Techblog
Email Marketing 101: Test the effectiveness of your messaging
A/B testing is a method of conducting controlled, randomised experiments with the goal of improving website metrics such as Clicks-through-rates (CTRs), number of form completions, or purchases. Here's why A/B testing is applicable for your business.
A/B Testing (also referred to as Split testing or multivariate testing) is, simply put, all about testing different options to find what works the best. When A/B testing, two almost identical versions of a test (A and B) are done, except for one variation between the two that might affect impact.
The goal is to find out through analyses of the results, which is more effective for a target audience.
How A/B testing lends a hand in knowing your target audience
What then, does A/B testing do for marketing communication through emails or online communication?
A case-study on a Danish Theatre company shows a 20 percent increase in ticket sales just by adding the letter ‘s’ to its "Buy Ticket" button on its website.
Choosing to change the subject in an email campaign could also increase its conversion rate for online mailers that a business disseminates.
The main takeaway for businesses to note is that A/B testing gives an insight into what the target audience likes to see and responds to. This can be particularly useful in Pay-per-Click campaigns, email campaigns, or if the goal is simply to know how audiences respond to elements on a particular website.
There are many aspects of a site or email communication to test and some of these may be:
- Test for more effective headlines that increase click-through rates.
- Test for response to the use of a company name or brand in the subject line.
- Test for effectiveness of call-to-action insertions or a test to decide which copy generates a higher conversion rate.
- Test to determine the most effective style and position of the call-to-action button, considering points like if it should it be a button or underlined text.
- Test for response to any graphics used.
Ultimately the goal of A/B testing is to identify changes to web pages or newsletters that can help maximise interest from the target audience.
Why embark on A/B testing?
Large companies like Google use A/B testing on a massive scale, and reportedly ran more than 7,000 A/B tests in 2011 alone.
SMEs that spend budgets designing and producing electronic direct mailers (eDMs) should take into consideration that changing an element within a weekly eDM could generate a higher click-through-rate. Websites that have forms could also make use of A/B testing to obtain a higher sign-up rate.
A/B testing does not necessarily require a big budget, though, and is useful for SMEs that spend a large part of their marketing budgets on digital marketing, or depend frequently on websites and other online communication methods to reach its target audiences.
What SMEs should look to are the precious results that reveal what target audiences want to see, as this can save money in the long run.
What to consider when A/B testing
Almost any part of a digital marketing colleterals can be tested on, including layout, design, style, headlines, copywriting or images.
There are a few steps to consider when A/B testing:
1) Measure the performance of your chosen collateral at the start by using a tool such as Google Analytics. This is to find out what is lacking and makes it easier to see what needs to be achieved next when it comes to setting goals, identifying what the key performance indicators are and what sort of metrics should be used for measuring the results of the test.
2) Prioritize your testing opportunities. Choosing to test a layout or design change would be a better route to take for visually intensive websites like an online shopping landing page, while testing for copywriting response would work better on an e-newsletter.
3) Testing with a clearly defined hypothesis in mind will help you come up with testing variations that give meaningful results.
4) Learn from your results and start over. Constant testing continually helps businesses improve the user experience with your marketing collaterals in general.
To make it easy for SMEs that are looking to implement A/B testing, software such as SimplyCast includes features that can help you perform such tests and track important metrics for measuring the effectiveness of email marketing for your website.
For businesses looking to improve their email campaigns, A/B testing is a method that has proven results. A/B testing can provide valuable insights into a business’ target audience and improve the effectiveness of marketing spend.