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Aug 17, 2020
3 minutes read

A/B-testing emails: 3 good reasons to start now

When setting up email campaigns, it is tempting to rely on your intuition to predict what makes readers open your e-mail and click-through. However, basing marketing decisions on assumptions might not always lead to the best results. Rather than relying on guesses, you’re better off by running an A/B-test. In this blog, we will explain what A/B-testing is and why you should run tests on your email campaigns by giving you 3 reasons to start right away!

Brechtje van Houtum
Brechtje van Houtum,
Content Marketer

What is A/B-testing in email marketing? 

A/B-testing is a research method to discover which variant of your email campaign gives the best result.

To test this, you select a test group that you divide in two. The first subset of subscribers receives campaign variation A and the second subset receives campaign variation B. After testing which variation gives the best results, the best variation is sent to the rest of your subscribers.

3 good reasons to A/B-test your email campaigns 

A/B-testing your email campaigns has a multitude of benefits. We will share the 3 best reasons why you should A/B-test. 

1. Better open rates 

A/B-testing the subject line of your email campaigns is an effective way to improve the open rates of your emails. What is the ideal length of your subject line, in which order should you place your copy in the subject line, who is the emails sender or how can your subject line stand out visually? These are just some questions to test to try to improve the open rates of your email campaigns. Remember, you can always A/B test only one of the examples at the same time. Otherwise the A/B test will not give you representative results.

2. Increased click-through-rates

A/B-testing the content of your email campaigns is a great way to increase click-through-rates (CTR). There are multiple parameters that influence the CTR. Good examples are testing different call-to-action-buttons, personalization tags, tones of voice, copy lengths and even email templates.

3. Higher conversion rates 

Finally, A/B-testing your email campaigns can lead to higher conversion rates. If your emails are opened more often and clicked on more frequently, chances are that A/B-testing your emails leads to higher conversion rates as well. By testing for example different color blocks, anchor texts and copy which leads to an increased click-through rate, this might increase the number of contact requests that convert your subscribers from readers to leads. 

Test your emails with the Mobile Marketing Cloud 

Now that you know what A/B-testing in email marketing is, why it is important, and what are elements you can test, you must be itching to get started right away.  

You can start A/B-testing immediately with CM.com’s Mobile Marketing Cloud. Within this cloud you’ll find CM.com’s Email Campaigns which is the perfect tool to easily test and send your email campaigns straight away.  

What is so great about the Mobile Marketing Cloud is that it does not just allow you to send and test your email campaigns, but also has a Customer Data Platform (CDP). In the CDP, all customer data and interactions are combined to create rich customer profiles. This makes it easy to build segments by filtering on every possible profile property. This allows you to create segments for your email campaigns as well. What’s more, it allows you to create segments to use as subsets of your subscribers to send different email variations to. This enables you to start conversations with people, not profiles.

The best of all is that the Mobile Marketing Cloud is completely mobile focused. The perfect tool for all your mobile marketing activities!  

Want to know more about A/B-testing your email campaigns with the Mobile Marketing Cloud?

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Brechtje van Houtum
Brechtje van Houtum,
Content Marketer
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Whether it’s developing content strategies or creating social media content, Brechtje is eager to contribute. She spreads CM.com’s message far and wide, stays on top of cutting-edge tech developments, and champions a 'customer first' philosophy.

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