If you’re not A/B testing, you will have a tough time finding your sweet spot and maximizing the return on your content marketing investment. That sometimes leads to the dreaded, “Why are we paying you?” line of questioning from management.
First, a quick if obvious definition: A/B testing is the practice of putting two different versions of something in front of your target audience. That something can be email subject lines or landing page titles or calls to action and offers.
Above all else, A/B testing is about precision. It’s about controlling and isolating the element you are testing in a way that assures that any change in data between A and B can be attributed to the tested element.
Obviously, that means changing just one element at a time. If you test different versions of your email subject line but you also send the email at a different time of day than normal, you’ll have a tough time interpreting your data and determining which change led to the results you got.
You also have to test with a purpose. Is the call to action you’re testing something that can be carried out throughout the year? If it’s specific to a particular initiative – or it’s in some way seasonal – there’s no point in A/B testing since you can’t apply the results more broadly.
Be sure that your A/B testing includes a range of metrics. Increased conversion is the most important metric, but don’t forget to test engagement and reach, as well. Though they aren’t truly bottom line metrics, they can be leading indicators and you should be tracking them and working to improve those scores with every piece of content you publish.
Finally, some of your testing should be tightly focused on single stages of your prospect’s buying cycle. If there are any bottlenecks – points at which you’re losing prospects at more than the expected rate – you’ll want to test ways to eliminate them.
