Did you know there are elements of your emails you can test in your email campaigns? Testing your emails is very important to decreasing the number of people that unsubscribe and increasing your click thorugh rate. Your goal is to determine what components of your email need to change if you want to get better results.
#1 The ‘From’ Name and Address
You can easily test who and where your emails are coming from. It is important to keep the name and address consistent on all of your emails. Test by sending a few emails to yourself to make sure you have impact you want.
#2 Subject Line
This is a very important part of your email. You should test the following to ensure they are the way you want them and they are working the way you want them:
* Adding a personalized message to the subject line
* The length of the subject line
* The call to action
* The words you use in the subject line
#3 Email Design
It’s a god idea to have one main template that you use all the time. Having slight variations is okay, but you don’t want huge differences because you are looking to build familiarity and at the same time impact. You will want to evaluate your design periodically to make sure it is still working and if not, then you will need to make changes. Design elements you can test include:
* Capitalization
* Bolding
* Font size
* Images
* Font Colors
* HTM vs. plain text
#4 Email Content
It’s a good idea to test the content of your email. After all, you need to make sure that you are creating the response you are looking for. You can test the following:
* Headlines – Since this is the first thing, anyone sees it should always be consistent with your subject line. You can experiment here. Maybe make it a link? Bold it? Etc. but you need to test what works.
* Placement of your content – Experiment with moving your content around to different areas in your email. Just remember the most important content should be at the beginning.
* Call to Action – This is very important! This is what creates the environment for your subscriber to take further action, so you need to test to make sure you are getting the desired click through rate.
* Placement of Links and Images – Both are okay in your email but don’t go overboard, and make sure your images are small enough that they will load quickly.
Timing
Finally, check your timing. Test to see if the email are going out at a time that’s effective. You can date time stamp your emails so you know when they are picking them up after you sent them.
What you want to test in your email marketing campaign might vary from one person to the next, but what’s important is that you do this and you do it on a regular bases to make sure you are getting what you want from your emails.
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