Automated Split Testing

Email Marketing Campaigns Optimizing Through Testing

December 22nd, 2010

As established by marketing gurus, it’s impossible to maximize your marketing campaign’s results. This is due to the fact that you won’t know what new and clever strategies will bring even better results that what has already been used. Like all other forms of direct marketing, email marketing also follows this rule.

However, it is still possible to optimize the results of marketing campaign. Meaning, you can quantifiably improve your current results compared to past results. This works for all types of marketing, direct marketing, and also advertising. The best way to do this is by testing different variations you use on the message, creative, timing, and frequency.

MESSAGE

All marketing messages start with a headline that says something about a benefit or an offer. “Learn Ninja skills in less than a week” and “Get Ninja equipment cheap with free lessons” are both likely messages from a company that specializes in things to do with ninjas, but they have different approaches. It’s just not the whole pitch, but also the smaller more subtle tweaks in the use of words that spell the difference.

CREATIVE

The look and feel, layout design, color choices, and other things that improve the aesthetic value of the message make up the creative elements of an email marketing campaign. For specific campaigns, should you use designs that are bright and edgy, or serious and business-oriented? Lots of text or mostly pictures? Managers who are responsible for bottom-line business activities are more likely to respond to text and interactive messages from senders they know and trust. On the flip side, managers who are responsible for the more creative activities (like marketing, design, and advertising) and most consumers, respond best to email campaigns that are highly creative.

TIMING

The time of the day or the day of the week can have a significant impact on your email marketing campaign’s results. So is Tuesday morning or Friday afternoon better for a particular product offer? You’ll only really know if you try it. Have a look at our article on “Timing is Everything: When and How to Use Email Marketing for Best Results” for and in-depth discussion on this topic/

FREQUENCY

The number of times and how often you make contact can influence your email marketing campaign’s results significantly. Should you send messages out once a week for four weeks, or every other week? Only testing can really tell. The rules of direct marketing typically show that “hitting” your intended audience several times will result in higher response rates. The article “Timing is Everything” also discusses the frequency for email campaigns.

Preparing to Test

The “split run” concept is one of marketing’s most powerful testing techniques. The simple idea has been around even before the internet. Basically, you split or segment your list into several groups, and then try out different variations for each group. Once you find out the variation that results in a better response, you can optimize your results by putting in these “lessons learned” into your campaigns in the future.

Segmenting Your Lists

Marketers who have lists that are large enough can separate 10-20% off the total number of addresses just for testing purposes. Whatever gives out the best results will be used on the rest of the list. On smaller lists, testing will have to be done on the whole list, and there will be fewer variations to test. While testing, you have to avoid sending more than once to the same person or those who have opted out of your lists during the test period. This makes segmenting your list more complex as you test more factors.

For example, let’s say we want to test three different factors within a single mailing: creative “A” and “B”, message “F” and “G”, and timing “X” and “Y”. We would need to first divide the list into “A” and “B” groups. Then divide the “A” group into “AF” and “AG” groups, and the “B” group into “BF” and “BG” groups. Lastly, we would need to divide the “AF” group into the “AFX” and “AFY” groups, the “AG” group into the “AGX” and “AGY” groups, the “BF” group into the “BFX” and “BFY” groups, and the “BG” group into the “BGX” and “BGY” groups.

We’ll be using the groups that have three-letter names for our tests.

Interpreting the Results

In order to determine the better performing variation, we’ll have to compare all of the results in the sibling test group with each other. In the above example, how did “AFX”, “AFY”, “AGX”, “AGY”, “BFX”, “BFY”, “BGX”, and “BGY” compare to each other in number of opens? How about for click-thrus? For you to draw solid conclusions on the effectiveness of your campaign, make sure that your sampling of recipients is large enough to for them have been subjected to each variation. Remember that your testing for factors can be done for single mailing and multiple mailings.

Conclusion

It’s only after you measure your email marketing campaigns’ effectiveness that you can start to optimize the results. You can do split testing to get more information quickly. Test and analyze your results so you know what works for you and what doesn’t. Use the information you get to improve your bottom line.

If you need assistance with your email marketing or internet marketing in general, Irish Web Solutions can help you get started on your marketing project. Visit their site to learn more.
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Email Marketing Campaigns Optimizing Through Testing