Best Practices for Building Your Own Test Invitations

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• Email Subject Line
• Email Body 
• Button Copy 
• Email Distribution
• Tips

Email Subject Line

Email subject lines are arguably the most important component of your emails. After all, the subject line is what recipients see in their inbox, and this is what determines if they even open your email or not. Consider the following: 

• Shorten subject lines. Try to keep the subject line to 50–60 characters in length.
• Ask a question. Phrasing your subject as a question can further entice audiences to open the email.
• Use emojis strategically. Using emojis increases open rates by around 25%. They aren’t a quick fix, but they can make a good email subject stand out. But don’t overdo it. One emoji tends to work well. This Mailpoet article includes additional tips for crafting a subject line that stands out.

Email Body

When composing the body of your invitation email, consider the following:

• Provide background information. Add some context about the product, service, website, and so forth, and the kinds of tests contributors can expect—contributors that are frequent users of your service or product will be more inclined to respond and take part.
  
• Explain the purpose. Add some detail about how their feedback will be used. Engage people by letting them know that their feedback is important, that it helps your team make informed decisions, and that their opinions are being heard.
• Mention compensation. Consider adding the amount the test contributor will be paid if you created a paid network. Contributors in your networks are paid $10 for an unmoderated test, $30 for a 30-minute Live Conversation, and $60 for a 60-minute Live Conversation.
  
• Use an informal tone. Consider writing the email content in a conversational way, rather than using a formal or overly professional tone. Learn more about personalization tokens.
  
• Write in the same language. Remember to write your emails to your contributors in the same language in which your tests will be written.
  
• Format the email. Add some style, emphasis, or direction to your email by using bold text, italics, and bulleted lists. Check out our Shortcuts for Formatting Text article for more information.

Button copy

• Use 1-4 words for the call-to-action. Keep button text within 40 characters and, ideally, four words for maximum effect.
  
• Start with a verb. Lead with an action—give users a clear, short instruction which they can carry out by clicking the button. For example: “Take the test," “Start now," or “Give feedback."
  
• Be direct. Try to avoid wordplay or anything which might be confusing to some audiences. It’s always best to err on the side of being overly clear when writing good button copy.

Email Distribution

Email invitations are sent in batches. For example, if you are looking for five contributors to complete your test, we will send five emails every hour to contributors who match your audience criteria. This process will continue until the test sessions are completed, or the list of contributors who match your criteria has been exhausted.

Tips

As you prepare to send out your email invitation to contributors, keep a few things in mind: 

• Once you have launched your test, the custom invitation can no longer be edited.
• Double-check the content of the email. Try to avoid including specific references to the time or date unless you're certain that you will send the invitation on time. 
• Be sure to remind your contributors whether the test requires them to use a PC, Mac, or mobile device.
  
• Keep in mind that if you mention payment for a paid network, contributors who opted out of receiving payment will still see payment details in the email invitation.

Note: There is no control over who is invited other than the ability to filter people out based on the attributes collected.

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