6 Simple A/B Tests to Improve Your Email Marketing Efforts

Imagine your favorite meal. Pretty good right? Now imagine eating that same meal every day for an entire year. It might be good at first, but it’s only a matter of time before you get sick of it.Take this concept, and apply it to your email marketing efforts. If your company sends the same emails day-after-day, your prospects and subscribers are going to get sick of them. Luckily, with A/B testing you can keep the experience fresh. In fact, we previously covered the importance of A/B testing in Facebook posts.So if you’ve noticed stagnant open and click-through rates, consider the following A/B testing tips to reinvigorate your email marketing performance.

1. Subject lineArguably the most important element of testing email copy is the subject line. Often, a subject line is the deciding factor in whether or not an email gets opened. Test various subject line phrasings to see what gets the highest engagement and apply the framework to future emails.
2. HeadlineThink of your email as a restaurant. (Another food reference... we must be hungry!) If the subject line is the sign out front, your headline is the host just inside the front door. Your headline phrasing can be a huge deciding factor in click through rates and if recipients read on, so play around with wording and structure.
3. Call-to-Action (CTA)Experiment with different ways to present your call-to-action. We previously covered 4 Tips for Perfect CTAs, and many of the concepts still apply when it comes to email A/B testing. Play around with wording, size, color, and positioning to see what prompts the most action.
4. LayoutsDifferent email templates trigger very different performance rates. Test whether recipients prefer single body or double column layouts and try switching up color and text size – just remember to keep the overall feel consistent with your brand.
5. ImagesIn addition to size and placement, testing performance based on image type is also crucial. For example, having a person in a picture instead of a product is just one type of test you might want to try out.
6. PromotionsConsumer expectations about discounts and offers are crazy there days. We live in a day and age where giving free money to consumers isn’t always good enough, so you need to narrow down what your prospects are looking for. One email A/B test could be whether an offer for a percentage off versus a specific dollar amount garners more click-through rates.