8 email A/B tests you absolutely need to run on your email campaigns
With hundreds of A/B and multivariate tests run on the 8Seconds platform, we see what types of tests work well. We’ve summarized below some of the tests we often see generating substantially improved results for our clients. We hope this will get you inspired to start testing and optimizing your emails as well.
1) Alternate images
An image is the first thing your audience will see in your email, and in a fraction of a second it’ll make them decide either to read your email or to click the trash button. So make sure your images get them hooked to read further. Try testing at least two images to see which works best. The more images you test, the better. Remember that images don’t cost a lot, especially if you get yourself an account with one of the popular stock photo libraries. Here’s a handy comparison of these different sites http://www.werockyourweb.com/stock-photography-comparison-table/ .
2) With or without images
While an image is the most visible piece of content in your email, depending on the subject matter of your content or your audience, omitting an image may actually uplift your results.
3) Alternate headlines
Coming up with alternate text is even easier than coming up with images. Try testing different headlines in your emails. Even subtle changes can have an impact.
4) Alternate offers
$10 off or 10% off? 2 for the price of 1 or 50% off? Different offers will likely impact your email conversion. Depending on your audience and product, different offers can have a dramatic impact on your results.
5) Content order
Should you first feature product A or product B in your newsletter? Test and let your audience reorganize your newsletter content according to their preference and not your gut feeling.
6) Text links vs. button links
Your most important link in your email should be your Call To Action (CTA) button. Try completely different link styles, like a button vs. a text hyperlink. We’ve seen both work in different situation, how will it work for your campaign?
7) Animated vs. static buttons
They may be annoying, but you may be surprised at how much attention animated buttons can get, especially since they are very rarely used. And it’s never been easier to generate animated buttons. There are dozens of websites that allow you to created animated buttons for free. Here are a couple of them Gifmaker and ImgFlip
8) With or without a navigation bar
Does a navigation bar hurt your email conversions because it pushes your content below the fold, or does it help by driving traffic to your site? After testing, one of our clients decided to remove it because it was hurting their email conversions.
Testing and optimizing with 8Seconds
Running all of the above tests manually can be time consuming. That’s why 8Seconds allows you to gain precious time by running dozens of tests simultaneously within the same campaign. Not only that, but you are able to test not only 2 or 3 buttons, but dozens of content variations within the same campaign! And the more variations you test, the more likely you are to dramatically increase your conversions.
