I can hear some of you groaning now. Testing, you say? Please, don’t talk to me about testing. I know. The very thought of testing is enough to send some of you into hibernation for the winter. But before you settle down for a long winter’s nap, let’s take a look at how testing can benefit your business.
- Testing for Increased Sales
Testing your email campaigns can increase your sales by as much as 25%, according to www.whichtestwon.com. Especially during the holiday season, 25% is nothing to be sneezed at. And with the natural surge of email in the weeks leading up to Christmas, it’s the perfect time to start implementing a testing program as part of your email marketing strategy.
- Testing Pinpoints Successes and Failures
Okay, you say. Testing can increase sales. How? By pinpointing the specific elements of any given email that cause measurable changes in user behavior, testing can help you design messages that encourage subscriber response. For instance, does Subject Line A or Subject Line B result in more opens? Only testing will tell. Does blue or red work best for the call to action button? Should you use a button at all? Maybe linked text will work better. There’s no way to know apart from testing. A rigorous program of testing enables you to discard what doesn’t work, showcase what does, and build a customized email strategy that best appeals to your target audience.
- Testing the Right Things
Yes, you can test the font of the link to your privacy policy at the bottom of the email, but it probably won’t result in measurable changes. What, then, should be your focus as you seek to build a successful email campaign? Let’s take a look at five elements you can use to kickstart your testing program:
- Subject Line—Test various wordings and appeals to make your subject line stand out from the crowd.
- Call to Action—Wording, font, button color, placement, size—the possibilities are endless when it comes to designing the perfect call to action.
- Offer—Which offers will most appeal to your target audience?
- Graphics—Size, subject matter, and placement of graphics can all influence subscriber response. Find out what works best by testing your options.
- Copy—Test wording, format, appeals, and style in order to choose the copy most likely to persuade.
eConnect Email can help you design reliable split tests to determine which elements appeal most to your target audience. Take advantage of our customizable templates, design integration, and image management as you design each test, and make your holiday up to 25% merrier this year.