Why you need to test your E-mail campaigns

August 27, 2009 | Posted by Carolyn Pikoulas
Marketing is a lot like science. If you can measure or test it, you can improve it. This is especially true with your e-mail campaigns. You must test, study and adjust your messages to know what works and what doesn't. Whether it's frequency, subject lines, visual design, call-to-actions, attention-grabbing headlines, or timing, there are many factors that contribute to a campaign's success or failure. Here are some tips to follow to help you create better campaigns...

The great thing about e-mail marketing is that it allows an array of measurement points that let you see how well your customers are responding to your message. You can see who opened the e-mail, what they clicked on, which link received the most hits, and where they went on your website. Over time, you can learn which subject lines work best, which headlines or offers attract the most clicks, or which time of day works best to send.

What kind of e-mail should you create?
It really depends on your audience, your business, and your offer. You might send out an e-newsletter every so often with great free information and have call-to-actions sprinkled throughout. Your subscribers may have a high open rate because they want the free information. However, the click-through rate on your offers might be lower because they don't appeal to the newsletter audience. On the other hand, you could get a higher click-through rate if your offers are relevant to the subject matter and have well-written copy about the benefits. Pure advertising messages usually have a low open and click-through rate compared to content-rich newsletters.

Test 1: Delivery
The first step is to make sure your message gets to your customer. Assuming you use an E-mail Marketing Campaign Management tool, you must first get through spam filters, avoid being black-listed, and have e-mail addresses that are valid.

Test 2: Open Rate
The percentage of people who actually see the message is called your open rate. Open rate is most often used for subject line testing (because the content isn't displayed unless someone is persuaded to read what's inside). Also, people are concerned about who exactly is sending the e-mail, so it's important to make sure the "FROM" field is appropriately filled.

• To improve your open rate, try two or more different subject lines the next time you send an e-mail campaign. Split your audience and send one subject line to one group and another subject line to the other group. Your open rate will tell you which subject line appealed most to your customers.

Test 3: Click-Throughs
Even if you determine that some people have opened your e-mail, it doesn't necessarily mean they looked at it. They need to take the next step and click a link from the e-mail to your website. Your click-through rate is calculated as the number of customers who clicked a link out of the total number of messages that were sent. If you have a good click-through rate, you can be sure your e-mail was partly successful, even if no one actually buys anything from you. You're at least marketing your brand and staying in front of your customers.

• Use the click-through rate to determine how effective your message content is. If you have a good open rate but a poor click-through rate, then you're probably doing a good job of grabbing customers with your subject line, but not explaining the benefits of what you are offering very well.
• The key to a good click-through rate is relevance. If your offer is relevant to a specific audience, you'll have a higher click-through rate than if you send the same message to a more general audience.
• As soon as visitors click through from a message to your website, you are also measuring the effectiveness of your website to seal the deal.

Test 4: Call-To-Action
Your call-to-action should be compelling, relevant to the audience, and clearly explain the benefits of taking the next step, which is a phone call or e-mail.

Test 5: Conversion
Finally, if everything goes according to plan, the customer either contacts you or buys your product or service. Your conversion rate measures how many people reached a purchase decision based on the message you sent them. This is when an anonymous website visitor becomes one of your valued customers.

• Many factors contribute to conversion rates. It depends on the current market conditions, the competitiveness of your industry, the appeal of your content or offers, and the number of times your prospect has come in contact with your business/brand.

Test 6: Optimization
Now that you understand the metrics, you can use them to optimize and troubleshoot your e-mail campaigns. After every campaign, you should sit down and analyze what happened. Step through the metrics one at a time and compare them to your other campaigns.

• Test e-mail creative: subject lines, visual design, content and images.
• Test the offer. Perhaps use two different offers in a campaign to gauge which one inspires more people to take action.
• Test frequency and time: the day of the week and time of day to send e-mails

Before you send an e-mail campaign, you must first realize your goals and set your expectations. Do you expect people to run to the phone and call you, check out your website, or do you simply want to keep your business in front of your customers' eyes? These questions need addressed each time.

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