Why Split Test Your Messages?
Email Marketing - Justin Premick - August 21st, 2006 - PermalinkIt’s common for our support team to get questions such as…
- Which of our HTML message templates is the “best” (or the most popular)?
- Do plain text messages convert better than HTML ones?
- Will a short message or a long one get a better click-through rate?
- What subject lines get the best open rates?
Ultimately, this type of question can only be answered one way:
“It varies from customer to customer, and you’ll want to perform your own tests to determine what’s best for your list.”
Some people don’t like to hear this. They feel that since we’re able to see what templates, web form types and message formats are being used most frequently, that we should provide this information.
The problem with doing that is, the fact that “X” percent of subscribers are signing up to someone else’s list via a hover form doesn’t mean that’s the best approach for you. There are too many variables, from the industry you’re in, to the specific content you’re offering, to the personal preferences of your subscribers, that will affect your own results. Knowing what other people (in different industries and with different subscriber bases) are doing doesn’t change that.
You have to test your messages to find out what will work best for you.
This sounds harder than it really is. All you need to do is decide what you’re going to test, and how you’re going to measure your results. With AWeber, you can track click through rates on links in your messages as well as HTML message open rates.
You don’t have to try to test everything about your messages all at once. In fact, it’s best–and easiest–to test one thing at a time, keeping other factors constant, and measure how changing that one thing affects subscriber response. Then, change your future messages accordingly, and test something else.
Split Testing Your Broadcast Messages
You can use split testing to try out different…
Message Subject Lines. When sending a broadcast, try a couple of different subject lines to see which one gets the best message open rate. For example, if I were sending out an email about this blog post, I might split-test the following subject lines:
Are You Maximizing Subscriber Response {!firstname_fix}?
{!firstname_fix} Try Split Testing Your List
How To Increase Message Open Rates
When split testing subject lines, you’ll measure the effectiveness of each one by the message open rate. In order to track this, include an HTML version of each message as well as your plain text one (since open rates can’t be tracked for plain text-only messages).
Changes to Your Message Template. Slight changes to your HTML message template, such as using a different background color or modifying the width of your text column, can have an effect on your click through rate.
Link Locations. A link that is displayed in a different location in your message may result in a different click through rate. For example, in one version of your message you may have the link located at the beginning of your message, and in other versions, you may place varying amounts of copy before the link.
Message Formats. You can split test the click through rate for a message based on whether or not you include an HTML version of that message or send it as plain text-only.
To do this, place the content from your plain text message into your HTML version, then apply enough formatting to it so that version is no longer identical to the plain text one, but not so much that the message appears to be completely different content (you’re testing whether or not your formatting entices your readers to click on your link/s more, and if so, to what extent).
These are only a few examples of how you can test to improve the effectiveness of your mailings. As you learn from your results and tweak future messages, don’t be surprised to find yourself going far beyond what I’ve mentioned here, and split-testing what you used to think were minute details.
This entry was posted on Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 11:08 am and is filed under Email Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment response, trackback from your own site, or permalink.
August 28th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
[…] Of course, nothing in the world is truly one-size-fits-all, and it may be that your subscribers are fully prepared for and are expecting a few comprehensive messages that outline your project. The bottom-line is to consider your audience: who they are and what they want from you. Not sure of what that really is? Split-test your messages to figure it out. It’s better than wandering around in the dark, for sake of your sanity and your success. This entry was posted on Monday, August 28th, 2006 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Email Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment response, trackback from your own site, or permalink. […]