How you can actually go about testing your e-mail promotions to ensure that every message you send is bringing in the highest profits. First of all, let's examine a couple of steps you'll need to take before you start the testing process: 1. Choosing your "control" 2. Deciding how many test to run 1. Choosing your "control" In order to get accurate results when you're testing the effectiveness of your promotions (or anything else, for that matter) , you must test only one element at a time. If you try testing several different things at same time , you'll have no way to determine which change improved your response. For example, let's suppose you decide to test two different e-mail promotions. The firs is structured as a long, formal letter to your customers written in HTML, with the subject line, "Dale, could you give me your opinion?" The second e-mail is short, punchy note written in personal tone and delivered in plain text format, with the subject line, "Dale, could you help me out?" After testing both letters to small list of your customers, you discover that the second test is bringing in a better results, so you decide to launch that letter to your entire list. The problem is that you haven't learned WHY the second letter was more successful. Was it the subject line? The text format. Or was it the short, punchy style? This is why it is so important to establish a "control" letter, and the test different versions of your control letter with only one things change at a time 2. Deciding how many test to run. You can run as many tests as you feel are necessary to tweak and perfect your e-mail promotion. Recommendation - run a minimum of three tests before launching their e-mail promotions. In general, you will want to test at least two different letters and two different subject lines for any e-mail promotion you plan on sending. The testing setup would look something like this: - Letter 1 with subject line 1 - Letter 2 with subject line 1 - Letter 1 with subject line 2 By running these three test, you will be able to get a good feel for which elements of your e-mail promotions are generating the best results, so that you can launch the most profitable combination of letter and subject line. The more testing you do, the more targeted and effective your promotion will be. However, if your opt-in list contain less than a few thousands subscribers, you may need to watch trends over a period of a few months before you'll have a solid feel for what your subscribers prefer in terms of promotion stiles, format and voice. |
