A/B testing is a strategy where you provide your audience with two different versions of a piece of marketing content and compare the results between Version A and Version B to determine what type of content they are most interested in.

More specifically, in Email A/B testing, marketers choose different variables that they want to test, and then create different versions of the email campaign using those variables. Variables can include subject lines, body copy, CTA buttons, images, and more. For example, Version A may have a call to action button that says “Buy Now”, while Version B may say “Get Yours Today”.

Once variations are created, the email list is randomly divided into two groups, one that will receive Version A and the other Version B. Once groups are created, both versions of the email can be sent to customers. As the emails are opened and engaged with, data such as open rates, click thoughts, conversions, and more are collected.

After a pre-determined period of time, the data that was collected should be analyzed. Using the data, determine which variation of the email was most successful based on the goals of the campaign. Then you’ll be able to optimize future campaigns using the insight gained from this A/B test.

1. Determine Your Goals: Before you begin testing, it is important to establish specific goals. Your goals will determine which metrics you should consider most important and guide the content variations that you create.

2. Define Your Strategy: Your strategy should clearly define the items you want to test and the metrics that you want to measure to determine success. A good strategy leads to more effective testing and better, quicker results.

3. Build Up Your List of Subscribers: Effective testing requires a significant amount of email recipients, so taking the time and using strategies to build your lead list is important if you want your testing to provide beneficial results. Investing in your lead generation efforts should be a priority.

4. Gather Accurate Data: Without accurate data, A/B testing will never be truly effective. It is important to ensure that the analytics you base your testing upon are accurate. Choosing the right platform (more on that later!) can be a great way to know that you can trust your analytics.

Set Realistic Goals:  Before you begin testing, clearly define the goal you wish to achieve. When you set your goals, make sure they are realistic compared to your benchmarks.

Maintain Control Variables: For each test, you should only be altering one variable at a time. If you want to test variations of a subject line, you should not be changing images or other content between Version A and Version B.

Segment Your Audience: Segmenting your audience based on demographic or behavior data enables you to tailor your testing to the right audience and get more accurate results for the factors that you wish to be testing.

Factor in External Variation: Because it’s impossible to test completely in a vacuum, you also have to consider that external factors will contribute to some variation and inaccuracies. It is important to recognize this variance when making adjustments based on your results.

iFOLIO is a versatile cloud-based platform that is designed to make digital marketing easy. iFOLIO offers various features that help you send (and A/B test) email campaigns efficiently. The intuitive campaign dashboard, visual email templates, and easy editing allow you to make multiple variations of a campaign, and patented real-time analytics enable you to gain valuable insights on the content that you share.

Learn more about Optimizing Email Campaigns With iFOLIO