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Three Common Mistakes When A/B Testing Emails

Written by eTargetMedia.

By now, you are likely aware of the need to perform A/B testing on your email campaigns. Making changes to your emails — whether major or subtle — can have a significant impact on your email’s effectiveness so it’s important to test potential changes and monitor their effectiveness. But in order to get the most out of your A/B testing you need to do it correctly.

Here are three common mistakes which eTargetMedia has found that even experienced digital marketers make when performing A/B testing on their emails:

Drawing Conclusions From Early Results: With email marketing, you can see the results of your A/B testing in real time as recipients open their emails and click through to your site. This is powerful information but it can also be misleading. People who open your emails right away are likely to respond differently than people who take their time. Wait at least 24 hours before doing any serious analysis of your results.

Testing One-Off Emails: If your company has a one-time Valentine’s Day sale, chances are you are going to send an email about it. But you aren’t going to learn a lot that will help your business long-term by testing the Valentine’s Day specific content in that email (such as the size and shape of a heart). Save your A/B testing for elements that can apply to all of your emails.

Altering Too Many Elements: It’s tempting to test multiple elements in one A/B email campaign. The problem is that this makes it impossible to determine which changes led to which results in your testing. You should only change one element at a time during your A/B testing.

eTargetMedia is a leading provider of targeted email and postal mailing lists. The company also provides creative services that can help businesses of all sizes with their digital marketing needs.