A/B Email Testing Guide: Optimize Your Campaigns for Success

A/B Email Testing Guide: Optimize Your Campaigns for Success
Denys Romanov Denys Romanov 26 july 2024, 10:36 400
For beginners

A/B testing is crucial to email marketing campaigns. It involves testing different variations of an email campaign to see which one generates the best results. The goal is to create the most effective campaigns via controlled trial and error. This article is your guide to A/B email testing, covering what to test and the steps for effective testing.

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing generally involves comparing two or more versions of content to see which one appeals more to the target audience. For email marketing, it entails sending different variations of your email campaign to find out which one generates the best results.

A/B tests vary in complexity. You could change just the subject line leaving the email body intact and see which subject line generates more opens. Or you could revamp the entire email body to see what brings better conversions. Regardless, the goal is to statistically compare different variations of an email campaign to see which one performs best.

What to test

You can tweak many things during email A/B testing, including:

Subject lines

The subject line is the first thing your email recipient sees, and it's crucial in their choice to open or ignore the email. Hence, you can test different subject lines to see which ones generate the best open and conversion rates.

Email subject line example
Source: WordStream

For instance, you’re promoting new products from your online clothing store. You can experiment with three different subject lines:

  1. Check out our new lineup
  2. Hi [First Name], check out our new additions!
  3. A new collection has dropped

The email body remains the same, but the subject line will vary for different subsets of your mailing list. The goal is to check which version gets the highest conversion rates and stick to that format for the rest of your campaign, and probably for future emails. No. 2 will likely yield the highest conversions due to personalization.

Preheader text

A preheader is the summary text that follows the email subject line. Its goal is to draw attention to your email and convince people to open it.

Preheader text example
Source: WordStream

Remember the subject lines we tested earlier for an email campaign promoting a new clothing collection? You can complement the subject line with these sample preheaders:

  1. Special items to keep you warm
  2. Go out in style with our new collection
  3. Grab the spotlight wherever you go with these clothes

Again, the idea of A/B testing is to monitor which elements generate the highest rates for your email.

Visuals

Visuals are vital to your email campaign’s success. It’s always advisable to use high-quality images when promoting any product via an email campaign. A/B testing involves using different photos to see which ones perform better.

Assume our campaign is to get people to buy a new clothing collection. Hence, we could use different model images of the same cloth and monitor which one leads to the highest sales. You can even use animated GIFs in place of static images, to see if it works.

Layout and formatting

Layout refers to the arrangement of your email elements, including font size, image-to-text ratio, font style, image size and placing, etc. The layout is crucial to a campaign’s success, so don’t be afraid to try different things. For example, one email can have more images than the other, and you’ll compare the results to see which one gets the best reaction.

Email length

The ideal length of an email remains an ever-heated argument. There's no single answer, but the general rule is not to make an email too long. In other words, try to convey your point in as few words as possible. The shorter your email, the easier it will be for recipients to digest and respond.

You can experiment with varying email lengths for your marketing campaign to see which works best. The length will vary depending on your niche and the type of products you’re promoting.

Email content

Of course, the role of the email body in your campaign’s success can’t be overstated. It arguably plays the most critical role in converting email views into product sales. You can experiment with your email content and learn what resonates with your target audience.

You can talk about the same topic with different approaches, e.g., one in a formal tone and another in an informal, casual style. The goal is to find out what resonates with your audience and stick to that tone for future emails.

Call to action (CTA)

Every promotional email should have a call-to-action button directing the reader to take a specific action: “Buy Now,” “Subscribe Now,” “Get Your Free Trial,” etc.

CTA example
Source: Really Good Emails

The call-to-action button encourages your target audience to follow your suggestion, ideally to purchase your product or service. You can experiment with different call-to-action texts to see which ones bring the best clicks and, eventually, sales. You can also change the color and font of the call-to-action button and check the results.

Conducting an A/B test (The how-to guide)

1. Define your goal

The first step is defining your A/B testing goal. Which metrics do you want to improve? It could be your open rate, click-through rate, number of orders, etc. A clear goal helps you decide the email elements to test and ways to measure your success.

2. Formulate your hypothesis

In A/B testing, a hypothesis is a clear statement predicting how changes will affect user behavior. It's an educated guess you can use as a starting point for your A/B testing. It requires:

  • Problem statement
  • Proposed solution
  • Expected results

For example, you’ve observed lower signups from your email campaigns – this is the problem statement. Your proposed solution is to change the subject lines and layout of your promotional emails, and your expected result is increased number of signups.

3. Segment your audience

Email segmentation is a vital step of A/B testing. It entails separating your mailing list into several groups and sending a different variant to each group. The point of A/B testing is to send variants of an email campaign to selected parts of your audience and monitor the results.

The best way to create segments for A/B testing is by random choice. Do not employ usual criteria for segmentation, such as age, gender, income, etc. If you do, you cannot be sure whether your metrics change due to variations in your email or as a result of filtering a particular audience.

4. Create your variations

After separating your audience into segments, it’s time to create the email variations you’ll send to each segment. Refer to the earlier sections about what you can test in an email campaign. The variation could be the subject line, visuals, email length, layout, call-to-action button, etc. You can create several different variants of the same email, but 2 or 3 will be enough for most scenarios.

It's advisable to test one variable at a time to isolate its impact and get more accurate results. If the subject line is your focus, create emails with different subject lines (but keep other elements intact) and see if there’s a noticeable improvement for a specific subject line. The same goes for visuals, email length, call-to-action button, etc. Taking one step at a time makes it easier to monitor the results.

5. Launch and monitor

With the variants ready, you can launch the campaign and monitor the results. Remember the goal you set in the first stage: monitor that metric as closely as possible. Don’t be discouraged if you see suboptimal results because you can repeatedly adjust elements to improve your campaign’s performance. Go back to the earlier steps and change things if need be.

Analyzing results and taking action

A/B testing is never a one-and-done thing. You must constantly monitor the results and refine your campaigns for optimal results. That’s why you need a reliable email service provider (ESP) with robust analytics. Your ESP provides real-time metrics (open, click-through, bounce rates, etc.) so that you can make the adjustments you need on the go.

Conclusion

A/B testing is vital for every email marketing campaign. We’ve explained what to test and outlined the steps for conducting a successful A/B testing campaign. The core idea remains constant: analyze your results and make changes until you get the desired metrics. You also need a reliable email service provider (ESP) like UniOne with robust infrastructure to deliver emails and monitor the results. Sign up today and start your A/B testing with ease.

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