Thursday, June 11, 2015

A/B (Split) Testing – Part 03

A/B testing is a fantastic method for figuring out the best online promotional and marketing strategies for your business. It can be used to test everything from website copy to sales emails to search ads.

Well-planned A/B testing can make a huge difference. Here is the first in a series of posts covering A/B testing that I’ll be publishing in the coming weeks.

How Do You Plan an A/B Test?

  • Test With Multiple Versions of Landing Page
    • Which Copy Increased Trial Sign-Ups
    • Which Landing Page Got Lead Generation Form Submissions
    • Test Buttons, Images and Headlines.
    • Does Matching Headline & Body Copy to Your Initial Ad Copy Really Matter?
    • Test Hyperlinks and different Find out which radically Redesigned Form Increased B2B Leads.
    • Try adding testimonials to your Homepage to know if that increase Sales
    • Try different Social Proof, i.e. ‘Big Brand Prices’ vs. Consumer Ratings. Find out if that increase Conversions
    • Add an Email Security Seal Help or Hinder Lead Generation Form Completions.
    • Try with multiple PPC Landing Pages. Find out which one got more trial downloads?
  • Site Navigation
    • Test the order of menu items in site navigation.
    • Test the display of navigation bar to find out if site visitors prefer a horizontal or vertical orientation
    • Try a fixed navigation bar that travels down the page as site visitors scroll
    • Test out the title of navigation items. A simple change, like How It Works to “Why Us” may have a significant impact.
    • Testing Tip: If a test fails, try targeting the test to new versus returning visitors. Returning visitors are accustomed to seeing the site in a certain way—if a link or menu item is missing from the spot they normally go to find it, they’re not going to do the work to locate it.
  • Test Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons:
    • Change the call-to-action (CTA) text on your buttons tosee which word or phrase converts more visitors
    • Try varying the location of your CTA button, making some CTAs more prominent than others
    • Test multiple CTAs per page against one CTA per page
    • Try using hyperlinks instead of buttons to find out which display your users prefer
    • Test CTAs with text, icons, or text + icons convert more users on your site
    • Test different CTA hover states to make it more obvious that buttons are clickable and create a feel of interactivity on the page
    • Do a multi-page funnel test on the communication process to figure out where people drop off in that flow
    • Test different colors, shapes, and sizes for CTA buttons on your website
    • Sample Test 01
      • A: See Live Demo | B: After hours help
      • Audience: Customers
      • Goal: Clicks on call to action button
      • Result: B increased clicks on CTA by XYZ%.
      • Takeaway: Customer Interest
    • Sample Test 02
      • A: 1 CTA |B: Multiple CTAs
      • Audience: Customers
      • Goal: Clicks on call to action
      • Result: A, 1 call to action, led to a XYZ% increase in clicks.
      • Takeaway:  Customer Click Interest 
  • Emails A/B Test
    Subject line test: To anticipate questions often hear from new customers, and provide them with accessible resources. If we pose a question in our subject line that mirrors how our customers think about a testing challenge, then clicks to our resource page will increase.
    • Target the audience
      Hypothesis: The click through rate will be higher on FAQ emails for customers who have previously submitted support cases.

      Test resource placement
      Hypothesis: Adding a FAQ article list in our help center next to the support submission form will decrease support tickets that are related to the FAQ
    • Subject Line Test 1:
      A: Are your inside sales reps spending only 20% of their time closing?
      B: Do you know how much time your inside sales reps are spending of their time closing?
      Audience: Leads
      Goal: Clicks on call to action button
      Result: Subject line leads to increase in clicks.
      Takeaway: Lead database likes to know what type of content they are receiving.
    • Subject Line Test 2:
      A: New SVP of Engineering arrives with broad experience from Amazon
      B: Mr. X of joins ABC Company as the New VP of Engineering.
      Audience: Customers
      Goal: Opens
      Result: Subject line leads to increase in email opens.
    • Send Time Test:
      A: 7am PT
      B: 4pm PT
      Audience: customers
      Goal: Clicks
      Result: B, a send time of 4 pm PT increased clicks XYZ%.
      Next steps: Experiment with send times per time zone/country.

 

 

A Few Best A/B Testing Tools?
In order to run effective A/B tests, you need a few tools to determine what to test, run your tests and track your A/B tests. While there are dozens of A/B testing tools out there, we’ve found these to be the most effective.




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