Email marketers want their content to be seen. However, they also want to know that their measures will pay off before they spend their precious time and resources on creating and sending the campaigns.
The best ways to accomplish this is with A/B testing and multivariate testing
How is email campaign testing done?
Email campaign testing can be done in several different ways; however, more and more email marketers are turning to these two popular testing methods:
- A/B testing
- Multivariate testing
What is A/B testing?
A/B testing is a method of email testing that requires marketers to have two designated groups: test group A and test group B. Each group is sent a similar email; however, various parts of the email’s message, design, or anatomy has been altered for each group.
Source: Emma
In this example, the difference is the type of image that was chosen for the email’s background. Based on the results of the sample test, the image used in the email sent to Test group B won over the image used in the email sent to Test group A.
With this method of testing, you’ll be monitoring a select few key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine which email performs better. These can include the open rate, click rate, and bounce rate.
What is multivariate testing?
Multivariate testing is a different method of email testing where marketers can test several different variables at once.
Source: Campaign Monitor
While the purpose of A/B testing is to test individual pieces of the email, multivariate testing’s goal is to test multiple variables at once to find the best possible combination.
How to measure the success of your A/B and multivariate testing efforts
Once you’ve tested your emails and sent them off, you’ll be able to measure various key performance indicators to determine if your testing efforts were successful. These factors may include:
- Open rate – the number of people who not only received but opened your email
- Click-through rate – the total percentage of people who have taken action, such as clicking a hyperlink, image, CTA, or video
- Unsubscribe rate – the overall percentage of people who have opted out of receiving any more of your content
If you see an increase in open and click-throughs, then your testing efforts have been successful, as more people are seeing, opening, and acting on your campaigns. If your unsubscribe rate increases, however, something has gone wrong, and you need to evaluate the campaign.
Does A/B testing and multivariate testing really matter?
Email testing absolutely does matter, as it’s the only way to get valuable feedback from your subscribers before wasting all your time and resources on sending an email campaign that could potentially flop. Testing is the only way to save time, energy, and money by ensuring you don’t end up wasting it all on something readers simply don’t respond to.
For instance, here at Campaign Monitor, we’ve tested different templates against each other to see which ones work best, and, as a result, we’ve seen some surprising increases.
Our email campaigns have seen an increase in click-through rates by 127%.
While those numbers vary by each campaign, we can often see an average click-through rate of 50% on our blog subscriber email.
What now?
Now that you know the importance of email testing using methods such as A/B testing and multivariate testing, you’ll want to begin strategizing. Take some time to check out our blog and start building your foolproof email marketing strategy template today.