ABT – Always Be Testing is a marketing axiom that'll stand the test of time.
And behind this mantra is a curiosity - a wondering.
As email marketers we ask ourselves, "I wonder what would happen if _________________?" and then we go off and experiment.
Below you'll find seven easy to test elements of your email marketing campaigns. Sometimes all it takes is a small tweak to what you're already doing to get BIG results.
1) Subject Line
2) Message/Content
3) Layout, Images, Call-to-Action
4) Day of the Week
5) Time of Day
6) Personalization
7) From Line
1) Subject Line
There’s a lot of mixed messages out there when it comes to crafting the perfect subject lines for your email campaigns.
Some of the key things to test for your subject lines are: Subject Line Length, Using Special Characters, Asking Questions, Using Brackets, Using 1 Word Subject Lines, Personalization
Subject Line Length
For us here at MyBizMailer we try to craft our subject lines to be around 39 Characters in length. Why thirty-nine? That’s how many characters are able to display for the Subject Line in the native email client for iPhone.
If we do find ourselves running over our optimal Subject Line Length we try to pack those 39 characters with key, relevant and punchy words that drive home what the message is about.
2) Message Content
Try different variations of your emails. We've been talking about the "One Mission per Message" concept lately to help focus and simplify your messages (especially as mobile open rates continue to rise).
As well, try using a personal tone vs corporate jargon. Use "Customer as Hero Stories" or other variations (check out How to Sell More Through Email or The 4 Week Formula to Boost Your Revenue and Make Your Subscribers Happy for additional ideas).
3) Layout, Images Call-to-Action
Have you thought about using:
• Ugly Emails
• Crafty image ALT tags
• No images
• In your face buttons
• Center aligned content
• Larger font sizes
4) Day of the Week
The bulk of email marketing campaigns are sent out Monday – Friday. Tuesdays and Thursday tend to have the most sends. Maybe it’s time to test another day to send. Interestingly there’s been some data presented that Saturdays and Sundays are delivering some pretty good open rates.
5) Time of Day
What time of day are you sending your emails? Lunch? Late afternoon? Early morning? How's that going for you?
Early mornings seem to be the best time right now for open and click through rates according to research done by KissMetrics.
6) Personalization
Are you using personalization in your email marketing campaigns? It's a tricky tactic. Me personally I hate seeing my name in the subject line. I don’t mind it in the body of the email though.
Test out personalization in your campaigns and see what happens. MyBizMailer makes this easy through the use of Merge Tags (check out the Merge Tag Cheat Sheet).
7) From Line
We’ve talked about the importance of the From Line recently in, "4 Email Marketing Hacks for BIG Results" so I won’t dig deep into it here.
You want that from line, actually the From Name to be recognizable. Something that gives your subscribers some context and idea of who the message is coming from.
7 Easy to Test Elements
These 7 areas are easy to test and can have massive impact on your email marketing campaigns. Pick one and get curious about it. Test your assumptions and have some fun!
Hope you’re having a great week!
The MyBizMailer Team