New Year’s resolution: Test before you send

Hands down, email is the easiest medium to test for effectiveness. Here are some examples of tests that we recommend to help you achieve optimal results.
Pascale Guay
1 January 2013
Omni-Channel Marketing Campaign
2 min 15
prenez la resolution de tester

Hands down, email is the easiest medium to test for effectiveness. Here are some examples of tests that we recommend to help you achieve optimal results in 2013. Remember to test only one feature at a time.

Subject line

All marketing professionals agree that the subject line is the key to obtaining the best results. The subject sets the tone of your message and invites the recipient to open it. A small change to this line could mean a big improvement in results. One simple test is to copy the content of your message into a new email and change the subject line. Choose two random samples from your contacts and send them the messages. A few hours later, check the results for the number of people who opened the messages, clicked a link or unsubscribed from the list. Chose the message with the best results and send it to the rest of your list. Be careful to send only one copy to each person.

Timing your mailings

Your contacts determine the best time to reach them. The market can be a good indicator, but depending on the type of message, the ideal mailing time can vary. For example, consider sending out flyers on weekends, since people have more time to view them. To test whether or not this rule applies to you, choose a message and mail it at several different times during the week. Begin by testing which day works best by sending 20% of your messages each day from Monday to Friday. You can also test by time of day, such as morning, noon, afternoon or evening.

Calendar

When possible, we recommend that you always use the same message for testing. However, it can be difficult to target your contacts over a long period (e.g. 20 test groups five days a week, four times a day). Consequently, we suggest that you do four tests each week, and at the end of your five-week test period, take the best results and retest with only one message to confirm your results.

Call to action

This is a crucial part of your message. A good call to action can deliver excellent results. First, decide on the result you wish to achieve: a higher click rate, more visits to your site, more conversions into customers, and so on. Make sure you have the right tools in place to identify which call to action led to which result. For example, include the campaign name in your hyperlink so that Google can generate a traffic report or the information can be sent to your sales system.

Example of a call to action

Subscribe

Again, you should test only one thing at a time. You can test the wording of your button, its colour, its placement, or any other feature you wish. This type of test requires a little more time, since you’ll want to see the full results of your mailing and not simply the open and click rates. Give yourself time to analyze the results (at least 24 hours) before deciding which call to action works best. Again, once you’ve completed your series of tests, do a final check to ensure that your results are consistent.

Find out how your company can benefit from Dialog Insight.

Read also

Blog

Revolutionize your audience engagement through personalization and relationship marketing

In a media landscape saturated with content, capturing consumer attention is a major challenge for entertainment companies. To stand out, an attractive offer alone is no longer enough—brands must engage their audience in a personalized, relevant, and continuous way. This is where relationship marketing strategies come into play, supported by intelligent data analysis and automated interactions.

Blog

Create a consistent omnichannel experience to boost your sales through intelligent customer data activation

Today, consumers effortlessly move from one screen to another, from one channel to the next, before making a purchasing decision. In the face of this complexity, simply being present across multiple channels is no longer enough. What truly makes a difference is a brand’s ability to deliver a seamless, consistent, and personalized experience at every stage of the customer journey.

News

Make your analysis more reliable by identifying openings generated by Apple bots

With the widespread adoption of privacy protection in email tools, marketers are facing a major challenge: the reliability of open rates. Thanks to our feature, it is now possible to identify and filter out openings automatically generated by Apple bots.

Omni-Channel Marketing Campaign

How to Pivot Your Digital Marketing to Leverage Zero-Party and first-party data

It's time to shift the focus of your marketing strategies to zero-party and first-party data.

News

Automatically Sync Your Audiences with Meta Ads

Simplify your ad campaigns with the new Dialog Insight x Meta Ads integration. Automatically sync your audiences with Facebook and Instagram for more efficient, cohesive, and effortless campaigns.

Omni-Channel Marketing Campaign

Handy tips to craft compelling emails

We’re living in an era where everybody is flooded daily with wave upon wave of emails and messages. How do you stand out in this digital tsunami? The answer is: keep it simple.