A few months ago, I wrote an article called “Why Everyone Should Be Using Mailchimp“. In it, I discussed why I think everyone should be using Mailchimp and how they can use the tool to grow their email list. Since then, I’ve had a lot of questions about making sure that their email marketing is effective. So, I decided to compile a list of tests that you can use to determine whether or not your email marketing is working.
The Short-Lived Effects Of Email Marketing
If you’re new to email marketing, you might be wondering whether or not to use the tool. After all, it’s not like people are still talking about the burst of activity that Instagram brought about in the form of “likes” and “followers”. In fact, a lot can change in the world of social media in a matter of months, and if you’re not careful, you could lose a lot of potential customers.
While it’s true that there are plenty of customers out there who only follow big-name brands on social media and don’t stray far from their feed, Instagram and other social media platforms can also erode your email list quickly. That’s because people love to share their adventures in the digital sphere, and if you’re not careful, they might just share a link to your boring email pitch with their friends.
If you really want to grow your email list and engage with your audience, you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Fortunately, you now have a tool that can help you do just that. When you integrate Mailchimp into your email marketing program, you’ll be able to run A/B tests to find the most effective combinations of elements, headlines, and, most importantly, offers.
How To Do A Mailchimp A/B Test
When you first set up your Mailchimp account, you’ll be presented with a form asking for the elements that make up your email campaign. The first thing you need to do is populate these three fields with the email address of the people you want to send the campaign to:
- To: The list of email addresses you’ve curated
- From: The email address you want to use for the campaign
- CCT: For those who use advanced email features, you can enter the total amount of emails you want to send
Once you’ve entered these details, you’ll be able to deploy the email using the button labelled “Go“. After this, you can hit the fork in the road and choose “A/B Testing” to get started with your experiments.
The Results Of The A/B Tests
When you run an A/B test, you’re essentially splitting your email list into two groups and giving each group a different experience with the goal of seeing which performs better. To do this, you can simply choose which version of the email you want to use for each group.
So, for example, you might want to try out a different subject line for each group to see which one performs best. Alternatively, you could try out a combination of images and text for your campaigns.
If you decide to go with a different subject line, you need to make sure that you’ve implemented the right metrics so that you can accurately track the results of your experiment. Luckily, Mailchimp provides some great reporting tools that can help you do this.
Choosing the right metrics can be tricky, so take your time figuring this out. Once you’ve got your metrics in place, you can hit the “Reports” button to get a quick look at the results of your tests.
Learn From The Experiments
This is the fun part. Once you’ve run a bunch of A/B tests and seen which one performed best, you can sit back and learn from the results. This is especially useful if you want to improve performance of a particular campaign or element of your email marketing. For example, you might want to try out a longer-form blog post to see if this will increase the number of people who click on your links.
From here, you can simply click on the “Campaigns” tab to get a list of all of your campaigns. From here, you can choose which one you want to compare against the previous version and hit the “Compare” button to bring up the results. You can then use this information to improve your overall performance.
Is Email Marketing Right For You?
Even if you’ve got the perfect metrics in place, it never hurts to ask the question. Is email marketing right for you? That is the question. If you’re looking for a one-stop shop to grow your email list, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve put together a short video outlining why everyone should be using Mailchimp and how they can put the tool to use to grow their email lists.