(4 min read)
One of the best ways to increase engagement with your subscribers is to A/B test elements of your email to discover the most effective messaging.
Targeted Email allows you to test a variety of different parts of your email, including sender name, sender email, subject line, and the content of your email.
A/B Test Tips
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Test one element at a time so that you know what generates increased engagement.
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Select a segment with enough subscribers to run a test. Testing with too few subscribers can return inaccurate results.
Setting up your A/B test
Begin by creating your email. Then, on the Compose Message step, fill out all the information for your first variant. What you add here will be automatically copied to your next variant.
Copying your first email reduces the chances that you will create additional variables. You want to make sure you are only testing one element. For example, if you are testing the subject line, you should make the change in the subject line of the B variant and keep everything else the same.
Select Add a Test Case to create your variant. You can test up to 10 variants (called A-J).
Send yourself a sample email to make sure the email looks correct across different browsers, devices, and services before you send anything to your audience.
Creating your test groups
On the Review & Deliver Message step you can create your test groups using the Recipient Breakdown to enter a percentage or raw number to test.
When creating your groups:
- The feature will use your hard count and not the percentage when sending your email. If your list size changes before you send it, you may want to recalculate your test groups.
- You will not need to recalculate the groups if you are using 100% of your list for the test.
- Your email will fail to send if your list changes between scheduling and sending your message and there are no longer enough recipients to fill all the variants. To send your message you will need to recreate the email from the existing one and try again.
Sending your email and selecting a winner
You can review a summary of your test cases under Review Message Info and confirm that your variants have all the required information before sending. Once scheduled, your email will appear in the Pending section on the dashboard.
To minimize the task work of managing your targeted emails, you can opt to have your winning email automatically sent with Pick Winner. You can set a metric to evaluate the winning variant and a wait time for data to return before the winner is determined.
If you choose to pick and send the winner manually, provide yourself with ample time for information on your variants to return before you select the email to send. When you're ready, Select Winner and review the stats for each variant. Send the winning email immediately or schedule to send it later.
You can also choose to withdraw the email, though once you choose to withdraw an email you can no longer change it.
Sent emails are listed in the Sent Messages section of the dashboard where you can review the overall stats of your email.
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Withdrawn emails have an indicator next to the email name
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View detailed information about an email by clicking the graph icon
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View the stats for each variant, the winner variant, and the total for all emails.
Viewing results using email reports
Learn how your message is performing across multiple emails by using the Email Test Case Comparison Report. This report is similar to your Email Comparison Report, but it includes additional columns that are useful for A/B testing. Add columns for Subject Line, From Name, and From Email Address to compare how alternative choices affect your results.
To learn which links in which test email received more clicks, you can review at the Email Links Clicked Report.
Looking for training?
Explore this feature at your own pace - join a live training session or watch a recorded webinar by clicking the link below.