I’m sure you’ve all been here before. When crafting subject lines for an upcoming email campaign, you came up with a few gems. Which one will get more opens? I know I’ve played that guessing game more than once. Well, we’re gave you a crystal ball to see into the future. With A/B Testing you can know which subject line is more likely to be opened by your subscribers. Unfortunately, it won’t also show you the winning lotto numbers. However, there are a few great uses for this powerful tool.

Test Subject LInes or From Names

I mentioned subject lines about. The same applies for From Names. You want your subscribers to recognize who is sending them email. However, you can’t be sure if it’s best to use your company name, your own name, a combination of the two or something else entirely. For example, when sending Benchmark Email newsletters, sometimes it says “Benchmark Emails” others it may say “Andy from Benchmark” or whomever else may be sending the campaign. There’s branding to consider, personalization … ultimately it comes down to what the test reveals to you about your subscribers.

Test Campaign vs. Campaign

When brainstorming your marketing strategy, there’s always some guess work to be done. You think you know what your subscribers will want to hear about, but sometimes we are proven wrong. It could be the tone or voice of your content or it could be the types of products and services you’re promoting. Your subscribers will tell you which is the most effective.

Test Delivery Time

Conventional wisdom says you want to get to a subscriber’s inbox in the morning, when they’ll be checking emails at their desks. Problem is, not everyone’s audience is conventional. Perhaps your market is to parents. For them, the best times may be after the kids have been dropped off at school or in the evenings after they went to bed. A/B testing will let you know when your emails will most likely be read.

Test multiple variables

Perhaps there’s multiple variables you’d like to test. It’s possible with Benchmark. Just set how important opens and clicks are and let the A/B Testing tool do the rest.

Once you’ve determined the kind of test you’d like to run, you can set the percentage of your email list that you’d like to test on. You can send a variant to 5%, 10% or 15% to your list each and the winner will be automatically sent to the remainder of your list (you can also set it to pause and send the remainder yourself). Doing this is sure to increase open rates, CTR and more.

Author Bio:

by Andy Shore

Andy Shore found his way to Benchmark when he replied to a job listing promising a job of half blogging, half social media. His parents still don’t believe that people get paid to do that. Since then, he’s spun his addiction to pop culture and passion for music into business and marketing posts that are the spoonful of sugar that helps the lessons go down. As the result of his boss not knowing whether or not to take him seriously, he also created the web series Ask Andy, which stars a cartoon version of himself. Despite being a cartoon, he somehow manages to be taken seriously by many of his readers ... and few of his coworkers.