Blog Email Marketing and SMS

What you miss by not testing your campaigns

Imagen What you miss by not testing your campaign

The fast pace of daily life can lead us to make mistakes and the biggest mistake in email marketing is not testing at all. There are automated tests that take only a few seconds and others that require more time to reach a conclusion, but the lack of testing prior to sending is a cost to the company. Skipping the multiple tests at our disposal puts at risk the result of each mailing and also the continuous improvement in the long term.

Worse deliverability without doing these tests

Reaching the inbox is the first step in getting other statistics to the desired level. There are several tests related to deliverability:

Validation of email accounts to avoid sending to spamtraps and non-existent addresses. This reduces hard bounces, protects your sender reputation and avoids blacklisting, ensuring higher deliverability of your messages. Indirectly, it also saves costs by ensuring that your list only includes email addresses that actually exist, thus avoiding sending to invalid accounts and maximising the profitability of your campaigns.

Anti-spam analyser to overcome the filters of email managers by looking at words and layout, for example.
Sender reputation test to find out if the domain or IP is on a blacklist that could jeopardise deliverability.

For example: if your list has 10,000 contacts, but 5% never receive your messages because email providers block them as spam, you are losing 500 opportunities for each mailing and perhaps also paying too much.

Fewer openings without doing these checks

Once in the inbox, you need to make a good impression to get your message opened. There are a couple of tests that help to get better openings:

Subject line test: in Acrelia's campaign editor there is a length meter so as not to exceed the recommended 50 characters. By writing direct, optimised subject lines, complemented by the pre-header, you can attract attention in the inbox.

A/B test: among the possible options in this type of test, there are several related to openings. First, logically, the subject and pre-header can be tested; also, the sender to see what influence it has on the decision to read the message; and the day and time of sending because it can also affect the open rate.

For example: if in an A/B test it is concluded that version A sent to 5,000 recipients has a 50% open rate and version B has a 65% open rate after having been sent to another 5,000 recipients, if the message had been sent without testing it beforehand, the 15% open rate would have been lost for the rest of the list if version B was used.

Fewer clicks without doing these tests

After openings, the next relevant data for the process of monetising the database is clicks because this is what brings the user to the website where the conversion takes place. There are several tests that can be performed to optimise the CTR:

Verification of broken links to check that they all work and do not give errors. For example: a campaign is sent to 15,000 contacts to get registrations for an event and achieves 10% of clicks. If that link is poorly written, you will lose 1,500 potential attendees who have not been able to visit the website.

A/B test to experiment with calls to action, both the visual design of the button and the wording of the copy. For example: following the previous case, if variant A has the registration button just below the header, obtaining 25% of clicks and variant B places it lower, obtaining 55%, not carrying out this test would mean the loss of 4,500 clicks.
Responsive preview to confirm that the percentage of recipients viewing the message from mobile can click through without difficulty. For example: if the template does not display the button properly and 60% of the list opens it on their mobile but cannot click on it, 9,000 conversion opportunities would be lost.

Worse user experience without doing these validations

Each recipient has a different perception of the messages we send, but the job of the email marketer is to try to ensure that everyone has a good experience when reading them. There are several tests to achieve this:

Spell check so that there is no mistake that suggests carelessness on the part of the sender.
Image loading speed test to ensure that it is not too fast and slow for the user.
Message weight to ensure that the message is not clipped in Gmail.
Previews to check how it looks on different devices and also according to the visual capabilities of users to ensure good accessibility.
A/B testing to test different customisations to the message, such as adding the name in the subject line, images or the overall tone.

For example: one way to measure user experience is with the unsubscribe rate, which is the user's way to stop receiving messages when they are not satisfied with them. Doing these tests can mean reducing the number of contacts so that the list of contacts does not decrease in quantity and maintains its quality.

Conclusion

Not testing your email marketing campaigns carries risks ranging from high bounce rates and low deliverability to missing multiple conversion opportunities. The good news is that most of these tests do not require a large investment of time and resources if they are properly planned and integrated as a routine part of the sending process.

Database validation, anti-spam testing, A/B testing, and design and content checks are just a few of the key elements that ensure your campaigns perform well. In addition, each of these steps provides you with valuable information to continuously improve and achieve your company's marketing goals.

Remember: in email marketing, constant optimisation makes the difference between success and mediocrity. Testing, analysing results and refining your strategy is the way to make your campaigns stand out in the inbox and in the bottom line.

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