A/B Testing and Email Sub-Lists

Posted on June 20, 2008 by Ted Nevels

Ever Wonder What Kind of Email Marketing Copy Your Clients Respond to Best?

Would they prefer Sales copy or perhaps more direct and informative copy? Well now you can find out just the kind of marketing copy that will make them not only read your emails, but get them to click through to your site which could result in a sales conversion for you!

A/B testing is something that can help you answer that question. In order for A/B testing to work, you need to be able to break your lists into 2 or more sub-lists for various purposes. 

Say you have written 2 emails that sell your product and you want to send the email that gives the best response. The classic A/B test is to split your list into 3 parts:

Test List A = 10% of the list
Test List B = 10% of the list
Final Production List C = the remaining 80% of the list

With this strategy, you prove the effectiveness of email A or B on only 20% of the list, and then the winner is broadcast to the remaining 80%.

For a more thorough discussion of A/B Testing see: How to Improve A/B Testing by Bryan Eisenberg. 

Eisenberg states:  A/B testing is a proven means to increase conversion rate. It's not as simple as it appears. It's more than simply testing two or more versions of Web pages, banners, search ads, or whatever persuasive element you can imagine. It also has limitations.

A/B testing, unlike the intuitive creative process, must be treated like a true scientific experiment...   
Read full article at the source.

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