 More often than not, someone will ask me what standards they should compare their email campaign performance to. For me, the answer is always the same, “I don’t recommend comparing yourself to other email marketers because there are too many variables for it to be a fair comparison.” Instead, I recommend testing and analyzing against your own marketing efforts and you will come to see that there is always a potential for growth regardless of what the industry standards are.
So now the task is to decide what type of testing you should perform. And ideally, you would test points of particular interest. For example, if your goal is to improve open rates, you would test subject lines. Does putting the brand name at the beginning perform better than having it in the middle? Or does a shorter subject line capture more interest than a longer one?
The tactics for testing are limitless. Below are a few of the most common testing methods. But don’t limit yourself to these, as each different test reveals more than you may have expected.
Time of Day and Day of Week
What time and day works best for your campaign? Split it in half and send it at different times of the day or days of the week. If you see that it works better on a certain schedule try sending your next campaign at that time and see if your test results are fruitful.
Creative
Does the creative with the navigation on the left result in more conversions than having the navigation on the right? Often times, marketers don’t realize that slight variances can make a world of difference. Test your different template designs, and take a look at your clickthroughs and conversions. You may discover that users are more active when similar topics are laid out in a different fashion.
Personalization
Do your email recipients respond better when the message is personalized? For some marketers this method works, while for others it may not. So do yourself a favor and test a campaign by personalizing half with their name or other personal information (i.e. recommended items based on previous buying behavior). At the same time, it is important to respect people’s privacy and to ensure you’re following the laws of the CAN-SPAM Act. Definitely do not include confidential information such as account numbers, social security numbers, etc.
10/10/80
If you need to send a campaign immediately, and you can’t wait until next week to see which creative or subject line works better, do the 10/10/80 – that is, split your list into three groups - 10%, 10%, and 80%. Apply the A/B split test to the first two groups of 10% and launch the two different versions of the campaign only to that portion of the list. After giving it a few hours, check the performance. For the group of 10% that rendered the best results, apply that version of the campaign to the remaining 80% of the list.
Now what happens if you don’t see any differences in your testing? Don’t give up just yet! Just because one test didn’t work doesn’t mean another won’t. Testing has proven to be one of the easiest ways to increase your retention, activity, and ROI.
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