A Quick Guide to Email Testing Ideas

How do you get the maximum number of opens, reads, clicks, and conversions from your email?

You have to test and see what works.

Testing is your magic wand for getting the responses and results you want from email marketing. Here's our quick guide on email testing ideas.

Email Testing Ideas (10 Examples)

The best email testing ideas involve picking one part of your email and testing two variations of it. You send one version to half of your subscribers and send the other version to the other half.

Whichever version gets more of the result you want (opens, clicks, conversions, etc.) is the winner. That’s the version you should use, going forward.

There’s almost no limit to the number of things you could test, but here are 10 common elements to get you started:

• Compare two different subject lines

• Email format (font size, placement of images, etc.)

• Copy structures (long vs. short, story vs. joke, paragraph sizes, etc.)

• Graphics (photo vs. abstract diagram, objects vs. people, emojis, etc.)

• Your offer

• Call to Action

• Button copy

• Button placement

• Time and day that you send the email

• P.S. at the end of the email

To try out your email testing ideas, it's important to have an email test plan. Here’s a simple way to do it.

How Do I Create an Email Test Plan?

You can create an email test plan by using the scientific method. Start with a hypothesis, and then develop a test so the results either support or refute your hypothesis.

The best email testing ideas are those that are likely to have a high impact but can be implemented with little effort.

For example, your hypothesis could be, “Listing the price in the subject line will increase sales.”

Next, you're going to test your hypothesis by coming up with two different versions of the email. In the example above, you would send half your list an email that showed the price in the subject line, and send the other half of your subscribers an email that did not.

When you're implementing your email test plan, don't draw conclusions based on the immediate results. Many readers will save your email, and may not read it for several days.

Wait at least a week or two before you analyze the data. This will help ensure you have enough data to get valid, statistically significant results.

How Do You Test Email Effectiveness?

Even the most brilliant email testing ideas won’t help if you don't carry them out correctly.

For example, suppose an email testing idea provides dismal results. Does this mean it’s a bad idea? Or, did you get a low response because you sent the email the same week your readers’ hometown was hosting the Superbowl?

It's also important that you only test one variable at a time. If you send out an email test with two different headlines and two different photos, you won’t be able to tell if your results came from the headline or the photo.

Finally, make sure you get enough data for statistical significance. “Statistically significant” means the result isn’t likely to be mere chance or coincidence.

For example, if only 10 people have opened your email, one reader's decision can have a big impact on your test results. But when you have a thousand readers, the sheer number will smooth out the idiosyncrasies of a random person. Having more data makes it easier to see realistic trends.

What are Two Types of Testing Undertaken on Emails?

Two types of email testing are commonly used.

The first one is the A/B test. This is simply a test where you have two different possibilities, A or B. The example we talked about before, with the price in the subject line, is an A/B test.

If you are already having success with an email, and you don't want to risk diminishing the results with half your audience, you can do a control test.

A control test is similar to an A/B test, except that most of your readers will receive the “control,” the email that has already been proven to be effective.

For example, you may send out a tried and true email to 60% of your list. The other 40% will receive the A/B test, where 20% will get variable A and 20% will get variable B.

The advantage of a control test is that most of your readers will get the email version that you know you can rely on. This reduces the risk while allowing you to test some variables.

Email Testing Ideas (Closing Thoughts)

Here's an email testing idea for you. Get a free 14-day trial of beehiiv’s Grow plan, and you will be able to A/B test your subject lines. (On the Scale plan, you can A/B test anything!)

This is the only service that enables you to do A/B tests for free, but of course that's not all that beehiiv allows you to do.

Even our free Launch plan gives you analytical tools and the ability to segment your audience.

And email testing is just a small part of all the things you can do with the beehiiv platform. Find out for yourself. Start a beehiiv newsletter today.