Did you ever wonder how you should test your email marketing message to get the best results? Testing does not have to be complex and take weeks to get the desired results. Here are a few simple steps you can take to ensure that you are getting the most from your email marketing efforts.
- Test your subject lines to see which subject line is most effective. – To do so, a rule of thumb is to take approximately 10% of your total list and create a sample list “A” and sample list “B”, each with half of the (10%). You then send out the same email at the same time to each of the A & B sample lists. The variable is the subject line. You will see the results in as little as 24 hours. Take the winning email (based on the highest number of opens) and apply that subject line to the remained of the list who were not part of the A or B group.
- Test only one variable at a time – It is best to not test both the subject line and the offer at the same time. If you want to test the results (conversions) of a 10% discount vs. 25% discount, keep the offer as part of the email, not in the subject line.
- Make sure you test all of the links in your email to ensure that they are directed to the proper website.
There are dozens of agencies who can assist with email testing and several of the ESP’s have random sampling as part of their user interface that makes do it yourself testing a snap.
