The Importance of A/B Testing June 08, 2021, | Posted by Kia Zalewski

One of the most effective ways to properly leverage email marketing and communicate with customers is to constantly test your content. Though it may seem tempting to send out a mass email to convert sales, drive traffic, or make large announcements, skipping testing on your email campaign will only hurt you in the long run. Taking the extra effort and time to adjust your campaigns and refine your content will lead to happier customers and a happier bottom line. 

An A/B test is simply sending two versions, an “A” variant and a “B” variant, to different groups to discover which variant is more successful. To set up effective A/B testing initiatives, it’s important to define your goals and results. By understanding how various components of your emails perform, and which performs better, you will be able to more effectively reach these goals. Once you have your goals in mind, define which email you want to test. It’s always best to test separate components one-by-one so you have an understanding of which variable is effecting a campaign’s performance. Some components that should be tested include wording of a call-to-action, subject lines, design and layout, images, timing of emails sent, and text. A great place to start is the subject line, since this will be the first component a reader sees. 

Once you have defined the variable you wish to test, create multiple versions of the email and assign versions of the email to segmented lists. The larger the sample size, the more refined the data will be. You don’t need to send emails to your entire list, but opt for a minimum of at least one-hundred recipients for effective and insightful data. Once these emails have been sent, it’s time to analyze your data to see how each version performed and tweak your content in accordance to your findings. 

A/B testing is a critical, data-driven strategy that will help you reach your goals and create happier, more satisfied customers. 

Ready to set up A/B testing? Contact Site Impact to hear how we can help.