5 Email Tests You Should Be Doing, But Probably Aren’t

by Katie Decker

5 Email Tests You Should Be Doing, But Probably Aren’tHave you ever gotten an email and thought “Wow, that’s exactly what I was looking for”? Chances are, the marketing gods were looking over you and knew exactly what you wanted and where you wanted to see it. Well, not exactly, but it sure seems like it sometimes. This targeted approach to email marketing doesn’t just happen. It happens through testing, testing aaaaaand more testing. To help you get to know your subscribers even better, here are 5 email marketing testing tips to try.

  1. Subject Line Length: While many of us have tested subject line copy, try testing subject line length. Your subscribers may engage more with a simple, short and easy to read subject line. For an extra simple subject, replace a descriptive word with an emoji.
  2. From Name: Trying testing a personal name vs. your company name when sending a monthly newsletter, informative campaign or an automated email, like cart or site abandons. Instead of using “Company Name” try “John from Company Name”.
  3. Opt Down: As an alternative to opting out, many email marketers have implemented an opt down option. This allows your subscribers to customize how often they want to receive emails and what kind of content those emails feature. Along with understanding your subscribers better, you’ll also see increased KPIs since subscribers will receive only campaigns in which they genuinely interested.
  4. Call to Action Copy: Color and placement are certainly important, but don’t forget about copy. Try testing two different types of CTAs: one with a more general approach and one with a more specific approach. For example: “Shop Now” vs. “Shop Pumpkin Scented Candles”.
  5. Delivery by Time Zone: Most of us know that testing the day of week and time of day is important when find the perfect deployment schedule for your campaigns. But, have you tried testing delivery by time zone? For example: Your email content is pertinent to landing in subscribers’ inboxes at 8am when they arrive at their office. When scheduling your campaign, set it to deploy at the 8am according the the subscribers time zone. You may see an increase in your open rates.

In the end, there is no single right answer for all of us. We have to take the time and the opportunity to find what is most effective for subscribers. The times (especially in a digital world) are constantly changing and the only way we can keep the integrity of KPIs strong is to find new ways to test. Have you tried testing something that we didn’t mention? We’d love to hear about what’s worked for you by commenting in the space below.