How A/B Testing Can Maximize Your Email Marketing

The use of email hasn't changed much since it gained widespread popularity 20 years ago. The same can be said about the challenge for email marketers: In order to drive traffic to your site and increase engagement with your product or service, you must still be able to send the right message to the right person at the right time in an engaging and unique way.

Consumers, however, are skeptical. Think about how many times you have deleted an email from a mailing list. What percentage of it did you read? Did you find the content compelling? Did you find anything interesting about it? Have you even read past the subject line?

Despite predictions that email will be replaced by other channels such as social media, email grows 7 percent each year. As Yory Wurmser of the Direct Marketing Association recently explained, "Email remains a vibrant channel, but consumers use it more selectively, and marketers must adjust accordingly."

Email remains the most effective and direct method of connecting with customers and prospects, but its content must be more compelling than ever before. At the right time, the right message must be delivered to the right subscriber. Your open rates and click-through rates (CTR) will increase if you're able to do that effectively. But how can you determine which audience you should send which message to and when?

Comparison shopping is well known, but what about comparison marketing? A/B testing can be used to get fast, accurate answers to these questions. Using this approach, different messaging versions are tested within smaller segments of an audience and one winner is chosen based on the variables tested. Top performers are then sent to a much larger audience.

The A/B test can be as easy as sending two emails with different page formats (e.g., long and short), different image sizes (or no images at all) or different headlines and text styles (e.g., bullets versus paragraphs). A/B testing can be an effective tool for identifying which message will generate the most leads and clicks with your biggest target audience when used effectively. The first step to running a successful A/B test is defining the outcome and setting the right parameters.

The following steps can help you conduct an effective A/B test:

• Using the scientific method, set your hypothesis. You can ask, “Is smiling in a photo associated with a higher click-through rate?”.  Your success will be measured based on a quantifiable metric - in this case, clicks - that will set the parameters of your test.
• Be aware of the sample size. It is first necessary to determine what percentage of your target group you want to reach with the A/B test. Is it better to have a large chunk or a smaller, more segmented list? As a result, you will get a reliable, valid result.
• Keep one variable. Since we're testing only the effect of a smiling face on CTR, everything else must stay the same, including copy, formatting, subject line, and even time of send. Any other change would disrupt the test's goal.
• Decide on your success metric. You can use any metric that's based on the result you're trying to achieve, such as conversion rate, trial downloads, etc. In this test, we've set the metric as "clicks." Considering several success metrics after the test has ended and then deciding which is the most significant is a common mistake in A/B testing.
• Determine split-group sizes. Send a variable that has performed well in the past (a subject line with high open rates) to a larger percentage of your test group (75/25, or even 90/10). In the absence of a previous strong performer, send the test versions in an even 50/50 split.
• Like any other best practice, use common sense. Use variables that you believe will have a significant impact on performance - not just marginal improvements. While not every variable must be tested, you shouldn't omit those that might be valuable.

• Document everything. By keeping a written record of the test you conduct, you can prevent colleagues from performing the same test in the future. Publishing a blog post can also be a good method of sharing your findings with colleagues and educating your successors.

Using A/B testing, you can improve your email marketing efforts for higher conversion rates. See how they compare.