Are you multi-variable or single-variable thinker? If you believe that the best analysis of a situation or result requires multiple variables instead of one isolated cause, then you’re a multi-variable or “multivariate” thinker. Multiple variables are always at play when analyzing a complicated system, and your business is no exception. Why do some marketing campaigns fail while others succeed?
This is why marketers do “A/B testing” to analyze which aspects of a campaign succeed, and why, by breaking down their campaign into multiple variables and testing which iteration performed best.
A/B Testing For Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of those areas that lends itself easily to multivariate thinking. Imagine all the elements of a successful email: an engaging subject line, surprising and well-written content that entices the reader to learn more, and all delivered to the inbox at the right time.
Email marketing platforms provide tools for running A/B tests on a certain email campaign. You will want to check with your individual service, to see what they offer in their interface, and whether or not your membership level unlocks these features.
Multivariate Analysis in Practice
In most cases, your email marketing system will allow you to test your campaign by individual variables like subject line, content, from name, and send time.
This way, you can try multiple iterations of your email and see which one performed best based on a selected variable.
For example, imagine you have two great subject lines. Subject Line A builds anticipation for a new product, while Subject Line B uses nostalgia to trigger fond memories of past products. Which one will perform better? With A/B testing you can launch the campaign with both subject lines to different segments of your audience.
Then, once the results are in, you can see which subject line performed the best. This is a more scientific approach to designing a winning email campaign, and one that you can repeat whenever you need it.
