Best Practices - A/B Testing Campaign
Why you should A/B test your marketing campaigns
Instead of guessing what resonates with your constituents, A/B testing helps you make decisions based on data. It will tell you if your marketing campaign is working or more importantly if it is not.
Guidelines
Set Goals - Know what and why you want to test
Do you know your baseline? Know where you stand now to show positive/negative trends. Look at how you can improve your open rates. This will help you determine your hypothesis. A hypothesis is an idea about what you need to test, why it needs to be tested, and what changes you'll see after you make any changes.
Focus on frequently sent emails
To start, focus only on testing emails you send frequently. Then start branching out to other email campaigns.
Audience
Ensure your audience is large enough so when the system randomly selects the test group your results will be statistically significant. Visit Testing Parameters for more information.
Test one element at a time
To understand what is really impacting your results, it's best to select one variable at a time.
Wait the optimum amount of time
Be patient! it is important to wait long enough to gather enough data to ensure the right email is being selected as the winner. Visit Testing Parameters to see our recommendations.
Check results
You want to make sure the results mean something before you move forward and implement them into your marketing strategy. Confirm the results of tests and build on your leanings.
Test and test again
What resonates with your audience today may change as time goes on. Therefore, it is important to continue to test and identify how your constituents respond.
Avoid these mistakes
Not having a hypothesis
Comparing results from outdated campaigns
Changing metrics midway
Not segmenting your audience before testing
Variables - ideas and tips to test
Subject Line
Personalization - use tokens to personalize one of the subject lines
Question vs. Statement
Short subject line vs. a longer subject line - Ideally subject lines should be 40 characters or less
Emoji vs no emoji
Add humor vs. being straight forward
Change around the words slightly between subject lines
Sense of urgency vs. no urgency
Pre-Header
Personalization - use tokens to personalize one of the subject lines
Question vs. Statement
Emoji vs no emoji
Short Pre-Header vs. a longer Pre-Header
Generally, keep Pre-Header text between 40-130 characters
Most mobile Pre-Header text is between 30-55 characters long
Add call to action vs. no call to action
Do not repeat the subject line
Make your subject line and Pre-Header text work together
Build curiosity
From Name and Sender Address
Ask yourself - Will the targeted audience more likely recognize and respond to an individual's name, institution or group?
Department/Group Name vs. Individual's Name (maybe a high profile figure name)
Full Name vs. First Name only
Different email addresses