Too many e-mails kills e-mail? The answer is yes: too many e-mails are a drain on your KPIs! Constantly solicited by advertisers, Internet users are overwhelmed by torrents of messages. As a result, the visibility of emailing campaigns, no matter how meticulous, suffers.
It's no longer enough to rely on knowing your prospect/customer list to make your email campaign stand out from the crowd. So how do you effectively capture your target's attention?
A metaphor to guide you... It's all about finding the right shoe for them!
It's like a cluttered dressing room. You need to refine your communication strategy to constantly adapt to the evolution of your target and its expectations. In other words, you have to be tailor-made...
So let your inner Cristina shine through, and opt for the ABCs of email makeovers: A/B email testing.
The principle of effective email A/B testing
It's simply THE solution for better targeting the type of e-mail that will appeal to your recipients. How do you go about it? There's no question here of adopting a Brazilian accent and sending "mon chériiii". No, A/B testing consists in sending, at the same time, at least two versions of the same message to web users with similar profiles. Here's how it works.
Performing an A/B e-mail test is pretty straightforward. You create two or three versions of the same message by modifying a single variable. For example, the subject line, the image, the CTA button, the wording...
To test effective variations and nuances, here are the questions that should guide the apprentice stylists in your emails:
- Why are we testing this variation? In Cordula language, this means: "Why does blue suit blondes better?"
- What lessons do we hope to learn from this? or "Will the majority of H-shaped morphologies fall for slim-fitting cuts?"
- How does this nuance affect the performance of this e-mail? In French-Brazilian, it would be "Magnifaïque! A simple scarf can double sales of the same outfit."
As you can see, you need to test all the components of an e-mail to see how effective they are. In the end, some of them will be more appealing to your subscribers. The bottom line is this: every variation is worth testing, no matter how small.
Four simple methods for efficient email A/B testing
1. A/B test the object and pre-header
It's a lot of fun, because you can vary the content as well as the form! For example, play with word length and the presence or absence of well-chosen emojis. In the same way, you can opt for a promotional or informal form, and nuance the wording, tone and spirit... Urgency, mystery, questioning - the field of possibilities is limitless when it comes to tailoring the perfect suit!
2. A/B content testing
Here too, there's no better way to test the effectiveness of your email campaigns. After the subject line, which elements are likely to be modified?
Think about titles, descriptions, call-to-actions (CTAs) and ask yourself the right questions:
- Are your prospects more sensitive to the specific design of certain elements?
- What type of layout works best?
- Do your targets prefer concise or more elaborate texts?
- Which colors work best as call-to-actions? Which wording?
- What typeface and size should I use?
- Should the offer and CTA appear in the waterline?
3. Try design and template A/B tests
The following two statistics should be borne in mind:
- 74% of Internet users use their cell phone to check their e-mail;
- 8 out of 10 users delete emails if they can't be read on a tablet or cell phone!
That's why responsive email design isn't an option. Design elements such as color, font, spacing and images are crucial. You can therefore test your e-mails in two display styles to determine which version to keep. The lucky one will offer your subscribers the best reading experience. But "tou es soublaïme comme email!!!"
Also consider A/B testing the use of dynamic elements: GIFs, countdowns, videos...
4. A/B test the timing of mailings
And yes, the success of an e-mail also depends on when it's sent! Your email A/B testing will also help you determine the best time to send your campaign.
So consider testing the effectiveness of your e-mails according to:
- the day of the week on which it is dispatched;
- the precise time of day at which he leaves;
- the period of the year during which it is sent (vacation, special event, season, etc.).
This type of temporal A/B testing of your emails can be a valuable aid to understanding your prospects' behavior without limiting yourself to analyzing their areas of interest.
Now that you've mastered your email dress-codes, it's time to avoid using multiple variants in your email A/B testing. Otherwise, as Cristina would say, "Ouh là là, c'est oune ca-ta!". Enough make-believe jokes, to obtain usable conclusions from your A/B tests, make sure you only vary one element at a time!
Finally, carry out this type of test on the most responsive address segments and those with the highest volume.
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