Email Testing: A Checklist for Success

Posti PediaFebruary 8, 2022

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Email Testing: A Checklist for Success

Because of the immediacy of email data, testing should become an integral part of your ongoing email marketing efforts. Knowing what to test, how to test it and what to glean from the results will make your email initiatives perform to their fullest.

Use this post as a guide to your email testing efforts. If you follow each of these steps within your email testing process, your campaigns will most likely be much more effective and rewarding.

Use this checklist to explore all of the key areas of testing that will drive your success.

Key Things to Remember When Testing

Testing in email is crucial

Start testing today—you don’t need to have the master plan
Establish a test protocol
Be creative and thorough in your testing areas
Test beyond the click and look at conversions
Test and review frequency and timing
Make sure you test accurately and reliably with lists
Always have one change action as a result of a test
Never stop testing

Step #1—Ask a Question

Start the testing process by asking a question. What are you hoping for? Determine a specific goal to accomplish rather than attempt multiple goals with one blanket approach. A series of small steps can be easy to test and analyze.

I’d like to have more people open my messages
I’d like to have more people click through to my Website
I’d like to re-engage with historically inactive people
I’d like to have people click on a specific area, topic or action

Step #2—Form a Theory

Use your marketing experience and best practice knowledge to determine what aspects may make a difference in achieving the goal you’ve defined.

I think people may be bored with my current subject lines
I think that the placement of the specific content may drive more people to action
I think that people may not understand this is from my organization, and therefore will not interact
I think my calls to action need to be stronger

Step #3—Create the Test

Set up your test, following best practices. Remember, you don’t need to prove the obvious.

To optimize opens, I’m going to test: (one per test)

From name
Best day to send
Subject line
Best time to send

To optimize click-throughs, I’m going to test: (one per test)

Creative/layout
Subject lines
Copy
From name
Calls to action

To optimize conversions, I’m going to test: (one per test)

Landing pages
Calls to action
Creative/layout
Subject lines
Copy
From name

Step #4—Segment the List

Choose the best list or segment to test, and split it (for that specific test).

I’m confident this list is the most appropriate to prove or disprove my theory
My list is only large enough to do an A/B split
My list is large enough that I can break it into a larger control and other smaller test segments
My list is large enough that I can sample a percentage of my list to test

Step #5—Measure and Analyze Results

Measure and analyze results to gain insight and prove or disprove theory. Accurately compile stats (to conversions). What does it all mean? Look beyond the numbers. Even small percentage differences can mean large gains in response rates.