Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
What are the primary variables you modify with email A/B tests - graphical, content, offer, others?
Best Answer
- Recommended by:
- Scott Hardigree,
- Brian Hansford
If there is only one thing you test, I'd test the subject line. That can have a big impact on the open rates for your emails. Second, I would test the offer. Unless you have a really big list (100,000+), that's about as far as I would go, otherwise it's hard to get statistically significant results. But my background is B2B marketing, so the lists are usually smaller.
Best,
Jep
http://www.leadsloth.com
- Recommended by:
- Brian Hansford,
- Jep Castelein
Jep is 100% on point. Here's my order of importance 1) subject 2) pre-header 3) offer 4) creative 5) button/CTA 6) time/day/frequency
- Recommended by:
- Brian Hansford
I have a bit of a different take. The difference between a/b split testing and multi-variate testing is that with a/b split testing, you test one change at a time. With multi-variate testing, you test sets of changes at a given time. There are a lot of things that are up for grabs during a test like this. They include:
1. Subject Header
2. Offer
3. Call to Action
4. Layout
5. Asset/Bribe
Just with a/b split testing, its important to choose one of these to change out and keep the others constant. With multi-variate testing you may test thousands of combination to find the right one eventually.
Kind of reminds me of my old algebra classes. :)
I realize this doesn't answer your question, but I thought the timing was good and the post is still relevant to testing: http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/best-practice/when-to-test-your-email-marketin...
Back to your question, I've got one for you. What is your goal of testing? I'm a huge advocate for A|B testing the subject line, but that is really more about opens than anything else.
DJ Waldow
Director of Community, Blue Sky Factory
@djwaldow
Thanks all for the answers! I agree on testing the subject lines and offers. It's been interesting (and frustrating) for me to work with some clients who engage creative agencies that tweak mostly the graphical components and layouts.
Cheers,
Brian
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
I agree with Jep, subject line testing is a great place to start for a/b testing. Depending on your distribution lists, its also the easiest place to get meaningful, statistically significant results.
However when Jep mentions testing the "offer" I think that needs further clarification and detail. The offer is comprised of a number of components that all can be tested individually. For instance we test tag lines, promotional incentives, and calls to action. These are all good things to test but again you need the right volume to make the results statistically significant.
Other components we test are creative or operational in nature. Images, colors and buttons in the email are all good things to test. By the way, dont forget to also test your landing pages as they have a huge impact on email performance too. Operationally you can test friendly "From Field" descriptions, time of day and day of the week of the send as well as sending domains and IP addresses to see if they have impacts on your results.
One thing I've learned is in email marketing you should always be testing.
Good Luck -
Howie