MARKETING
How to A/B Test Email Campaigns: Ideas & Best Practices
In today’s fast-paced world of digital marketing, A/B testing has become a mainstay for brands looking to optimize their email campaigns. While many are using this technique, not all are harnessing its full potential. In this blog, we’ll dive into how A/B testing, once a niche approach, has now become a cornerstone of email marketing. We’ll uncover the common pitfalls that limit its effectiveness and offer insights into maximizing the overall benefits of A/B testing.
It’s clear that A/B testing is the best way to continually refine email campaign strategies over time and improve performance through data-driven decision making, but how can we perfect this strategy as marketers? Let’s jump into the basics…
What’s A/B Testing in Email Marketing?
A/B testing is also called split testing or variable testing. When you conduct an A/B test, you compare two variables to see which one performs better. Email A/B testing uses this process to test variations of emails or email campaigns against each other to see which performs better for a specific metric, such as open, click-through or conversion rates.
Companies typically employ this technique by segmenting their email list into two groups, version A and version B, to test different variations of an email. Often, the split is even, or it can be done as a 10/10 split, with the remaining 80% of the list receiving the winning version. More advanced approaches include using holdout groups, where emails are tested on a subset (i.e: 10% or 20%) of the regular email list for that specific segment.
After a designated time frame, typically 1 or 2 hours, sufficient data is collected to determine which version performs better. The winning version is then sent to the remaining members of that segment, helping email marketers refine their campaigns for maximum effectiveness.
You can test simple or complex variations. Here are a few examples of A/B email testing:
- Sending variations of subject lines to see if subscribers respond better to certain words, phrases or formats
- Testing variations of CTAs — such as the verbiage or where the CTA is located
- Launching email campaigns on different days or at different times to find the best time for open rates
Benefits of A/B Testing Emails
A/B testing for email campaigns doesn’t have to be difficult, especially when you use the right software and other tools. These tests are highly effective especially considering more than 50% of marketers use A/B testing to boost conversions. But conversion isn’t the only benefit to A/B testing…
A/B testing has other benefits, including:
- Statistical proof for your email marketing decisions — you won’t have to rely on instinct or trust existing processes, which may not lead to the best possible outcomes
- A competitive edge over others in the industry, especially if they aren’t also using A/B email testing to improve performance
- A better understanding of your target audience and what messaging resonates with customers — data you can use to inform future email campaigns or other marketing strategies, including social media and web content
- An increased ability to improve critical email marketing metrics like click-through and conversion rates as well as revenue driven by email
Of course, there are several things to consider when A/B testing. You can only test one variable or element at a time. Otherwise, you don’t know which element is responsible for any improved performance. It’s also important to keep in mind that new privacy regulations from Apple will likely spread to other providers making it difficult to track open rates consistently. This means you should focus on KPIs like clicks and conversions.
Try A/B Testing These 8 Email Elements
If you want to put email A/B testing to work for your organization, we’ve got eight variables you may want to test. Remember, choose one at a time when you set up your tests — otherwise, you muddy your data and won’t get any actionable insight.
1. Subject Lines
The subject line is one of the most important elements of any email because it’s a major factor in whether someone opens the email or not. This element typically shows up in bold right under the sender name or in another prominent location in the inbox.
Subject lines are a common variable of A/B testing because they’re so powerful and because they’re easy to test. You simply send the same email with different subject lines.
Here are some ideas to try when A/B testing email subject lines:
- Change the length of the subject line. Up to around 30 characters show up on mobile devices and up to around 55 characters on desktop devices, so start by testing within those ranges. Find out whether your target audience prefers a shorter or longer subject line.
- Rephrase your subject line. Test out different words and approaches, such as the difference between “Exclusive offer” and “Limited-time offer.”
- Test personalization. Your audience is more likely to respond when their name is in the subject line.
You can also test the inclusion of emojis, symbols or punctuation as well as asking questions.
2. Preview Text
The preview text, also commonly referred to as pre-header text, is a snippet, summary or sneak peek into email contents. It’s also called the preheader line, and it shows up under the subject line on some devices. It’s not as powerful as the subject line itself, but you will only know if it matters to your audience if you test it.
During this phase consider testing:
- Original preview text compared to just including the first line of the email. Sometimes the first line of your email copy is enough to pique someone’s interest – but a custom subject line could be more effective at instilling a sense of urgency or summarizing the contents of the email.
- Various calls to action in the preheader. For example, test whether your audience responds better to a directive to open the email and find out more or a more subtle call to action.
- Different summaries of what’s in the email. Preview text is short, so it can only include a little bit of information. If you can’t decide what the most important bit of your email is to tease, test it.
3. Sender Name
Sender name is what shows up in the “From:” field in an email. Emails sent by your brand might show up as “From: ABC Brand,” for example. Or you might create emails that come from specific people: “From: Sue at ABC Brand.”
What sender name will help build a personal connection with your audience best? You can’t know that until you conduct some A/B email testing.
Consider testing options such as:
- Including a person’s name instead of the company name to add a human element to email marketing.
- Testing full names versus first names only to determine how your audience wants to connect with your employees.
- Sending from a different email address may resonate with the audience better because it’s more connected to a product or sounds more professional.
4. Send Time
Google the best time to send emails and you’re likely to run across multiple articles stating that Tuesday afternoons are the ticket. In reality, Tuesday afternoons work best for some businesses. That doesn’t mean it will work best for you.
The only way you can know what day and time is best for your audience is to split test by sending emails at different times and narrowing it down for yourself.
You also have to account for trigger emails, which can’t all be sent on Tuesday afternoons. For example, you may find that cart abandonment emails work best when sent 2 hours after the person puts an item in the cart and welcome emails work best 10 minutes after sign up. Note that these aren’t recommendations; they’re examples. Run the tests for yourself to find out what works for your audience.
When you’re running A/B testing on email send times, remember to segment by time zone if possible. That way, you can figure out what’s best for each subsection of your audience.
Ideas for A/B testing email send times include:
- Testing the day of the week you send emails. Consider setting up a tournament of sorts. Have days of the week compete against each other and use email metrics to determine the champion — and find out if it is, indeed, Tuesday.
- Testing times of day. Does morning or evening work better for your audience? Do you get more performance during lunch times or in the afternoon slump around 3:00? These are the questions you can answer when you A/B test email send times.
- Testing how long after a trigger you should send emails. Do you get more performance when cart abandonment emails are sent 1 hour later, or do people return and make purchases more often when emails show up a day later?
5. Call to Action
The CTA tells the email reader what to do next, so it’s pretty important. A/B testing helps you improve CTAs to improve click-through rates.
Consider testing:
- The actual words used in the CTA
- How often do you include CTAs in emails — does one above-the-fold work, or should you repeat it later in the email?
- Does a button work better than text for your audience? If so, can you improve performance further by changing the color of the button?
- Whether size, font choices or capitalization make a difference
- The location of the CTA in the email
6. Email Copy
Most marketers agree that short and sweet is best when it comes to email copy. In fact, it can be a good idea to ensure you concentrate on a single idea in an email marketing message. Your copy also needs to be engaging and grab the attention of the recipient.
Of course, “attention-grabbing” is a subjective description, and what captures the eye of one audience won’t engage another. A/B testing helps you determine what copy works best for your audience.
Test factors such as the length of your copy, the words and style of writing you use, whether you include personalization and the tone. For example, does your audience respond better to formal or informal writing?
7. Email Design & Layout
It only takes a couple of seconds before someone decides whether to continue reading your email or not. Email readers definitely judge the book by the cover, so to speak, so your design and layout matter.
Test out design and layout variations such as whether you include plain text or HTML or send emails with simple designs or messages with many bells and whistles.
An email marketing design that resonates with your audience improves click-through and conversion rates. It can also increase brand awareness and create positive downstream effects on marketing efforts outside of email.
8. Images
If you have a little experience with social media marketing, you know that images are powerful. Facebook and Instagram posts with images get much more engagement on average than text-only posts. The same can be true for email.
A/B testing can help you understand where the line on images is for your audience.
Some ideas for A/B testing images in email include:
- Whether or not to include a header image
- How many images you include
- What type of images you include — for example, a person versus a product
- What style of image you include — for example, black and white versus colored or realistic versus painted
How to Run Better A/B Tests for Email Campaigns
Now that you have plenty of ideas for A/B email testing, let’s look at a few tips for running the best split tests you can.
Determine Which Variable to Test
Start by thinking about the business goal you want to meet. For example, if you want to increase conversion rates, then you might want to work on optimizing your CTAs, as they directly relate to conversions. Subject lines impact open rates and images and email copy can improve engagement and positive brand affinity.
Once you start working on a specific variable, repeat the test across different emails. This lets you collect more data and normalize it. Otherwise, other factors could inadvertently impact your test.
You should also test with the right type of email. If you’re trying to figure out when the best time for cart abandonment emails is, testing with your monthly subscriber newsletter is pretty useless.
Select a Random Sample of Users
Select users randomly for tests and avoid using the same people for every test. Most businesses can test with around 20% of their list. However, if you only have a few hundred subscribers, 20% of that number won’t lead to statistically significant conclusions. In these cases, test with about 80% of your list.
Run the Test
It may seem simple, but the final step is actually running the test. As previously mentioned, between 30 and 50% of organizations don’t get to this step.
Be patient as you wait for results. If you’re looking at a metric like open rates, you may have a pretty good idea of performance in just a few hours — and you definitely know which variation was a winner within a day.
But other metrics, such as click-through and conversion rate, take longer to measure. That’s because someone may open your email and decide to come back to it later or think about your offer. For these types of metrics, you may need to let the test run for a few days to ensure you have a good sampling.
Final Takeaway
By leveraging A/B testing, you can support email marketing campaigns that perform better. Looking to learn more about this process? Reach out to our Tinuiti Lifecycle Marketing experts today.
MARKETING
18 Events and Conferences for Black Entrepreneurs in 2024
Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.
It can feel isolating if you’re the only one in the room who looks like you.
MARKETING
IAB Podcast Upfront highlights rebounding audiences and increased innovation
Podcasts are bouncing back from last year’s slowdown with digital audio publishers, tech partners and brands innovating to build deep relationships with listeners.
At the IAB Podcast Upfront in New York this week, hit shows and successful brand placements were lauded. In addition to the excitement generated by stars like Jon Stewart and Charlamagne tha God, the numbers gauging the industry also showed promise.
U.S. podcast revenue is expected to grow 12% to reach $2 billion — up from 5% growth last year — according to a new IAB/PwC study. Podcasts are projected to reach $2.6 billion by 2026.
The growth is fueled by engaging content and the ability to measure its impact. Adtech is stepping in to measure, prove return on spend and manage brand safety in gripping, sometimes contentious, environments.
“As audio continues to evolve and gain traction, you can expect to hear new innovations around data, measurement, attribution and, crucially, about the ability to assess podcasting’s contribution to KPIs in comparison to other channels in the media mix,” said IAB CEO David Cohen, in his opening remarks.
Comedy and sports leading the way
Podcasting’s slowed growth in 2023 was indicative of lower ad budgets overall as advertisers braced for economic headwinds, according to Matt Shapo, director, Media Center for IAB, in his keynote. The drought is largely over. Data from media analytics firm Guideline found podcast gross media spend up 21.7% in Q1 2024 over Q1 2023. Monthly U.S. podcast listeners now number 135 million, averaging 8.3 podcast episodes per week, according to Edison Research.
Comedy overtook sports and news to become the top podcast category, according to the new IAB report, “U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue Study: 2023 Revenue & 2024-2026 Growth Projects.” Comedy podcasts gained nearly 300 new advertisers in Q4 2023.
Sports defended second place among popular genres in the report. Announcements from the stage largely followed these preferences.
Jon Stewart, who recently returned to “The Daily Show” to host Mondays, announced a new podcast, “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart,” via video message at the Upfront. The podcast will start next month and is part of Paramount Audio’s roster, which has a strong sports lineup thanks to its association with CBS Sports.
Reaching underserved groups and tastes
IHeartMedia toasted its partnership with radio and TV host Charlamagne tha God. Charlamagne’s The Black Effect is the largest podcast network in the U.S. for and by black creators. Comedian Jess Hilarious spoke about becoming the newest co-host of the long-running “The Breakfast Club” earlier this year, and doing it while pregnant.
The company also announced a new partnership with Hello Sunshine, a media company founded by Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon. One resulting podcast, “The Bright Side,” is hosted by journalists Danielle Robay and Simone Boyce. The inspiration for the show was to tell positive stories as a counterweight to negativity in the culture.
With such a large population listening to podcasts, advertisers can now benefit from reaching specific groups catered to by fine-tuned creators and topics. As the top U.S. audio network, iHeartMedia touted its reach of 276 million broadcast listeners.
Connecting advertisers with the right audience
Through its acquisition of technology, including audio adtech company Triton Digital in 2021, as well as data partnerships, iHeartMedia claims a targetable audience of 34 million podcast listeners through its podcast network, and a broader audio audience of 226 million for advertisers, using first- and third-party data.
“A more diverse audience is tuning in, creating more opportunities for more genres to reach consumers — from true crime to business to history to science and culture, there is content for everyone,” Cohen said.
The IAB study found that the top individual advertiser categories in 2023 were Arts, Entertainment and Media (14%), Financial Services (13%), CPG (12%) and Retail (11%). The largest segment of advertisers was Other (27%), which means many podcast advertisers have distinct products and services and are looking to connect with similarly personalized content.
Acast, the top global podcast network, founded in Stockholm a decade ago, boasts 125,000 shows and 400 million monthly listeners. The company acquired podcast database Podchaser in 2022 to gain insights on 4.5 million podcasts (at the time) with over 1.7 billion data points.
Measurement and brand safety
Technology is catching up to the sheer volume of content in the digital audio space. Measurement company Adelaide developed its standard unit of attention, the AU, to predict how effective ad placements will be in an “apples to apples” way across channels. This method is used by The Coca-Cola Company, NBA and AB InBev, among other big advertisers.
In a study with National Public Media, which includes NPR radio and popular podcasts like the “Tiny Desk” concert series, Adelaide found that NPR, on average, scored 10% higher than Adelaide’s Podcast AU Benchmarks, correlating to full-funnel outcomes. NPR listeners weren’t just clicking through to advertisers’ sites, they were considering making a purchase.
Advertisers can also get deep insights on ad effectiveness through Wondery’s premium podcasts — the company was acquired by Amazon in 2020. Ads on its podcasts can now be managed through the Amazon DSP, and measurement of purchases resulting from ads will soon be available.
The podcast landscape is growing rapidly, and advertisers are understandably concerned about involving their brands with potentially controversial content. AI company Seekr develops large language models (LLMs) to analyze online content, including the context around what’s being said on a podcast. It offers a civility rating that determines if a podcast mentioning “shootings,” for instance, is speaking responsibly and civilly about the topic. In doing so, Seekr adds a layer of confidence for advertisers who would otherwise pass over an opportunity to reach an engaged audience on a topic that means a lot to them. Seekr recently partnered with ad agency Oxford Road to bring more confidence to clients.
“When we move beyond the top 100 podcasts, it becomes infinitely more challenging for these long tails of podcasts to be discovered and monetized,” said Pat LaCroix, EVP, strategic partnerships at Seekr. “Media has a trust problem. We’re living in a time of content fragmentation, political polarization and misinformation. This is all leading to a complex and challenging environment for brands to navigate, especially in a channel where brand safety tools have been in the infancy stage.”
Dig deeper: 10 top marketing podcasts for 2024
MARKETING
Foundations of Agency Success: Simplifying Operations for Growth
Why do we read books like Traction, Scaling Up, and the E-Myth and still struggle with implementing systems, defining processes, and training people in our agency?
Those are incredibly comprehensive methodologies. And yet digital agencies still suffer from feast or famine months, inconsistent results and timelines on projects, quality control, revisions, and much more. It’s not because they aren’t excellent at what they do. I
t’s not because there isn’t value in their service. It’s often because they haven’t defined the three most important elements of delivery: the how, the when, and the why.
Complicating our operations early on can lead to a ton of failure in implementing them. Business owners overcomplicate their own processes, hesitate to write things down, and then there’s a ton of operational drag in the company.
Couple that with split attention and paper-thin resources and you have yourself an agency that spends most of its time putting out fires, reacting to problems with clients, and generally building a culture of “the Founder/Creative Director/Leader will fix it” mentality.
Before we chat through how truly simple this can all be, let’s first go back to the beginning.
When we start our companies, we’re told to hustle. And hustle hard. We’re coached that it takes a ton of effort to create momentum, close deals, hire people, and manage projects. And that is all true. There is a ton of work that goes into getting a business up and running.
The challenge is that we all adopt this habit of burning the candle at both ends and the middle all for the sake of growing the business. And we bring that habit into the next stage of growth when our business needs… you guessed it… exactly the opposite.
In Mike Michalowitz’s book, Profit First he opens by insisting the reader understand and accept a fundamental truth: our business is a cash-eating monster. The truth is, our business is also a time-eating monster. And it’s only when we realize that as long as we keep feeding it our time and our resources, it’ll gobble everything up leaving you with nothing in your pocket and a ton of confusion around why you can’t grow.
Truth is, financial problems are easy compared to operational problems. Money is everywhere. You can go get a loan or go create more revenue by providing value easily. What’s harder is taking that money and creating systems that produce profitably. Next level is taking that money, creating profit and time freedom.
In my bestselling book, The Sabbatical Method, I teach owners how to fundamentally peel back the time they spend in their company, doing everything, and how it can save owners a lot of money, time, and headaches by professionalizing their operations.
The tough part about being a digital agency owner is that you likely started your business because you were great at something. Building websites, creating Search Engine Optimization strategies, or running paid media campaigns. And then you ended up running a company. Those are two very different things.
How to Get Out of Your Own Way and Create Some Simple Structure for Your Agency…
- Start Working Less
I know this sounds really brash and counterintuitive, but I’ve seen it work wonders for clients and colleagues alike. I often say you can’t see the label from inside the bottle and I’ve found no truer statement when it comes to things like planning, vision, direction, and operations creation.
Owners who stay in the weeds of their business while trying to build the structure are like hunters in the jungle hacking through the brush with a machete, getting nowhere with really sore arms. Instead, define your work day, create those boundaries of involvement, stop working weekends, nights and jumping over people’s heads to solve problems.
It’ll help you get another vantage point on your company and your team can build some autonomy in the meantime.
- Master the Art of Knowledge Transfer
There are two ways to impart knowledge on others: apprenticeship and writing something down. Apprenticeship began as a lifelong relationship and often knowledge was only retained by ONE person who would carry on your method.
Writing things down used to be limited (before the printing press) to whoever held the pages.
We’re fortunate that today, we have many ways of imparting knowledge to our team. And creating this habit early on can save a business from being dependent on any one person who has a bunch of “how” and “when” up in their noggin.
While you’re taking some time to get out of the day-to-day, start writing things down and recording your screen (use a tool like loom.com) while you’re answering questions.
Deposit those teachings into a company knowledge base, a central location for company resources. Some of the most scaleable and sellable companies I’ve ever worked with had this habit down pat.
- Define Your Processes
Lean in. No fancy tool or software is going to save your company. Every team I’ve ever worked with who came to me with a half-built project management tool suffered immensely from not first defining their process. This isn’t easy to do, but it can be simple.
The thing that hangs up most teams to dry is simply making decisions. If you can decide how you do something, when you do it and why it’s happening that way, you’ve already won. I know exactly what you’re thinking: our process changes all the time, per client, per engagement, etc. That’s fine.
Small businesses should be finding better, more efficient ways to do things all the time. Developing your processes and creating a maintenance effort to keep them accurate and updated is going to be a liferaft in choppy seas. You’ll be able to cling to it when the agency gets busy.
“I’m so busy, how can I possibly work less and make time for this?”
You can’t afford not to do this work. Burning the candle at both ends and the middle will catch up eventually and in some form or another. Whether it’s burnout, clients churning out of the company, a team member leaving, some huge, unexpected tax bill.
I’ve heard all the stories and they all suck. It’s easier than ever to start a business and it’s harder than ever to keep one. This work might not be sexy, but it gives us the freedom we craved when we began our companies.
Start small and simple and watch your company become more predictable and your team more efficient.
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