As the internet and digital media have evolved, marketers have followed suit. For example, with social media marketing—the practice of using online platforms to foster communications that influence purchasing decisions—time-tested strategies such as surveys and focus groups are typically used instead of more advanced research methods like A/B testing. This approach often leads to a misallocation of resources within an organization. It should go without saying that you should test all of your content since you can’t predict how consumers will react to what you’ve written. Anything you write may be inadvertently insulting or unclear. Some of the lines may not be as enticing as you had hoped. Testing is the only way to know for sure. However, this has become a cliché. People speak about “testing this” and “testing that,” but few do it. Many individuals talk about testing, but a small percentage do it. The purpose of this piece is to demonstrate why you should be testing and how you can do so for your company.
Why You Should Test, Test, and Test Again?
Let’s start with why you need to test in the first place. This is because testing is the only method to determine how effective your text is. Everyone has an opinion when you’re sitting in a boardroom discussing a campaign. Some individuals believe you should use this image, while others think you should use a different one. Some individuals believe that bigger typefaces should be used, while others believe smaller fonts should be used. When coming up with an initial design, you often have to merely choose one choice or the other based on the best information you have and then go on. Then, if feasible, test since you never know how your design and a copy will function in the real world. IWe’vediscussed how a single word change raised click-throughs for an email campaign by 46 percent. Previous postings For the same amount of advertising expenditures invested, extrapolating across 2,000,000 emails sent resulted in 17,000 additional clicks. If you want to get the most bang for your buck, testing is the way to go. Here’s another illustration. Switch Video recently tested a one-word text update on their call-to-action-button wording, which resulted in a 228 percent boost in conversions. That’s accurate; you read it correctly. A single word modification resulted in a 228 percent boost in website conversions. You may be wondering how they did it. First, they conducted a poll of its clients to understand more about them. They noticed from the surveys that site visitors wanted to understand more about cost, so the button wording was modified from “Get a Free Consultation” to “Get a Free Quote.” This one-word adjustment resulted in a 228 percent increase in form submissions. That’s a significant gain over replacing a single word, but without testing, your team may be debating which term is superior for days. For example, “Free consultation” may be preferred by three-quarters of the team over “Free quotation,” so you choose that option. What’s the result? There are 228 percent fewer form submissions for you.
Switch video raised conversions by 228 percent by changing one word on their call-to-action button. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that these slight adjustments may significantly impact.
Strategies to start testing your copy
Test 1: Email Subject Lines
The first thing you should check is the subject lines of your emails. The good news is that most email marketing platforms make A/B testing subject lines for your emails simple. MailChimp, for example, makes A/B testing your campaigns a breeze. It will send the winner to the remaining 80% of your list after delivering two copies to 20% of your list. Here are some examples of how this works in action. Again, MailChimp is a good example. To run an A/B test in MailChimp, create a new campaign and then pick “A/B Split Campaign” from the drop-down menu.
Clients for email marketing, such as MailChimp, make it simple to test your subject lines. After that, decide how you want to put up your exam. You may choose a winner using “open rate,” “click rate,” or “manual” criteria. The click rate is usually the most excellent choice, but you may select what makes the most sense for your email.
Finally, you’ll build up the remainder of your email campaign after doing your test by inputting two distinct subject lines. For example, we might use two subject lines for our example project, like as:
Sign up for a free trial of Simple Survey Tool now. Find out why the Simple Survey Tool is causing such a stir. Both of these topic lines are distinct enough to provide valid test results. After sending them to 20% of your list, you’ll be able to tell which one is most likely to outperform the other 80%. Setting up an A/B test in most email marketing applications is as simple as clicking a few buttons and coming up with two distinct subject lines, as this example illustrates.
Test 2: Email Creative and Copy
You may also test your email creativity and text in addition to subject lines. Your ad or website’s design and text must work together to get the best results. Send one email to one set of recipients and another email to a separate group of recipients to test this. The design and text that are utilized in emails may make a difference. To begin, you’ll need to formulate the hypothesis you’ll be testing. Will you compare two color schemes, two layouts with various text sizes, or two copy versions? For example, you may try two copy variations for the call-to-action button. The first may use “Buy Now” as a call to action, while the second could use “Learn More” as a call to action. You might also check the copy’s length. You may write more copy for the “Buy Now” version and more miniature copy for the “Learn More” version since you’ll need to say more to persuade customers to “Buy Now” than you will to convince them to “Learn More.” You may be asking what this scenario is testing. You can measure the following things using a test like this: It’s OK to track both, but in most circumstances, tracking orders is much more crucial since one version may generate more clicks while the other affects more rankings. So, how do you compare order numbers with a test like this? Using the Google URL Builder to create marketing links is one option. Let’s have a look at how we can achieve that right now.
- Using Google URL Builder to Create Campaign Links
You may create campaign URLs for multiple ad types to track the effectiveness of different campaigns. Go to the Google URL builder first.
Begin inputting data for your various campaigns after you’ve arrived. We’ll be comparing “Buy Now” vs. “Learn More” and entering the data appropriately for ours. Here’s all you need to know about version 1:
Here’s everything you need to know about version 2:
We got the following tracking URLs when we submit:
So, how can you put these URLs to good use? To begin, insert them in the right areas in your email campaign, such as “Buy Now” or “Learn More” links and call-to-action buttons for good email campaigns. Google Analytics will begin tracking visitors and conversions from those links after you’ve done so. The modifications are significant for determining which email generated the most signups or sales. (Note: To monitor conversions, you must first set up conversion objectives in Google Analytics. Then, in Google Analytics, go to “Traffic Sources” and then “Campaigns” to see the campaign outcomes.
You may send them out as part of an A/B test to determine which email version converts better now that you’ve set up campaign URLs whose conversions will be recorded inside Google Analytics. For example, we could send the “Buy Now” version to 10,000 emails and the “Learn Additional” version to 10,000 more emails in an example test. You’ll know which one gets more clicks and purchases after analyzing the data, and you can distribute the winning version to the remainder of your list. Setting up conversion objectives in Google Analytics and campaign URLs in the Google URL Builder allows you to compare and contrast multiple campaigns to determine which one performs better. For campaigns that need a significant expenditure, in-depth testing for alternative design and copy variants make more sense. For example, it’s easier to test your subject line to see which gets the best open or click-through rates if you send an announcement to your blog subscribers. Still, if you’re paying $50,000 to send to a rented list of 2,000,000 email subscribers, it’s worth testing your subject line, copy, and creativity to find the most effective version.
Test 3: Website Copy and Headlines
Website Headlines and text are other options for testing. For example, you can check whether a more extended title leads to more signups or if a shorter heading leads to more purchases.
Conversion Rate Experts did a headline and text test for CrazyEgg to see if a longer or shorter page with various headings would be more successful. CrazyEgg’s original length and title were utilized in control, but the challenger’s headline equated CrazyEgg’s heatmap software to eye-tracking technology and used significantly lengthier material. The competitor saw a 30% boost in conversions, and the rest is history. The challenger (right) utilized much more copies than the control in this comparison (left). So, how do you do a reliable website headline and copy test? The ideal method is to use a program like Optimizely, Visual Website Optimizer, or Google Analytics Content Experiments. Since optimized is the most user-friendly, we’ll go through how to run a test with it right now. To begin, go to Optimizely, type in your URL, and then click “Test it out.” Next, decide what you want to try next. The following are some significant areas to investigate:
Headlines. Copy on the page. Copy for a call-to-action button.
We’ll use headlines as a test project since we know they’re the first thing people read. (Note: Because the Simple Survey Tool doesn’t have its website, we’ll have to use Joseph’s—5 North Marketing.)
“Convert Your Traffic into Paying Customers” is the current headline for 5 North Marketing. To evaluate which one gets more individuals to fill out the contact form, we’ll compare it to “Take the Stress Out of Your Content Marketing and Conversion Optimization.”We’ll test contact page visits (the number of individuals who click to see the contact page), engagement (which version leads to more overall clicks), and home form submission to see which headline version converts better (the number of people that fill out the contact form on the home page). Once you’ve added the tracking code to your site, Optimizely will start following the results and assisting you in determining a winner.
In this example, optimized was used, but you could also use Visual Website Optimizer, Google Content Experiments, or other available tools. You may use them for experimenting with headlines, website text, and other adjustments to your website pages.
Options for Additional Copy Testing
You may test any copy in addition to the tests given above. For example, you may A/B test Google display advertisements by making two copies and evaluating how people react to alternative headlines and designs, or you can test content on a direct-mail postcard by sending two versions with different URLs on each. Once you understand how to test and assess the outcomes, the number of tests you may run is almost limitless. Tim Ferriss’ testing for his book The Four Hour Work Week is a well-known example. He didn’t go with his intuition while choosing a title for the book. Instead, he used Google text advertisements to promote various book titles. He finally decided on “The Four Hour Work Week” since it had the most click-throughs. What’s the result? The book went on to become a best-seller in the New York Times. This is an excellent illustration of how testing can be used for purposes beyond email subject lines and website text. Almost every content can be A/B tested to see how people react and which version generates the most extraordinary reaction.
Conclusion
One of the most exciting aspects of testing is that you begin to see how your audience reacts to various pieces of material. Words like “free,” “unique,” and “powerful” may appeal to them. Whether it’s a headline test, a Facebook ad, or a Google ad, every time you run an A/B test, you learn something new about your brand and how people react to alternative language or various offers. Of course, it’s up to you how much testing you undertake, but you can keep polishing all of your campaigns by testing new aspects regularly. The good news is that doing A/B testing is simple, thanks to the internet, and there are other options to try offline. To wrap off this piece, we’d want to point out that we recognize that resources are limited. People speak about testing all the time, but they don’t always have the time or resources to accomplish it. Therefore, you may be restricted in the number of tests you run at times. We understand, and this is a regular aspect of doing business. What you must recognize, though, is that testing may unlock income and profit potentials you never imagined. Consider what a change of one word in an email subject line can do for your bottom line: 17,000 more hits. Testing is complex, but the possibilities are unlimited once you figure it out and commit to it. We strongly advise you to include A/B testing into your copywriting and decision-making to increase your outcomes.
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