SendPulse is a functional, convenient and responsive platform for sending emails, SMS, web-push notifications, and SMTP. Its main advantage is the ability to use Email and SMS at the same time, as well as push notifications, transactional SMTP and complex Email marketing, that allows to raise engagement of the audience. Another important advantage of this service is the round-the-clock customer support by phone, through online chat and feedback form. In addition to this, SendPulse provides the Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality, that gives an opportunity to send the right message at right time. Nevertheless, all these options are still not enough to take your email campaigns to new heights. They can be reached only with the help of optimization, which makes email marketing data-driven throughout the entire lifecycle. SendPulse gives this great opportunity to optimize email campaigns. It can be carried out with the help of A/B testing. It was invented to predict the metrics of your mailings. A/B testing allows you to compare elements of your mailings and use the more effective variants with the highest delivery rates, open rates, and clickthroughs.
There are many elements of your email campaign that you can test, including:
- the email subject;
- the preheader;
- the sender’s data;
- the location of the text box;
- the calls to action, and their number and location;
- the heading settings, such as the font and the size;
- the main text settings, such as the font and the size;
- the number of photos in the emails;
- using animated pictures like GIFs and/or videos; and
- the number of links.
You need to form a hypothesis regarding the reasons of bad email open rate, for instance. You can hypothesize not only about some weak points but strong ones as well. You’d better formulate is a rule, for example: «short subject lines tend to perform better».
At next stage you are to create an email and its alternative version, basing on the hypothesis. You can have two or more such versions. These emails must differ only by ONE element, which is tested.
Now it’s high time you set up the test. SendPulse offers already made templates for A/B testing.
To start creating split testing, click on “A/B tests”-“Create A/B test”.
Give the name to your test.
Choose the mailing list. Usually, test messages are sent to 20% of the database, and the winning letter automatically goes to the remaining 80%. At the same time, each of the test versions should be received by at least 500 people
Choose the condition of your success. If you’re testing the subject line, the letter with a higher open rate wins.
Carry out repeated hypothesis tests and make a conclusion. It’s best to test each hypothesis 3-4 times with an interval of 1-2 weeks. Check the statistics both immediately after the test (3 hours after sending) and the next day, or, even better, in 3-7 days. The results can be different. You should take everything into account – open rates, conversion rates, target actions and the number of unsubscribed users. Take a note of the best solutions across all parameters and continue to use them in the future.
Then you will have to choose the appropriate template from already existing or import yours.
Enter the following information.
After that review and send.
A/B testing allows you to make a reasonable decision and learn the best email practices from your own experience. Your competent analysis of the results is a necessary condition to achieve a return on investment.
