With an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, email marketing’s benefits are clear. Despite this, less than a quarter of marketers would say their email marketing strategy was “very successful.”
The problem is that email marketing can feel hit and miss if you’re unsure which campaigns drive engagement.
A/B testing is the key to successful email marketing campaigns.
It helps you pinpoint the exact elements of each email that speak to your target audience.
But what should you test, and how do you do it?
Let’s explore the best ways to A/B test your emails to optimize campaigns and drive performance.
What’s A/B Testing and Why’s It Important to Email Campaigns?
A/B testing allows you to test two versions of an email campaign to see which performs best.
It drives data-driven decision-making.
With concrete data on email preferences, you reduce the guesswork. You know what potential customers enjoy, so you can deliver more of this in the future.
Since you’ll better understand what customers prefer, you’ll see better email engagement. This leads to higher click-through rates and conversion rates.
Remember, though, that if you want to manage complex tests, you’ll need to connect advanced analytics tools. You can integrate different platforms like CRM system and marketing automation software via APIs.
For instance, connecting your email marketing software with platforms like Salesforce, Google Analytics, and HubSpot can provide richer insights and more precise targeting.
However, securing these APIs becomes essential as the number of integrated platforms increases. Integrating an API management gateway can streamline the process, automate data transfer, and offer deeper insights when A/B testing your email campaigns.
5 Ways to A/B Test Your Email Campaigns for Better Engagement
41% of marketers say email marketing is their most effective channel.
A/B testing supercharges your campaigns by helping you pinpoint the emails that work the best.
Here are some of the main ways you should be testing your emails:
1. Experiment with Subject Lines
The subject line is the first interaction with your reader.
But, with full inboxes, it’s hard to get noticed. In fact, marketers agree that standing out in a customer’s inbox is their biggest challenge.
This is why you test subject lines.
It helps you work out what encourages people to open your emails.
To test your subject lines, create multiple versions containing different components. Split your email list into groups and send each variation to a different group.
Studies show that specific subject line tactics (personalizing subject lines and adding emojis) improve email performance. While this may be true, you need to test these methods to see whether they fit with your audience.
Here are a few to test out:
- Create urgency with words like “limited time” or “don’t miss out on special offers.”
- Incorporate dynamic elements like the recipient’s name, location, or interests.
- Use different sentence structures (questions, statements, imperatives).
- Vary the length.
- Include emojis.
Note which groups respond to which subject lines to improve your initial interactions in the future.
2. Test the Content
While design and copy are the most important contributors to email success, 42% of marketers admit that they struggle with creating them.
Testing different content styles and variations helps you better understand what generates engagement.
For instance, you can test:
The “From” Name and Email Address
Like the subject line, the “From” name and email address immediately appear to your readers. You might set this as your company’s name to look professional. Or you might use a specific person’s name to add a more personal touch.
The idea is to find a sender name and email address that encourages trust and credibility. Try experimenting with different sender names to see what gets the most clicks.
Preheader Text
Your preheader is also one of the first things that catches a reader’s eye.
The text is previewed below the subject line to offer the reader additional context. This quick summary aims to provide value upfront that encourages readers to click for more information.
Test preheader text variations that complement the subject line to see whether this affects open rates.
Email Body Content
Once recipients click through to your email, you can deliver your message in a way that engages them.
Your email content’s overall style and personality will influence how they perceive your brand.
That’s why testing tone of voice, writing style, length, and email layouts is important for readability and visual appeal.
49% of marketers use AI to generate email content to test various tones and styles. With generative AI, you can quickly create different email versions in different voices—formal, casual, humorous, urgent, and more.
This helps you conduct extensive A/B testing to see which tone resonates best with the target audience.
When it comes to email layouts, test a range of content formats.
You could try out HTML emails, plain text, single-column, multiple-column, or image-heavy designs.
The emails with the highest click rates show which emails are the easiest to read and have the most visual appeal.
To speed this process up, use pre-built responsive email templates.
These are already designed with readability in mind, and they allow you to duplicate successful layouts quickly next time.
Call-to-Action (CTA)
CTA buttons and links prompt readers to take a desired action, driving clicks and conversions.
Experiment with different action button sizes, wording, colors, and placements to understand which cues encourage readers to engage.
3. Analyze Design Elements
As noted above, design is one of the most significant factors in a successful email campaign.
This is why 35% of companies have an email design specialist.
But which parts of the email design should you experiment with?
Try these:
Visual Content-to-Text Ratio
The balance of visual content and text can influence readability and loading speed.
Yes, visual content can enhance your message. But too many images, GIFs, or videos can feel cluttered and detract from it.
Plus, image-heavy emails take longer to load, which means busy recipients may click away.
Compare emails with different visual-to-text ratios to find the right balance.
This helps you learn which elements have a stronger impact on customer engagement.
If you’re unsure which visual content might resonate with your audience, try testing various images and videos on social media first.
For example, this Band of Brothers tour company tests different types of social media posts and uses analytics to understand which visuals get the best engagement. The most successful imagery is then transferred to its email campaigns.
Color Schemes
Color palettes can evoke emotions and influence perceptions (which may affect customer behavior).
To determine which colors encourage your readers to act, test different combinations and note your audience’s actions.
This helps you understand what’s visually appealing to your audience and what also nudges them to take action.
4. Test Out Timings
The time and day you send emails significantly impact whether people see them.
Think about it. An email hitting someone’s work inbox on a Monday morning will probably get drowned out by everything that’s arrived over the weekend.
But while research shows that Tuesday is the best day to send emails in general, this might not be true for your specific business.
Try sending the same email out on different days to see which days you get the most engagement.
Once you know which days work best, test out email send times. Again, while research says that it’s best to send emails to US recipients between 9 am and 12 pm EST, this might not be the case for your campaigns.
Only testing will tell.
Save your best email content using a tool like S3 backups by AWS. If it tested well, it’s worth hanging onto so you can reuse it in future campaigns. You can also test and repurpose different snippets across your other marketing channels.
5. Explore Targeting and Personalization
90% of email marketers say segmentation improves performance. This is because segmentation allows you to target different audiences with personalized content. This way, you send relevant content to those most likely to align with it.
But to understand the kinds of personalization and targeted content that work, you must test different groups and mix up dynamic elements.
Here’s how:
Audience Segments
Divide your contact list into specific groups based on shared characteristics to determine which groups work best together.
You might segment your audience by:
- Position in the sales funnel
- Demographics
- Interests
- Behavior
Send the same email to each segment to see who it resonates with. This shows which audience segments respond best to specific content.
You might also test whether you can devise relevant content tailored specifically to the groups you’ve chosen.
For example, you might divide your audience by their position in the sales funnel. You decide to send promotional emails to top-of-the-funnel prospects, educational emails to middle and bottom-of-the-funnel leads, and re-engagement emails to previous customers.
Dynamic Personalization
Once you have your segments, it’s time to test personalization techniques.
Email personalization is a compelling way to connect with your audience segments at their level.
In fact, Litmus Personalize users have experienced a 52% increase in conversions with dynamic content personalization. Some companies have seen uplifts as high as 44% in email-driven sales.
To test which dynamic personalizations work, use recipient data to customize email content.
Test elements like:
- Dynamic image/text content blocks (different content depending on the recipient)
- Tailored product recommendations
- Personalized greetings
- Personalized offers
- Dynamic pricing
Optimize Emails with A/B Testing
A/B testing directs you toward the types of email content that best engage your audience.
Not only do you need to test the design of your emails. You also dig deep into the subject lines, CTA buttons, and layout, personalizing content to target each segment.
Remember, beautiful emails mean nothing if your deliverability isn’t up to scratch. If your emails don’t even reach your prospects’ inboxes, you’ll get no attention whatsoever.
If you need help improving your email deliverability, speak to the team at Duocircle today.
That’s it for now.
Good luck with your A/B tests!