Top 10 Elements to Test in Email Campaigns
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A CLEAR VALUE PROPOSITION Before we get into the nitty gritty of what exactly you should test within your emails, it’s important to define a clear, value proposition. It may be in the form of a special offer, giveaway, news etc. Through email campaign testing, you’ll be able to see which value propositions have the best return on investment. It’s likely that different value propositions will be needed for different segments of your customer database.
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FROM ADDRESS
We all receive plenty of spam email to know that the chances of opening an email that even looks like spam are very unlikely. The “from address” is the second of the two most important elements to test for ensuring a good open rate. If you’re an ethical marketer - which of course you should be each customer in your database will have given you permission to contact them for email marketing purposes. This is why it’s often a good idea to enter your company/brand name within the subject title; they already know who has sent them the message and they understand that you’re not trying to scam them. Of course, test variations of the from address on a small sample of customers to see what the effect on open rate is.
SUBJECT HEADING
One of the first things that people read when they see that they have a new email in their inbox is the subject heading. The open-rate metric is arguably the most important of them all as if a recipient doesn’t bother to open the email, then all else has failed; they won’t get to see your fantastic copy or flawless design, and they certainly won’t clickthrough to your website and convert. Make sure that you use a strong, clear call to action within your subject headings. Say something that encourages recipients to open your website by enticing them to read more about your offer, news etc. Personalization within a subject heading is often a good way to ensure high open rates as the recipient knows that you’re likely to be credible if you already have their name and email address. Also, remember that you don’t need to use the company/brand name in the subject heading if you’re going to use it in the from address; there’s only a limited amount of space to work with so make sure you use it wisely. Try testing subject headings that communicate urgency (eg, “offer ends this Sunday”) as this will help to increase open rates and ultimately conversion rates.
4 PERSONALIZATION The personal touch is the holy grail of providing a great service. In the digital era, Amazon have truly been pioneers in this area. Based on the previous products you have bought and items you’ve looked at, they suggest other products that “you may like” (via their website and emails). In its most basic form, to add the customer’s name into the subject title or at the beginning of the email itself will strike a chord with the recipient; a chord which will result in them opening your email and giving it a read. Make the most of your customer data; if you’re managing email marketing campaigns in the B2B sector for example, then you’ll most likely have information about each customer/client’s business which you can incorporate into the email.
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SCHEDULING – WHEN TO SEND
We’ve all been there… it’s Monday morning again (doesn’t the time fly) and you have a hundred unread emails in your inbox. You’ve got to get back into work mode so that you can plan for the week, arrange meetings and all the rest. The last thing you’re likely to do is read an email which isn’t urgent. Email marketing software such as Emailvision’s Campaign Commander have in-built scheduling features as well as the ability to test different variations of emails. It’s not necessary to be at work on the weekend sending emails to samples of your customer database; with Campaign Commander you can schedule emails to be sent at a specific date and time in the future.
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TESTING FOR DIFFERENT MARKET SEGMENTS
Many marketers don’t use their customer data to its full potential. With a detailed customer database, you can segment your different customers by demographics, purchase history etc. and then take samples from within those segments to test different emails. Different customer segments may be so diverse that different value propositions are needed or it could be as simple as changing the subject title so that it is tailored to each segment.
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EMAIL DESIGN AND LAYOUT
Once a recipient has taken the time to open your email, they do not want to be disappointed. Of course, there are many types of email campaigns from e-newsletters to emails to encourage cross-selling. It’s possible to test the following designs elements, for whichever type of email you’re sending: -Images -Banners -Fonts -Templates There are a few rules to remember when designing HTML emails. The first is to keep it simple as the recipient will most likely not want to spend time reading a long email. Other important things to remember are that the value proposition (the reason for the email) is displayed clearly to the recipient and that they know what to do and how to do it if they want to take action (via a clear call to action).
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CALLS TO ACTION Ultimately you want your email to lead to something, whether it’s a sale, redemption of a special offer or any other action. In order to ensure that you get a return on your email marketing investment, you need to use strong calls to action with the email itself to encourage recipients to visit your website and convert. Make the links in your email stand out from the rest of the email; this is where good design comes in. It’s possible to test your calls to action using different copy, different images, and locating the calls to action on different parts of the email layout.
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TESTING COMPATIBILITY ON DIFFERENT DEVICES/EMAIL CLIENTS It may seem obvious, but it’s worth saying - it is absolutely essential that when a recipient opens your email, they are able to view it properly for the biggest impact. During testing it will be possible to see if the email is displayed properly on different devices such as mobiles and tablets and in different email clients. Always ensure a “read-only version” and “view as web page” options are available as a back-up; although you may have spent a long time on testing and designing the layout of your email, some people do just prefer to read an email as plain text, without all of the pretty pictures.
10 LANDING PAGES Although this arguably comes under the domain of your analytics/IT/web development teams, great results aren’t achieved without great landing pages. This is the last step in the conversion process so it’s crucial that you get it right after all that hard work beforehand. Tools such as Google Analytics Content Experiments (free) are made specifically for you to A/B or multivariate test different web page designs and track the results. Good landing pages should not be the exact same design as the email itself, however there should be an obvious connection which tells users that they’ve landed on the right page.
GO GET TESTING!
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