Take Your Marketing Back to School: The Science of Email Testing (slides)
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The document discusses the science of email testing, emphasizing the importance of A/B testing for optimizing email campaigns and improving engagement. It highlights best practices for testing various elements like subject lines, layouts, and send times, as well as the significant impact of small improvements through continuous testing. Key takeaways include the necessity of testing, the variability of optimal send times, and the encouragement to be innovative in email marketing strategies.
Take Your Marketing Back to School: The Science of Email Testing (slides)
- 1. TAKE YOUR MARKETING BACK TO SCHOOL: THE SCIENCE OF EMAIL TESTING
- 2. TWEET! 2 Follow us on Twitter: @WhatCounts @APlaceforMom Today’s hashtag: #EmailTesting
- 3. TODAY’S SPEAKERS 3 JOY UGI Digital Marketing Coordinator, WhatCounts Email: jugi@whatcounts.com Twitter: @ugigirl JEFFERY ANDERSON Digital Marketing Manager, A Place for Mom Email: jeffa@aplaceformom.com Twitter: @jeffanderson253
- 4. INTRODUCING A PLACE FOR MOM •An online resource for connecting seniors and their families to the right senior care. •Uses the WhatCounts platform for email marketing. •Tests email campaigns constantly. •Won the Silver award for the WhichTestWon 2013 Email & Mobile Testing challenge. •Won the Gold and Best-in-Show awards for the WhichTestWon 2014 Email & Mobile Testing challenge. 4
- 5. WHY TEST? 1. You’re not your audience. 2. Create program-specific benchmarks. 3. Engage with subscribers. 4. Grow your ROI. 5
- 6. HOW AND WHAT TO TEST Use A/B split testing to find the best: • Subject line • Layout/design • Copy • CTAs • From name • Best day and time to send • Personalization IMPORTANT NOTES: •Make sure you’re tracking metrics. •Never test more than one variable at a time. 6
- 7. FROM FIELD 7 From Field Unique Open Rate A Place for Mom 20.84% A Place for Mom Partner Newsletter 20.43% APFM Senior Living Insider 20.25% APFM Partner Newsletter 19.46% Senior Living Insider 16.95% Top subject From Field, “A Place for Mom”, performed 23% higher than weakest From Field. • From Fields should be tested every time you launch a new email • It’s a simple test, but simple tests like From-Field can help move the needle. • The more you test, the more your email is optimized. Although any given aspect of an email may only bump up performance marginally, the cumulative effect of numerous marginal improvements is a significant improvement.
- 8. EASY TO IMPLEMENT TESTING 8
- 9. DAY OF WEEK TESTING 9 What time of day and day of week generates the most engagement? Test • Used full list for maximal sample size • Sent over 7 days • 4 segments per day • Results checked precisely 7 days after send Results • 10% higher open rate on weekend evenings than rest of week • 15% higher click rate than other days / time periods
- 10. SCHEDULING AUTO REPORTS 10
- 11. IMAGES-OFF OPTIMIZED 11 You can get innovative. • Tested a tool that turns images into lo-res mosaics HTML tables so that image is visible (if in low-resolution) • Measured click-to-open rate, which tells us, of those who opened the email, what percent engaged • Image-off-optimized version had 13% higher click-to-open rate, which is a 27% lift. 48% total-clicks/unique-opens 61% total-clicks/unique opens
- 12. KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Make time for testing – it’s important. 2. Sometimes a simple test is all it takes to move the needle. 3. Best day and time to send is different for every email program. 4. Don’t wait to copy the next big thing. Be innovative! 5. Need help? Ask. 12
- 13. QUESTIONS? 13
- 14. COMING SOON! 14 Drag-and-drop lifecycle UI www.whatcounts.com/lifecycle
- 15. SEE THE NEWSLETTER! Subscribe to A Place for Mom emails! http://www.aplaceformom.com/senior-care-resources/newsletter 15
- 16. REACH OUT TO US 16 3630 Peachtree Road, NE Suite 900 Atlanta, GA 30326 1-866-804-0076 www.whatcounts.com Twitter: @whatcounts jugi@whatcounts.com jeffa@aplaceformom.com