{"id":12617,"date":"2017-06-05T13:26:28","date_gmt":"2017-06-05T20:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.benchmarkemail.wpengine.com\/?p=5739"},"modified":"2020-06-05T17:47:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T17:47:52","slug":"need-ab-testing-email-campaigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/tw\/blog\/need-ab-testing-email-campaigns\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Need to be A\/B Testing Your Email Campaigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The single most honest (and infuriating) answer to nearly every marketing question is, \u201cit depends.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because there\u2019s no one right answer when it comes to marketing. What works for one business won\u2019t necessarily work for another.<\/p>\n

Customers and audiences may differ. Even within your own audience, factors such as region and age can affect how someone will react to your email marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n

There are many variables that come into play with every email campaign and we\u2019re often left asking ourselves if we\u2019re doing the best that we can. Is your email marketing<\/a> connecting with your subscribers, customers and leads?<\/p>\n

What Happens in Vegas…<\/b><\/h2>\n

For the past couple years, we\u2019ve been lucky enough to attend the MarketingSherpa Summit<\/a> in Las Vegas. We learned a great many things, but one point that especially stood out was from MECLABS founder and managing director, Flint McGlaughlin:<\/p>\n

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There are no such things as expert marketers. There are only marketers with experience.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You may think you have all the answers, but really, we\u2019re all playing guessing games. Granted, for some of us, they\u2019re more educated guesses than others.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, we all have a unique offering and we need to find a way to connect on a personal level with our core customers.<\/p>\n

One True Answer<\/b><\/h2>\n

One key pattern emerged at MarketingSherpa event. A more accurate answer than \u201cit depends.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer is testing.<\/p>\n

From small businesses to international corporations, nobody found the answers they were seeking without testing.<\/p>\n

Tests ranged from signup forms to email copy and even the number of steps in a conversion process that it took to establish trust.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that testing is king.<\/p>\n

Consumer Reports Boosts Donations with A\/B Testing<\/b><\/p>\n

At MarketingSherpa Summit 2016, we got to participate in what Austin McCraw, Senior Director of Content Production at MECLABS, called \u201cthe largest collaborative A\/B test on the planet” for Consumer Reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The goal was to help increase donations to Consumer Reports by testing and hopefully improving the email campaigns they send to do so.<\/p>\n

First, the crowd was polled on various value propositions. The first set of tests was run based on the favorites of the crowd.<\/p>\n

Next, we voted on various email treatments for the campaign. Tests were run on each. Throughout the testing, we learned some things that did not work \u2026 and ultimately what did.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right. By end end of the two-day event we had helped Consumer Reports to increase revenue per donation by 32%!<\/p>\n

Increase Open Rates with A\/B Testing<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Apollo Education Group is the parent company of The University of Phoenix and more. They were unable to run A\/B tests due to an old, outdated tools. They upgraded ESPs and soon found out how easy A\/B Testing can be.<\/p>\n

The first tests they ran were more simple things such as subject lines and from names. They were impressed by how much testing the from name improved their engagement.<\/p>\n

From there, the Apollo Group ran A\/B tests<\/a> on the placement of the unsubscribe links being at the top or bottom of their campaigns. They continued from there, establishing a meeting to view results to gain an understanding of what was successful.<\/p>\n

Speaking of success, the Apollo Group achieved:<\/p>\n