Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a way to determine which variation of an email campaign is most effective.

In a split test, you set up two variations of one campaign and send them to a small percentage of your list. Half of the test group receives Version A, while the other half receives Version B. The results are measured by the most opens or clicks, determining the winning version. Then, send this to other subscribers.

Email marketing campaigns and newsletters are a great way to get repeat business and new customers. You’re working with a pre-qualified base who have said they want to receive information from you. And most of them have done business with you. You know it’s easier and cheaper to keep customers than to get new ones.

So, split testing is vital when experimenting with new techniques or formats for your email campaigns.

What do you want to test?

The first step in setting up a successful split test is deciding what you’ll test. Although you may want to test more than one thing, it’s essential to test one thing at a time to get more accurate results.

Things to consider testing include:

• The subject line, for example, “Product X on sale!” Vs. “15 % Discount on Product X”
• The layouts of the content, for example, single column Vs. two column
• Personalization, for example, “Mr. Smith” Vs. “Smith”
• Headline
• Body text
• Images
• Testimonials to add (or whether to include them)
• Specific offer, for example, “Save 25%” Vs. “Get free shipping”
• CTA, for instance, “Sign up now!” Vs. “Click Here to Sign Up!”
• Closing text

Each of those things will influence different parts of the conversion process. For instance, your call to action will affect the number of people who buy your product or click through to your website. And your subject line determines how many people open your email.

Focus on this when deciding what to test. And, if few recipients are opening your emails, then start with your subject line. Test the most important parts first. Because your subject lines and call to actions have a great impact on conversion than the body text or images.

Should you Test the Whole List or Just Part?

In most cases, you’ll want to test the whole list. You want to get the real picture of how your email opt-in list responds to your new campaigns. Right? The best way to do these is to test the entire list.

However, there are a few instances where you’ll want to test just a part of your list:

• If you have a large email list, and the service you’re using to split test chargers per email address. In this scenario, test the largest sample you can afford and choose the names randomly for accurate results.
• If you’re running a limited offer, and you want to get as many conversions as possible. Here, run a small test batch first, and then send out the winner to your whole list.

Remember, the larger your test sample, the more accurate results you’ll get.

What Does Success Mean?

Before you send out your email variants, first decide what you’ll be testing for and what you consider success. Begin by looking at your previous results. And if you have been running the same campaign style for months or years, then you have a huge pool of data to work with.

For instance, if your historic conversion rate is 15%, then you may want to increase it to 20%, to begin with.

And if your goal for split testing is to get more people to open your emails then, look at your historical open rate and decide how much improvement you want. However, if you don’t see any improvement with the first set of split testing, then run another test, with two different versions.

Track Different Things

After mastering how to build your email marketing database and creating a compelling email marketing copy, you must look at the best ways to track and measure success over time, for maximum profit.

Tracking different things such as opens, clicks, sales, and conversion can help you know which tactic works best for your business and what strategies aren’t working and need improvement. Below, are four things you need to track and measure to make the maximum profit off your email marketing campaigns.

Email Open Rate

Open rate is the number of email recipients who opened your email. This is an essential metric to track because your email campaigns won’t do anything unless your subscribers open and read them.

Several things can affect your open rate. One is the sender’s name, and two is your email subject line.

Open rates vary depending on the size of your email list, and the method of capturing email addresses, but a healthy open rate lies between 20% and 40%. If your open rates are above that, then your email campaigns are well optimized, but if they’re below this range, then there’s an opportunity for improvement.

Your open rate is an indicator of how well your subject lines are performing. By monitoring the open rate trends for different campaigns, against your benchmark, you can test which subject lines are more compelling to your audience.

Click Through Rate

Your CTR only gives information about how many subscribers clicked on any link within your email. If you want to know which links people click on, clicks per link is what you should track.

Tracking this will help you know which content your readers like, and you can use this information to improve your future campaigns.

Average Revenue Per Email Sent

This metric helps to know how much revenue you generate from each email sent.

To calculate the average revenue per email sent, divide the total revenue generated by the number of emails set in a campaign or a set period.

This is a useful and actionable metric, which can help you make faster and better decisions, particularly if you want to use your campaigns to generate more sales.

It’s good to segment results by campaigns. You realize your automated campaigns—such as onboarding or reactivation messages—generate more sales than weekly promotional emails.

Conversion Rate

CR tracks engagement and conversion tracks effectiveness.

For instance, if the goal of your email campaign is to persuade subscribers to complete an action—such as downloading an e-book or signing up to an online course—then anyone who completes this action is a conversion. Google Analytics can track these actions if you set up Goals.

To calculate your conversion rate, divide the number of subscribers who complete the desired action by the total number of sent emails. Then, multiply your answer by 100.

Usually, conversion rates are smaller than CTR. But if you have a strong CTR with a weak conversion rate; this means your landing page or offer needs some TLC.

Split testing will help you to get better results and more profits for your business. It takes some practice to get your systems in place, but once you do, each campaign will be easy to set up, test, and refine to get the best outcome every time.

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