Consider what would happen if a salesperson could create a super-email by merging the most effective components of every email they’ve ever sent through web marketing.
A/B testing allows you to accomplish just that. An A/B email test compares two versions of the same message to see which one performs better.
Senders can test everything from the subject line to the email signature to the call-to-action. Once the results are in, reps can maintain utilizing the more successful version and delete the prior one. Salespeople can get closer and closer to the “perfect” sales email with constant A/B testing.
Let’s take a look at how A/B testing works, as well as the 12 parts that salespeople should test.
Sales Emails: A/B Testing
The following rules should be followed by salespeople.
Related: What is email marketing?
1) Only Test A Single Variable At A Time.
People should only make one change at a time in web marketing, despite the temptation to try numerous things at once. If two almost identical emails perform differently, reps can discover the specific feature that makes one of the emails more effective.
Related: What is message optimization?
2) Make A Concerted Attempt To Obtain Statistical Significance.
Quick judgments should be avoided by salespeople in web marketing. Because a small sample size can lead to skewed results, salespeople should aim for 100 emails every test: 50 for one version and 50 for the other.
3) Set A Target For Each Test.
This goal will determine the representatives’ success in web marketing. Salespeople should keep track of three important metrics:
The percentage of people who open an email reflects the subject line and first line’s interest.
Reply rate: For salespeople, this metric is crucial because it is influenced by a number of factors, including the email’s content, tone, length, style, correctness, level of personalisation, send time, and so on.
By analyzing how many recipients have clicked in-message links or downloaded files, salespeople can estimate how relevant their information is.
Related: What Is Lead Nurturing And What Are The Right Tactics?
Should You A/B Test Which Email Elements?
It’s possible to test almost every part of an email.
Heading for this section:
The subject line’s importance belies its modest length: 33% of people decide whether or not to open an email based just on the subject line.
Salespeople can accomplish big success by figuring out how to edit this area of the email.
It’s helpful to recognize if statements or questions have more power in web marketing. For example, “Interested in Facebook marketing campaign suggestions?” may be contrasted to “5 tips for Facebook marketing campaigns.”
While a brief subject line is preferred, an eight-word title may nevertheless outperform a three-word title.
Specificity: While some prospects may be drawn to a sense of mystery, others may prefer a sense of certainty. Salespeople should see if a remark like “Hoping to assist” or “Hoping to aid with [business difficulty]” is more effective than “Hoping to assist with [business obstacle].”
Email:
Reps can experiment with different greetings in web marketing (such as “Hello,” “Hey,” “Hi,” or “Hey there”) to see which ones work best with their prospects.
Depending on the salesperson’s sector and the status of their average prospect in web marketing, a more formal tone may be required. Perhaps a relaxed, informal tone will suffice. Salespeople won’t know unless they give it a shot.
Rather than finishing with a phone request, HubSpot VP of Sales Pete Caputa recommends asking a thought-provoking question or inquiring about their firm.
Reps can also try out other strategies for requesting a call. When they send out a survey, they might compare the number of people who respond.
Some white papers, case studies, blog pieces, and/or testimonials will resonate with prospects more than others. HubSpot Sales allows reps to track when recipients click on a link or open a document in web marketing. A customer will be notified if he or she sends a piece of material to a coworker.
Quantity of content: More isn’t always better. Even if each item is interesting and helpful, an email with a lot of links and attachments can be overwhelming to potential customers. To identify the ideal amount to provide, salespeople should evaluate their engagement rates.
Level of personalization: Personalized emails almost always outperform generic emails. On the other hand, most salespeople can’t afford to commit 30 minutes to each outreach message. Split-testing the level of customisation — for example, from two to four individual details — can help salespeople figure out how much personalization they should aim for.
A personalized postscript, such as “P.S. “, may pleasantly surprise salespeople’s prospects. I saw you’re a fan of Casablanca as well. I have to say, I believe this is the start of a wonderful partnership.” Reps should look at the response rates for emails with and without postscripts to see if they should use them.
I have to say, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.” Reps should evaluate response rates between emails with and without postscripts to determine whether or not they should include them.
Prospecting emails in web marketing should be no more than five sentences long. Some salespeople, such as Dan Muscatello, a HubSpot enterprise sales agent, swear by even shorter communications (two sentences!). Salespeople should experiment with different email lengths to find what works best for their target market.
Despite the fact that every buyer in web marketing has a slightly different schedule, salespeople may find that a certain day of the week and/or time of day works better than others. Reps can test send times to see when their prospects are most likely to open their communications.
Once salespeople have figured out which components of their communications perform best in web marketing, they may use this information to create extremely effective emails. What’s the better option? Salespeople get better at testing their emails the more they do it.
Related: Lead Generation: Can It Be Useful For Your Products?
