In a sea of unread inboxes, be the personalised email that stands out.
Written by our Account Manager Meg Marlow. Connect with Meg on LinkedIn.
Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools for nurturing your warm audience, fostering loyalty and improving customer retention (I’m not just saying that because I’m an Email Marketing Specialist either!)
It’s not just about sending promotions or stock updates; it’s about creating and maintaining beautiful connections that strengthen your brand-to-consumer relationships.
Each email is an opportunity to showcase your brand identity, spark engagement, and remind your audience why they chose your brand in the first place.
As a marketing professional, I’m subscribed to hundreds (and I really mean hundreds) of brands. While I would like to say that’s where my scary inbox stops, it isn’t. My personal email is equally flooded by every brand under the sun.
Basically, I consume A LOT of emails personally and professionally.
Now while I’d like to read them all, I can’t. So there are a few questions that cross my mind when I’m considering if I really want to engage or even subscribe to these brands.
As a consumer, I ask myself:
Does this email stand out to me? (Think – subject & preview lines, send-time and day).
What content do I like to see? (Think – concept, imagery & copy).
Am I getting any value from these emails? (Think – does it feel like this was made for me?).
Now I completely understand that I’m not the average email subscriber… BUT I guarantee everyone in your database is considering the value of emails at least subconsciously.
If you don’t provide value, they won’t engage and you miss an opportunity.
So how do you know what resonates with your audience? A/B testing.
A/B testing allows you to experiment with different subject lines, content, images, even call to actions, to help you discover what your customers truly respond to.
Here’s why it is important: not every customer is the same.
What grabs one person’s attention might completely miss the mark with another.
To create emails that truly connect, you need to really “know” your audience. ENTER A/B Testing.
This is how you find the common themes that resonate across different audiences. You want to hit inboxes whilst also hitting the mark.
The possibilities are endless for A/B testing, but there are three steps that should be the foundation for all your testing.
(Step 1) TEST
Experiment. Choose one thing to change, don’t change everything at once – otherwise how will you know what change created an impact?
It’s also super important to make sure that whatever you change still feels authentic to your brand. A good analogy I like to use is adjusting the recipe of your signature dish. You might add in a new spice to the recipe but the overall flavour of the dish hasn’t changed. If you don’t know what feels authentic to your brand, that’s a whole different kettle of fish.
(Step 2) REVIEW
Once you’ve done your A/B test. Review the data. Look for trends in open rates, click-through rates, even conversion! Did A or B outperform the other? Did your personalised subject line increase open rates?
(Step 3) ADAPT
Use the insights you just reviewed as your north star for future email campaigns. The best decisions are data-driven. Yes not everyone will like certain emails, segment out those subscribers and cater to the content they want to see.
By continuously testing, reviewing and adapting your email campaigns, you’ll create email marketing campaigns that not only resonate with your subscribers but also drive loyalty and retention.
In a world where attention spans are short, A/B testing ensures you’re always delivering value that speaks directly to your audience.
EXTRA TIP: This isn’t a one and done solution. To get informative and accurate data, you need to put in the work with testing and this will take time. You might even spend 3-6 months testing. But is it worth it? Absolutely.
