Jun

Do you spend time split testing?

Filed Under (Blogging, Email Marketing, Internet Marketing) by Zacky on 25-06-2008

Most people will ignore this but split testing on your headline, subject, email sent out, getting people to opt in are kind of important if you want to know what actually work.

So what do you actually need to test?

How many times have you heard “you should test to see what works best for you”? Probably too many to count, right? When it comes to internet marketing or making money online, testing separates the pros from the normal Joes.

So, to help you get started with split testing, here are some split tests you can run on your website to get and retain more subscribers, lower spam complaints, and increase response and even increase sales.

Create one headline without benefit and just features of your product and two weeks later, change the headline to include some benefits without feature of your product.

Track and see if your visitors tend to stay longer on your site to know they are actually read the whole sales page.

Create a general topic on your blog post without pumping in certain keyword and few days later create the same topic with certain keyword pumped in the subject line. But you have to change the order of your content or it will be seen as duplicated content by your readers and search engines.

Track and see if there’s more hits after submitting it to the normal bookmarking sites that you presently use.

Send one broadcast with personalization in the subject line, and one without.

Do subscribers respond to personalization, or do they see it as a “gimmick?”

Try using a different call to action on your signup form besides the old classic “Submit.”

Come up with 2-3 short phrases, create your forms and compare opt-in rates (a couple options: “Sign Me Up”, “Send Me _____”, “Keep Me Informed”). Keep whatever you’re using now too, and make it the “control” in your experiment.

Not everyone wants to submit to getting email from you. Find out what trigger they respond to.

For your next broadcast, add a permission reminder (”you’re receiving this email because you signed up at ____” etc) in the message. Compare your clickthrough rates, and your spam complaint rates.

Does reminding people why they’re receiving an email make them any more likely to recognize and trust you? Does it make them more likely to read through your email and/or click on links in it?

There are of course other things that you can test but the above is just the few which I usually test and to have a better understanding of what works and what’s not.