5 Tests That Will Improve Your Emails

If you can remember all the way back to October, you’ll recall that I listed 5 things worth testing in your email marketing campaigns. Well I’m back with five more, but first, a quick recap as to why we test.

Email is a tool that marketers have long found to be effective in boosting web traffic and sales. It’s also quickly becoming one of the easiest ways to test new things. It’s easily trackable, and gives you immediate results. And testing allows us to ensure that we are continuing to improve our email campaigns day in and day out.

Now, to the list:

1. Personalization. Test using the person’s name against an email that does not include a name at all.
2. Buttons vs. Links. Wherever you include a call to action, you are going to be asking someone to click through to your site. Is it better to have a text based link or a Click Here button? Why not test it.
3. Day of the week. A few weeks ago I posted a series of blogs entitled, “The Best Time to Send an Email.” In it, I argued for sending of marketing emails on Tuesday and Wednesday. But different companies might see different results. As long as the email is not time sensitive, try all 7 days and find out which one works best.
4. % vs $. I advise against the use of dollar signs in subject lines, because it’s one of the few things that spam filters still check. Sometimes, though, I break my own rules. It’s hard not to use dollar sings when presenting a deal. Next time you send out an email with an offer in it, test a % off vs. a $ amount.
5. You are not alone. A study printed last year told us that the subject line “You are not alone” was the best subject line ever written. It connects with people on a deeper level, and may just get an email opened. Think of how it could apply to you, or find a similar phrase that tugs at people on an emotional level.

The service that I use for all of my email marketing campaigns at the moment is iContact. They have a new split testing tool that allows you to easily set up multiple versions of an email and send the test to all our part of your list to find a winner.

And, through this offer, you can sign up with iContact and get started for free.

Comments

Great tips. I really like the $ vs. % test. Hadn't thought of that one before.