When we send email to promote our own contests, we test something almost every chance we get. Last week, we tested two subject lines for our Fiction & Essay Contest:
Subject A: Deadline May 1: Win $3,500 for a Story or Essay
Subject B: The new judge of our Fiction & Essay Contest has advice
We use large test panels, 25% of our list each, to strengthen the validity of the results. In this test, Subject B bettered the open rate of Subject A by 18%. Also better was the total number of recipients who clicked as well as clicks on our contest guidelines link (the primary goal).
Before email marketing took off in the '90s, direct response A/B testing typically meant printing up different versions of letters, forms, envelopes, and buckslips, monitoring the lettershop carefully to make sure that mailings were assembled correctly, then compiling response data in spreadsheets over a period of weeks. It was expensive, time-consuming, and easy to mess up.
Tests are so quick and simple now, we encourage our advertisers to do them at no extra charge. You can have the results within days and apply the knowledge to your other promotions. Schedule a solo mailing to our newsletter subscribers today. It's $1,350 all-in. Email adam@winningwriters.com to learn more.
