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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMany marketers measure the results of their campaigns by whether a given email brings in sales. If the company is profitable, there is a general sense that email marketing is working well. And after a series of email campaigns, it\u2019s easy enough to compare the results from one campaign to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While that kind of bottom line tracking of results is better than nothing, it doesn\u2019t go far enough to answeringthe original question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The truth is there is really only one way to find out for sure if you are leaving money on the table, or even if an unprofitable campaign could be turned into a winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have to test.<\/strong> And you have to go deeper than just the amount of sales on a given email or between different emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, because email marketing is so low cost,\u00a0it can be tempting to overlook the importance of email split testing<\/em>. \u00a0Unlike in direct mail where it is cost prohibitive to mail without tracking every element for profitability, email campaigns can go on indefinitely for a relatively low cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there is a hidden cost to failing to test properly. So instead of focusing on the low cost of email marketing, think of the potential loss of sales due to lack of email split testing<\/strong> as a very expensive opportunity cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, opportunity cost is the difference between what your profits would be after optimizing your campaigns versus the likely lower profits from emailing blindly or with insufficient testing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Put another way, the rewards of testing can far outweigh the time and effort required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The advantage of email is that you can multiply your message from one person, the one writing the email, to many, the potentially thousands upon thousands of subscribers reading the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of this \u2018one to many\u2019 dynamic, it is possible to cost effectively stay in touch with your subscribers and generate a healthy ROI that elude brick and mortar businesses without email lists. \u00a0After all, it would be too time consuming and cost prohibitive for most businesses to send a physical mail piece to their prospects and customers. \u00a0However, with an email list, some businesses email once every day or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disadvantage is that you don\u2019t get the same kind of feedback that you\u2019d get talking to each subscriber face to face like you would in a face to face brick and mortar business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The danger of not getting feedback one-to-one is that email campaign strategies end up being made in a vacuum. The risk in making decisions in a vacuum is that if you stray too far from what your subscribers are actually interested in, you will eventually kill your list because you are \u2018talking at them\u2019 instead of with them<\/strong>. Over time they tune out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the good news is that you don\u2019t have to talk to subscribers in person to test and track their likes and dislikes. \u00a0That\u2019s because it is incredibly easy to set up various tests on your email campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a side note, while surveying your subscribers can yield valuable information that is not the testing we\u2019re talking about here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simply put, surveys can give you an idea of what your subscribers think, but the limitation is that at times people\u2019s purchasing behavior is different than what they think it would be. If you\u2019ve ever made an impulse purchase then you know the dynamic involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The better answer is to test and track what your subscribers actually do rather than what you think they\u2019ll do, or what they think they\u2019ll do by email split testing. You\u2019ll find that most often the numbers don\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What should you look at when using email split testing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n By measuring those 5 conversion elements you can determine the relative effectiveness of different variations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you test all these variables?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The simplest way is to do A\/B split tests using the functionality in your email program. That allows you to test two variations by segmenting your list where each segment would get one version and not the other. By doing this with a statistically significant number of subscribers you can get a win, lose or draw answer on each test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A simple email split testing design would segment your list into three parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ideally, you would want to see the results from the split test repeat when mailing the winning version to the larger sample.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/heathertankersley.com\/emaildelivered\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/downloadbutton1.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHere\u2019s why\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThere are five main conversion elements that you can track.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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