ve tried and the impact it has had on our results.

Hopefully not all of the gimmicks will be as obvious as this one!