Once you get your email campaigns up and running, you’re not quite done. Now comes one of the most important parts: you need to optimize these campaigns in order to get great results.
See, just because a campaign is delivering some good results to you doesn’t mean it’s a good campaign. With a few simple tweaks, you may be able to double, triple or even quadruple your responses. In order to figure out what really works and what doesn’t, you need to scientifically test and track responses. That way you’re not throwing good money (or time) after bad.
So, with that in mind, check out these 17 insights for interpreting and improving your email campaign results…
1. What Can You Track and Test?
You can track, test and optimize every part of your email campaigns. This includes:
- Traffic sources. The quality of your leads is going to depend on the quality of your traffic, so be sure to test your traffic sources to determine which ones produce the best quality leads. (Also, you’ll want to optimize your ad campaigns in order to boost your overall response.)
- Lead page. Here you’ll test all parts of your lead page itself in order to maximize your conversion rate.
- Lead magnet. You can test everything from the type of lead magnet to its title to its graphics.
- Emails. This includes every part of the email, from the subject line to the opener to the call to action to the design.
- Offers. You’ll want to test different products and different offers for those products to see which ones your audience responds to the best.
We’ll be looking at these five main categories in more detail in this guide, so keep reading…
2. Decide What to Test
While you can test just about everything under the sun, you shouldn’t do that. That’s because there are some tweaks that are going to produce very small results. It’s a much better use of your time to focus on the big factors that will produce the best results for you.
The 80-20 rule comes into play here. About 20% of testing factors are going to produce 80% of the results. Your job is to focus on that impactful 20% to create the biggest lifts to your conversion rates.
Typically, here are the factors that are going to have the biggest impact:
For emails:
- Subject lines.
- Pre-headers (the preview users see before they click on your email).
- Offers.
- Calls to action.
- Overall design of the email (be sure it’s responsive/mobile-friendly).
For lead pages:
- Headlines.
- Bulleted list of benefits.
- Lead page title and ecover graphics.
- Call to action (word and button design).
- Overall design of the page.
Once you optimize these main factors, you may decide to tweak other factors. For example, you can test different font colors on a lead page, or mess with the inner paragraph in the body of an email. But don’t test these lesser factors until you’ve optimized the big ones.
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3. Gather Your Tools
You need a way to track and test your campaigns.
For the emails themselves, you can usually use your email service provider’s (ESPs) built-in tracking and testing tools. The companies I’ve mentioned throughout these guides – such as GetResponse, Aweber and ConvertKit – include these tools. They let you test things such as open rates and clickthrough rates.
For other tests, such as testing your lead page headline, you’ll need an A/B split testing tool. You can search Google for “split testing tool” and pick one that matches your needs. (One example is SplitTestMonkey.com.)
4. Test One Thing At a Time
When you’re doing an A/B split test, then you should only change one factor at a time while holding ALL other variables constant. That way, if there are any significant changes to the conversion rate, you can say with confidence that the change is due to the factor you’re testing.
Example: Let’s suppose you’re testing subject lines. What you do is create two emails that are exactly identical, EXCEPT they have different subject lines. That’s the only difference.
Then you randomly split your email list into two groups (your ESP’s tools will do this for you), with one group getting Subject Line A and one getting Subject Line B. If everything is the same except for the subject lines, then you know any difference in conversion rates is due to the subject line (and not another factor, such as a CTA or the time of day you’re sending the emails).
5. Understand That Small Tweaks Can Create Big Results
Initially when you’re testing big factors like subject lines, you may test a handful of headlines that are completely different from one another. Once you have a winner, look at your conversion rate. If you think you can improve it some more, then create small tweaks to your winning headline, which can create big results.
For example, something as simple as adding a question mark to a subject line may have a big impact.
E.G., “Lose weight without exercise” vs. “Lose weight without exercise?”
(It’s a simple tweak, but the question mark creates curiosity, which may boost conversions.)
6. 10 Ways to Optimize Your Lead Page
It’s important to maximize your lead page, otherwise you’re going to waste the vast majority of your traffic. They’ll land on your page and leave without opting in, never to be seen again.
Here are factors you can test to improve conversions. Keep in mind that you’ll want to start with the big factors mentioned earlier in the guide:
- The headline.
- The subheadline.
- The opener (first few lines on the page).
- The bulleted benefit list.
- CTA wording.
- Design/color of the CTA button.
- Design of the opt-in form.
- Overall design of the page.
- A long lead page vs. a short lead page (headline, bulleted benefit list, CTA).
- Video sales letter, text only, or text and video.
Here’s a related point…
7. Test Your Lead Magnet
You’ll also want to test your lead magnet. This includes:
- The lead magnet itself (test reports, videos, apps, memberships and other lead magnets).
- The title of the lead magnet.
- The ecover graphics.
Here’s another factor…
8. Maximize Your Confirmation Process
If you’re using a confirmed opt-in process, sometimes called the “double opt in” process, then your subscribers are going to need to click on a link in their email before they’re officially added to your list. In order to boost your opt-ins, you’ll want to test this confirmation email.
This includes:
- Test the subject line.
- Tweak the pre-head/preview text.
- Test the call to action.
TIP: As soon as subscribers fill in your opt-in form, be sure to display a page that lets them know they need to check their email and click on a link in order to officially join the list and get their requested lead magnet. You may want to test this confirmation page as well to discover if small tweaks to your instructions will boost response.
Next…
9. Track and Test Email Subject Lines
As mentioned earlier, your email subject lines are a big factor that you should focus on testing. You’ll want to test different headlines to see what your audience responds to. However, you’ll also want to make small tweaks to improve them. For example:
- Test emojis in the subject line versus no emojis.
- Test different punctuation, such as ellipses (…) at the end of the sentence vs. a question mark (?) vs. no punctuation at all.
Next…
10. Test the Body of Your Emails
One of the most important parts of the body of your email is the pre-head, as people who haven’t yet clicked on your email will see this text in their email client preview. This, along with the headline, will have a big impact on your open rate.
Here are three different ways to open your email:
- Present a subheadline with your main benefits. E.G., “You’re About to Discover the #1 Dog-Training Secret That Turns Even the Most Unruly Pup Into a Docile Dog!”
- Ask an engaging question. E.G., “Have you ever been kicked out of a PetSmart because your dog was acting nutso?”
- Share a story. E.G., “PetSmart threatened to call the police on me if I didn’t leave immediately with my dog. This is a story you won’t believe…”
Next…
11. Determine the Best Products/Offers
You may have specific products that you want to promote in your email sequences, but keep an open mind. You’ll want to rotate a variety of offers in your emails to see which ones your audience responds to the best. For example, if you’re promoting a report as a tripwire offer, you might also test out a different (yet similar) report, a video, and access to a membership site to see which offer delivers the best response.
If you’re selling your own products, then test out your offers as well. Specifically, what price are you offering? Are there any discounts available? What sort of bonuses come with the product?
If you’re selling affiliate products, then test different products as well as testing out different bonuses that you offer to buyers.
Next…
12. Strengthen Your Calls to Action
Your call to action is important, so test different versions of it. For example:
“Grab your copy of this guide now!” Vs. “Get your copy of this guide now!”
Vs.
“Get started on the best body of your life!”
Vs.
“Yes, I want to unveil the best version of myself!”
Be sure to also test the design and colors of your CTA button. Finally, test the placement of the CTA, along with the number of CTAs you insert into an email (e.g., one CTA vs. repeating the CTA).
13. Find Out What Your Audience Wants
Another thing you’ll want to determine via testing is what sort of topics your audience responds to the best. For example, if you’re sharing weight-loss information, you may find that sharing recipes tends to create the highest open rates, while exercise information almost always creates the lowest open rates.
Also, test length. Does your audience prefer short emails, or do you get higher clickthrough rates when you share longer emails?
You can also test graphics inside your emails. You can test text-only emails, versus minimal-graphic emails versus emails with 10 or more graphics.
14. Test Teasers vs Full Emails
Does your audience prefer to get as much information as needed in order for them to decide whether to click on a link, or do they respond really well to a short benefit-driven, curiosity arousing teaser? Only way to know for sure is to test it out!
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15. Optimize Traffic Sources
As mentioned earlier, the quality of subscribers starts with the quality of your traffic sources. That’s why you’ll want to track your sources to see which ones produce the best quality subscribers. Once you know that, then you can invest more of your time and money into generating traffic from the high-quality sources.
TIP: Yes, you’ll want to optimize your ad campaigns too. This includes tweaking the ads themselves (headlines, benefits, calls to action and graphics), as well as focusing on a targeted audience. For example, if you’re doing pay per click marketing, you’ll want to test to see which keywords get you the best results.
Next…
16. 2 Email Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
As you’re optimizing your campaigns, be sure to avoid these common mistakes:
Testing One Factor Over and Over
If you’re testing something like headline, you’ll probably do a few tests where you create significant boosts to the conversion rate. After a certain point, however, you’ll run headlong into the law of diminishing returns. This means that while you may get tiny changes to the conversion rate, it’s not really enough to keep justifying repeated testing. Instead, move on to another factor.
Terminating a Test Too Early
Generally, you need about 30 to 50 actions (e.g., clicks) before you can confidently say that one factor won out over the other. Don’t make the mistake of stopping a test too early just because it looks like one version is going to win. See it through to the end to be sure.
17. Track “Negative” Actions Too
Some people get so caught up in tracking opt-ins, opens and clickthroughs that they completely forget to track unsubscribes. Doing so can provide a lot of insight. For example, if you have a seven-part welcome series and a good chunk of people unsubscribe during message #3, then you’ve obviously got a problem you need to fix.
Conclusion
Ready to start getting better results with every email you send? Then put the above tips, strategies and ideas to work by testing and optimizing your email campaigns!
Keep Reading: Ideas For Using Bonuses And Incentives Effectively – Part 1
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