Why? It is only after you start testing that you identify what is and what is not worth testing, so trying to identify the things to test 6 months in advance is useless. In my decade of email marketing I have yet to get past the first month of a test plan before it is ripped  up and a more flexible ongoing approach is taken.

Here is an example of what can happen. You start testing subject lines on your test plan, then within a few weeks you think you have some interesting results, but when you put them into action, repeating the success of the winning versions does not happen. The outcome? We need to test subject lines every single time to be sure of finding a winner and loser.

Another example is in testing pre-headers. You realise the email works better without it. Adding a pre-header just adds clutter and distraction from the main call-to-action. So if this is the case what other clutter can we remove? Immediately we might decide to change our test plan to see what else we can take out to reduce clutter.

One test not only gives you some answers, but it tells you what is next to test. You don’t need to go into the effort of writing a test plan.

So why do we do it still? Perhaps because we think it is the right thing to do. Google email marketing best practice and an ‘email guru’ will tell you a testing plan is one of the top 10 things to do, and Google is never wrong! Also, we feel we need to show management that we have a plan.

The best solution is to maintain a wishlist of things that might make a difference to your email programme and are worth testing, but don’t put a single date or order of priority on it. That way we still have something to show we are thinking about it, but we let the outcomes of our testing tell us what we should do next.

Now that MVT rather than just A/B testing is becoming available it makes it quicker to pursue your test ideas – no longer are you restricted to one test a month to keep results reliable, now you can go full throttle and test as much as you can create. As far as MVT is concerned, a testing plan simply adds bureaucracy and a hurdle to getting stuff done.

So next time someone asks you to write a test plan, you now know why you should tell them it is a pointless activity.

So you have an amazing MVT tool, now to test your email campaigns – what should you start with? The general rule of thumb is:

• Start with your emails aimed at conversion, re-activation or cross-selling – small changes here will make a big difference, plus the results are more repeatable than newsletters, where each edition will have different content, lessening the reliability and usefulness of some results.

• Think about the objective of the email – how can your tests support this? Is your newsletter about engagement? Then maybe your tests should be around how we get people to read more articles. If your email has a simple single action, like ‘Buy this product’ or ‘Review this purchase’ or ‘Come back and get a special discount’, then your tests should be aimed at maximising this, which usually means evaluating your call-to-actions and key messaging.

Once you have established which emails to test and the objectives for each then here are the key areas to look at:

Buttons & Call-to-actions
Simply, how can you make them stand out more? Should you make them orange? If you have a text call to action, have you tried reversing the text so it is perhaps white text on an orange background? Have you tried different text – how can you improve ‘click here’ – does ‘Buy Now’ work better?

Subject Lines
Subject lines are traditionally the first thing tested in an A/B test programme. However if you have done this you will know that the subject line that fits with the main content at the top of the email, will perform best. So when performing a multivariate test, try testing a number of subject lines, to see which one performs best with different combinations of content within the body of the email. You could find one combination outperforms the rest, even if when measured individually it is not the best performing subject line.

Remove clutter
If you have a single specific goal for your email, any additional clutter will distract reader and therefore should be removed. Try taking things out to see what happens, such as the pre-header and link to the online version, any menus in the header to sections of your website, or even any in-line links in text. If you only want someone to click on one link, test not having other distracting content and you should see an improvement.

Headlines
The headline is possibly the first thing someone will digest when reading your email. Try different text here, as it can make as big of a difference as subject line to overall performance.

Credentials
Why should your customers trust you or what you claim? Does adding logos of the likes of Verisign help persuade people your website is secure? Does adding customer testimonials or review scores improve click-thru rate on product offers?

Product Detail
How much is too much? Should you just have product name, image and price or should you add further information, and if so how much before the added clutter hinders the click-rate?

Product Imagery
Is it worth investing in extra photography, perhaps showing the product you are offering in action against the single box shot offered by the manufacturer?

Offer
If you have a special offer campaign what incentive works best? Does 10% off work better than Free Delivery?

These ideas are just examples of what can be done. If you have an idea of what might impact performance then create an MVT or A/B test.

Maxemail has become the first email solution to have a true Multivariate Testing (MVT) option built in, but why have we added it? Essentially we have added it as it gives marketers much greater power than simple A/B testing.

Here is why MVT Rocks compared to A/B testing, on email marketing campaigns:

Quicker to test
A/B Tests can only handle one change at a time – any more than this and you have no idea what caused the change in performance, and by how much. Therefore it can take forever to test everything you want to test. However with MVT you can keep adding new tests as you think of them, and automatically work out the best performing combination, cutting test time from months to maybe a day.

Easier to identify change between combinations
MVT not only identifies the best variations, but also the best performing combinations. Indeed just because you have identified one call-to-action works better than another, it might not actually perform best against other hero images or headlines you want to test.

Easier to manage
Each A/B test is a different creative, and therefore a different email. While most ESP’s still make this fairly easy to manage, it is still clunkier and less scalable than MVT where more than a handful of test variants are wanted.

A/B Testing still exists though, as it has its place. Where you are perhaps testing fundamental structual changes to a template, or only testing one thing, then A/B testing works fine. However if you are serious about your email testing strategy, then MVT is the only credible option.

Recently our Principal Email Marketing Consultant – Sean Duffy, was interviewed by Ciaran from Target Internet on his views on all things Email Marketing.

Listen to a podcast of the Interview for some useful insights into email marketing topics ranging from customer relationship strategies and design tips all the way through to email analytics, the recent data breaches effecting the industry and the what the future may hold for email marketing.

You can view this and other digital marketing podcasts at www.targetinternet.com

If you would like to discuss any of the topics covered in this podcast please get in touch.

Segment Reports is a feature within our Maxemail platform that allows you to drill down on your email reports to see how each segment of your database is performing.

This can be done on an individual send or a whole series of emails giving you say the average open and click rate of each segment over the last 12 months of your newsletters.

Here are some ideas of who this could be used:

• Male versus female – does one gender perform better than others? If so how should you tweak your emails accordingly and does any change you make show a closing of your ‘gender equality gap’?
• Location – do you have a North/South divide in your list? Do customers around certain retail stores perform better?
• Welcome Programme – do those people that received a Welcome email have stronger open rates on subsequent emails?
• Re-activation emails – If you have re-targeted those non-openers can you now see an uplift in future email engagement?
• Product Category – Do customers who have bought a particular category of product have higher click rates on emails where items in this category are included in the subject line?

You can watch a short video of this in action below: