Email Testing

Make sure you test your emails before sending en masse:

Seed Testing: List of emails you will send to before launch

Rendering Testing: How your email displays on various email clients and browsers

Load Testing: How quick your images load on desktop and mobile devices

You can use an email testing tool like Litmus.

With Litmus you can:

• Preview email in 70+ apps and devices
• Validate links, images and tracking
• Test load times
• Build email
• Access analytics

Components to test

Test the following components in your emails:

• Subject Line
• From Name
• Pre-header
• Calls to Action
• Social media icons and links
• Unsubscribe link and address
• HTML vs Text email
• Personalization

A/B Testing

A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of an email against each other to determine which one performs better.

How does A/B testing work? Here is a great video that explains that:

Keep these tips in mind when doing A/B testing:

• Only test one variable at a time
• Split your groups equally and randomly
• Test early and test often for the best results
• Test as large a sample as you can for more accurate results
• Trust the data collected, not your gut instinct

A/B testing will lead to:

• Better understanding of each segment
• Determine the best subject line
• Improved content
• Increased conversion rates
• More sales

Measuring Campaign Performance

Click-through rate

What is it? Percentage of recipients who clicked on one or more links

How to calculate (Total OR Unique clicks / delivered emails) * 100

Example (500 clicks / 10,000 delivered) *100 = 5% CTR

Conversion rate

What is it? Percentage of recipients who clicked a link and completed desired action (purchase)

How to calculate (Number who completed desired action / delivered emails) * 100

Example (400 completed action / 10,000 delivered) *100 = 4% CTR

Bounce Rate

What is it? Percentage of emails sent that couldn’t be delivered

How to calculate (Bounced email/ emails sent) * 100

Example (75 bounced emails / 10,000 sent) * 100 = 0.75% bounce rate

Share/Forwarding Rate

What is it? Percentage of recipients who clicked “Share this” button to post to social media

How to calculate (clicks on share button / delivered emails) * 100

Example (100 clicks on button / 10,000 delivered) *100 = 1% share rate

List Growth

What is it? The growth of your subscriber list

How to calculate Add the number of new subscribers per week/month

Example 10 new subscribers a day = 70 per week

Overall ROI

What is it? Overall return on investment for the email campaign

How to calculate (($ in additional sales made minus $ invested in campaign) / $ invested in campaign) * 100

Example ($1,000 in additional sales – $100 invested in the campaign / $100 invested in the campaign) * 100 = a 900% return on investment for the campaign

Optimizing Campaign Performances

Optimizing Open rates

• Well-targeted subscriber lists

• Familiar sender name

• Effective subject lines with personalization

Click rates

Here are some tips to increase your click rates:

• Simple explicit CTAs – be direct.
• Multiple links for the same action – increasing your probability to getting a click.
• Offering deals for a limited time – scarcity encourages action.
• Testing different colors – seeing what works best.

Why optimize email for mobile

81% of people use their phones primarily for email – which is a good enough reason to optimize your emails for mobile.

You can do this by:

• Keep the flow of mobile all the way to the landing page
• Make images and emails lightweight for mobile devices
• Code for phone, tablet, and desktop
• Use reports to identify mobile device opens

Minimizing Bounces and Unsubscribes

Keep content relevant to your audience.

Ask yourself:

• Is the content aligned?
• Does subject line and content match?
• Are emails meeting subscriber expectations?

How to monitor for bounces and unsubscribes:

• Review campaign open and click dips
• Determine unsubscribes and reasons for complaints
• Understand campaign conversions
• Monitor for deliverability issues, including bounces

Final Thoughts

Email Marketing keeps topping the charts as the best ROI digital marketing strategy out there. You should also make sure to design the perfect email.

If you are looking to optimize and improve your email marketing, click here to get an email marketing strategy in place designed to get you and your business results.