Email Marketing: Split Testing

Are you wondering why your email messages are not performing as well as you would like? Perhaps it’s because you aren’t performing enough A/B split testing before you begin. Sure, split testing can be a little tricky and there are plenty of metrics you will need to keep up with, too, which is probably why you have not been doing as much split testing as is recommended to begin with. However, there are many benefits of an A/B split test and it could completely change how you handle your next campaign.

All you really need to do is send out a small split test to a percentage of your email marketing list. This will provide you important information on how your email is perceived and what changes you should make in the future.

What is it?
Two different emails will be sent with a split test. While the emails both are about the same thing and are “selling” the same thing, they are formatted differently and use different content as well as subject lines. While sending out this test will result in some extra work and analyzing the results, it is completely worthwhile because it will allow you to determine the email that performs the best. Then, the highest performing email will be sent to the remaining email addresses on your list.

This probably does not sound too difficult. In reality, it isn’t. It just takes a little bit of time and extra effort. Many email marketers are not split testing their email campaigns at all and this hurts nobody but themselves. It might not seem like much at first, but if email A produces a response rate that is 12% and email B produces a response rate is 15% that 3% difference can make a big difference and it is certainly with the effort of split testing. When used consistently, A/B email split testing can result in a campaign that is as successful as possible and that truly provides a worthy return on investment.

These are just a few of the reasons why you will want to conduct A/B split testing on your emails before you send them out to your entire email list. It might not seem like a lot at first, but if you have an increase of three to five percent on each campaign over the long term this can result in huge gains as far as your product or service goes.