Email Marketing - Test, Test and Test again

Almost every element of an email campaign can be put to the test, and every email that is sent is a testing opportunity. If you break a campaign down into its core components, you are dealing with 2 elements:

The List

The Email

By testing both of these elements, open, click and conversion rates can be analysed to figure out the best combination for your base and therefore increase ROI.

Testing your list

If you have a larger list, there is the opportunity to segment it by factors such as age, gender, interests or previous purchased products. With segmentation, you have the ability to take just a section of the list that you believe the offer will be of most interest to and sent the mailing exclusively to them.

The only way to be sure that the right segmentations have been made is to test different segments of the list with the same offer and email. If all the other factors are the same, any difference in open, click and conversion rates can only be down to the segmentations made.

Testing your Email

The email itself can be broken down into the following elements which can all be tested:

• From Address

Some may be suspicious about the source of the email, so customising the from address, especially with your company name, can build trust.

• Subject Line

The subject line is your first chance to make a big impression on the recipient and arouse their interest enough for them to want to open your email. If they don’t open it, they cannot click through and will not convert to a sale.
A good subject line can mean the difference between a successful campaign and a failure. Test several versions of a subject line to see what works best for your base and earns the highest open rate.

Legally, a subject line must not be misleading.

• Body Copy

The hard and fast rule for email body copy is that the offer and call to action must be clear and repeated several times throughout the email; at least once at the beginning, once in the middle and once more at the end. Try testing different calls to action and styles of writing in general; does your base respond better to chatty text or hard offers and facts?
Golden Rule – Write copy for email to be scanned and not read; don’t have paragraphs that are too long and space the email appropriately.

• Creative design

Different creative designs should be tested to establish which works best for your base – do they prefer more text and bullet points or a good mix of images as well?

Once you have found a style that works, you should not stray too far away from this without good reason for doing so.

• The Offer

Every email should include some kind of an offer; even if the email is being used for brand building, the offer is to visit your website and read more etc.

Every audience is different; some people are driven by money-off or free offers whereas others respond better to loyalty points or other incentives. Test different offers to find out which works the best for your base.

• Broadcast Time and Day of the week

In order to find out when your base responds the best to emails broadcast, find out by testing the same offer and creative etc at different times of the day and week.