Email marketing truly is a numbers game. The higher your conversion rates, the larger your list will be. The larger your list, the more sales you will make.
But there’s more to improving conversions and growing your list than just creating better offers and attracting more traffic. Each piece of your email list building and marketing effort has a job to do, and it’s up to you to make sure it’s performing as well as possible.
That’s where split-testing (aka A/B testing) will come in handy. By tracking the results you get, then making incremental changes and comparing the numbers, you’ll begin to see the patterns that make a difference in your efforts.
And that’s the basis of split testing: tracking, tweaking, and testing with the goal of continuous improvement.
What Can You Split-Test?
A better question might be, “What can’t you split-test?” Because frankly, you can test just about everything, including:
- Subject lines
- Calls to action
- Button colors
- Fonts and text colors
- Opt-in incentives
- Landing page layout
But here’s the trick to a good split-test: Only test one single change at a time.
You might be tempted to rewrite your headline and your call to action and your button text, but don’t. While it may seem more efficient, the problem with this approach is that you’ll have no way of knowing which change had an effect on your conversions.
Did they go up because of the call to action? Or drop because of the subject line? Who knows?
Instead, make systematic changes to your landing pages and carefully track results. That’s the only way to know for sure what’s working—and what’s not.
Most landing page tools such as LeadPages and ClickFunnels have built in tools for split-testing. If you’re not using these tools, you can also set up split tests using your Google Webmaster tools account.
The Headline (aka subject line) is your first target to test
Knowing no one will see the body of your email unless they like your headline, it makes sense to concentrate first on creating a killer headline that will lure readers in. Testing headline options will give you the keys to higher open rates for sure.
Some things to test:
- Short/Long test: Varying opinions exist on whether short or long headlines are best. Whichever gives you the best open rate is my choice. Don’t just add meaningless words to make a headline long. There must be value in adding each word.
- Action Verb: If you have an action verb in the headline, try stronger or weaker verbs to see if your response changes
- Intrigue: Try adding an element of intrigue to entice the reader to open. The reader should be excited to see what is on the inside if you do it right.
- Controversy: Adding an element of controversy in the subject may work. Be careful not to add any religious, political or name-calling though. One time I added something like “don’t be an idiot…” and the first line of the body was “I would never say that to anyone.” But some folks did not read past the “idiot” part and slammed me for calling them that! Got a really high open rate on that one nonetheless. And got rid of some snarly readers.
Testing Open and Click Rates
Your email list manager should provide a way to split-test your emails as well. Open rates are critical when it comes to email marketing and list engagement. After all, if your audience isn’t opening your mail, they’re not reading it either!
You can easily improve your open rates by split-testing subject lines to determine the format and style most likely to get your readers’ attention.
Testing your click rates
To improve the click rates on the links in your email, test your email’s call to action. To do this, set up two identical emails—same subject line and same content—but change the call to action to see which gets the best response from your list. You’ll be able to use this information in later campaigns to improve click-throughs on all your emails.
When to start split testing
Just like list-building, it’s never too early to begin split-testing. There’s no magical number of opt-ins you must have to get started. There’s no amount of traffic that’s too small. So don’t wait—start split testing your opt-in forms and emails now, so you can enjoy the best conversion rates possible.
Keeping track
Keep track of all of your split test results, even small changes that yielded small results as well as changes the led to negative results. Having list of these will become a real treasure chest of “how to write” tips you can look back on. The longer you do this, the less you will have to test to know what works for your list.
It’s never time to stop testing of course but you will see a rate of diminishing returns at some point. That may be when you need to bring in a third party consultant to look at your work. Fresh eyes bring new perspectives. Keep it in mind.