Email campaigns are great when you need to retain customers, gain repeat business, and attract new customers. We all have a preset standard, wherein we try to retain old customers, offer them choices, and regain their trust. You know there are a set of people who want information or services from you, so you are more likely to make extra efforts in retaining these customers at any cost. Isn't it?
For this reason, A/B testing is a technique we can't afford to overlook. The structure and format of the testing technique help in receiving high conversions and success sooner in an email marketing campaign. The costs incurred are also less.
Hence, a well-planned A/B testing method can help you improve your ROI, increase customer interaction, and better outcomes.
Let's see a few things about A/B testing that can help you in your next campaign.
Before we discuss anything else, let's see why you should use A/B testing:
The first step to starting A/B testing is finding out the things and elements that you want to test. For instance, you can test your subject line or the call-to-action of your email.
The basic idea here to pick this element and make two copies of this element and find out which one is working better. If you are creating an email, then you can use two different types of subject lines and send it to two versions of your email list. Then, you can check the open-rate, conversion-rate, and click-through rate to find out the one that is converting. You can use this version in your following emails and to send them to the remaining audience.
Here are a few things that you can test:
Before you start testing your email campaigns, you need to have a very clear idea in your mind. You should already know the element that you are willing to test and verify. Moving forward, you only need to create two drafts and observe results.
Here, you can either use A and B drafts against one another. Alternatively, it is also possible to keep one as a control draft and another one a bit different.
Remember to run tests simultaneously to understand the impact of timings. Don't send both the tests at different timings. Split your traffic and see variations.
Initially, you may have the urge to test campaigns on the entire list. But, here are some of the things that you should consider:
Having a large sample gives you accurate results. Hence, when you have a choice to keep a large sample, consider that necessarily. However, don't wander away from your goal. Remember the point is to test which one is better so maintain things accordingly.
Once you have decided all that and made a campaign, prepare for measuring it. From the start of the campaign till the end, you need to analyze results on the following KPIs:
It is obvious why we are tracking these key performing indications.
However, you need to cross-reference these key performing indicators. For instance, if A is giving a 10% click-through and B is giving a 20% click-through, then B should also give double conversions that A. Ideally, we believe that that should be the case. But, it maybe not. It is not necessary to receive the same conversions as your click-through rate. So, you can't make a decision solely on one KPI.
In fact, other than these KPIs, you need to evaluate multiple other factors like interactions, time spent on the website, and other such factors. Collectively, these factors can help you gain a clear picture.
Let's see some best practices that help you run A/B test campaigns easily without any hassle.
Initially, utilize simpler tests with one vertical to test in each case. You can, of course, test through variations of this vertical. For instance, testing three groups for two CTAs. However, when you include more verticals like CTA and subject line both, then tests become complicated. So, to reach that stage, start with simpler tests to improve your results. When you are successful in that, move forward to more dedicated and complicated tests.
