When it comes to email split testing most email marketers don’t go beyond subject-line or perhaps day-of-the-week testing. Testing your email creative can significantly increase conversions and click-throughs. Unless you try different options you will likely fail to optimise your email creative. Even if the test doesn’t make any difference, or in fact actually turns out to be detrimental, at least you know this outcome for the future – especially if someone puts the question to you.
Trying to think of what to test can be tricky, so we’ve put together some suggestions on different email creative elements to test with.
When you try these tests always remember to only test one thing at a time, selecting only one variable, and to measure using either click-throughs or conversions as your measure of success. This should be consistent across your test samples.
For example, in a recent set of emails I sent, I tested whether having generic copy would be better or worse than an email that was personalised from me to the individual and included a personalised signature. Having personalised copy and a signature increased my overall conversions from the email by 32 per cent.
Call to action:
1. Above the fold or below the fold
2. Button vs. link
3. Colour of button
4. Shape of button; rounded corners vs. straight corners
5. Call-to-action (CTA) copy: generic action word (like “download,” “click,” “buy,” etc.) vs. creative action word (like “get,” “learn,” “discover,” etc.)
6. Personalised CTA (i.e. first name directly within the CTA)
7. CTA button location (top, bottom, left, right)
8. CTA button size
9. Duplicate CTAs to create exit points throughout an email
Images:
10. Logo location – top left, top middle, top right, bottom
11. Logo size – bigger vs. smaller
12. Different images – change the actual image itself
13. Smaller images vs. larger images
14. Animated GIFs vs. no animated GIFs
15. Photography vs. illustrations
Copy:
16. First-name vs. no-first-name personalisation
17. More copy vs. less copy
18. Use only headline CTAs vs. headlines, copy and CTA
19. Prose copy vs. bullet points
20. Hyperlinks to CTAs vs. no hyperlinks
21. Written tone of voice
22. Alignment
Layout:
23. Single-column vs. two-column
24. The order of the stories
25. Single story email vs. multiple story emails
26. Different optimisation for mobile responsiveness; hiding images or menus on a mobile or hiding less important items altogether
27. Long vs. short emails
28. Spacing between email elements
29. Order of content (storytelling/narrative)
Closing:
30. Sign off your email vs. don’t sign off your email.
31. Postscript vs. no postscript
32. Headshot vs. no headshot