How to A/B Test Your Direct Email Campaign

A/B testing has been an integral part of every marketing and development projects, allowing businesses to ensure executing successful projects with timely response and assured satisfaction. A/B testing is also used frequently in marketing to ensure if the marketing campaign performs better among target audiences. Regardless to your goals from the direct email marketing, it’s good idea to A/B test; particularly when you’re:

• Launching a new email campaign
• Customizing an existing campaign
• Identifying the reasons to failure in current campaign
• Curious to know the results with a specific change, like a certain age bracket

What is A/B testing?

As per the Harvard Business Review, the A/B testing is a way to compare different versions of two things with an aim to identify which one works better. It’s a common practice among the smart marketers to identify the best marketing strategies that can bring them the desired results like more user engagement, sales, leads, higher ROIs, etc. A/B testing is suitable for practically any type of marketing campaign with email direct marketing being on the top. It helps you rethink your direct mail piece marketing strategies to make better, smarter decisions.

How to Do A/B Testing?

The options to do A/B testing are endless. Hence, it is crucial to identify the best ones to bring the best possible results to your email direct marketing campaign. Here are the top ways to A/B test your direct email marketing campaign.

KNOW WHAT TO TEST

The best part to conduct a successful A/B test is to know what you need to test. It is very important to know what is going wrong with your campaign so you can diagnose the problems with your direct email marketing plan.

Consult past data – Before proceeding, it is important that you collect the important data from previous emails so you can analyze the performance of your past email campaign. A few basic things to keep in mind include.

• Did you lose money on your last campaign?
• Was your response rate low?
• Did you receive enough response but conversion rate low?

CONSIDER SEGMENTING YOUR AUDIENCE

Sometimes the most common mistakes that businesses make is sending emails to the wrong people. It is smart to do audience segmentation to target neighborhoods or specific demographics. In case you see poor response with your email in a particular demographic, you could try removing certain address types, like P.O. Boxes, apartments, etc. Also, it may be considered to try sending emails to only a specific group of people as per their profession, age group, etc.

REVISE YOUR DIRECT EMAIL PIECES

Take a look at your current email piece and try revising it as per the response you’ve got from the certain audiences. There are many things that may be kept in mind while revising your current email like the followings:

• Did you mention enough details?
• Was there a clear call to action?
• Were there any stumbling points?
• Did it stand out?

With all this, launch a successful direct email marketing campaign for assured results, backed by a strong A/B Testing!