What is A/B Testing?
A/B testing is when you take two versions with only one change to two similar audiences to see a difference in performance.
Variables to Test
Don’t have ideas for what to test in your Emails? Here are some variables you can test to increase your open rate. I strongly suggest testing one at a time not to muddle the results.
- Time of Day: If your customers or audience is in geographic area. You can test whether specific times of day AM or PM will affect open rate.
- Day of week: Sometimes your audience will be more likely to open an email on a monday versus a friday.
- Subject lines: Try for variations on subject lines such as
- Numbers
- Tone
- Specific Words
- Emojis
- Length
- Preview Text: You can change the preview text in many applications. Check if that makes a difference vs subject lines
- From name: Who you send it from may matter. Most are likely to delete emails from marketing @company.com rather than a real name.
- Personlization: Using their name has been shown to increase open rates. Sometimes it may not work for your audience, as it may be seen as pandering, it depends!
I hope you got some ideas, and of course, never stop creating and trying to improve!
Read my primer here if you want to learn more about A/B Testing.