How you can actually go about testing your email



promotions to ensure that every message you

send in bringing in the highest profits.

First of all , let's examine a couple of steps

you'll need to take before you start the testing

process:

1.Choosing your "control"

2.Deciding how many test to ran

1. Choosing your "control"

In order to get accurate results when you're testing

effectiveness of your promotions (or anything else,

for that matter) , you must test only one element

at a time. If you try testing several different element

at same time , you'll have no way to determine

which change improved your response.

For example , let's suppose you decide to test two

different e-mail promotions. The firs in structured

as a long, formal letter to your customers written

in HTML, with the subject line, "Dale could you

give me your opinion? "The second e-mail is short,

punchy note written in personal tone and delivered

in plain text, with the subject line, "Dale, could

you help me out?"

After testing both letters the small list of your

customers, you discover that the second test is

bringing in a better results, so you decide to

launch that letter to your entire list. The problem is

that you haven't learned WHY the second letter was

more successfull. Was it the subject line? The text

format...

This is why it is so important to establish a

"control" letter, and the test different versions

of your control letter with only one things change

at a time

2. Deciding how many test to run.

You can run as many test as you feel are necessary

to tweak and perfect your email promotion.

Recommendation -run a minimum of three tests

before launching their e-mail promotions.

In general, you will want to test at least two

different letters and two different subject lines

for any e-mail promotion you plan

on sending. The testing setup would look something

like this:



- Letter 1 with subject line 1

- Letter 2 with subject line 1

- Letter 1 with subject line 2

By running these three test, you will be able

to get a good feel for which elements of your

e-mail promotions are generating the best results,

so that you can launch the most profitable

combination of letter and subject line.

The more testing you do, the more targeted and

effective your promotion will be.

However, if your opt-in list contain less than a

few thousands subscribers, you may need to watch

trends over a period of a few months before you'll

have a solid feel for what your subscribers prefer

in terms of promotion stiles, format and voice.