Why You Should Test Before Sending To The Rest

As a business owner, sales person or marketer, there are a million things taking up your time on a daily basis. So it’s no surprise that testing email marketing campaigns isn’t a priority.

But, testing can be a great opportunity to pick up on things like missing words or typos, and allows you to check how your email will display in the inbox. Email testing can also help improve your results and give you insight into what’s resonating with your audience.

How To Send A Test Email In Machinemail

While it can take just 60 seconds to create and send your on-brand marketing emails with Machinemail, we recommend you take your time crafting these campaigns. An easy way to ensure everything is as it should be is to send a quick test email to yourself.

To run a quick test in Machinemail, simply:

1. Create a campaign
2. Fill out all information
3. Choose your stock
4. Click send test email

Before you send, make sure you put your email address in the test email section. The email will be sent directly to your chosen inbox, so you can check things like the inbox display, layout and content.

Test Email Preview Checklist

Here are a few key elements to look at in your test email:

• Spelling: are there any typos?
• Grammar: is the content clear and easy to read?
• Punctuation: have you included commas, full stops, question marks?
• Preview text: have you included preview text? Is it displaying correctly in your inbox?
• Subject line: does it make you want to click in to the email?
• Paragraph text: is it easy to scan and is there a call to action?

By sending a test email to yourself, you eliminate the likelihood of human error. Think of it like quality control: you want to be seen as a credible source to your audience, and avoiding simple mistakes like spelling errors will help do that.

What Elements Of Your Email Should You Test?

Aside from sending yourself a test email, you can also test specific elements of your email content to see how your audience reacts.

Note: Make sure you test one element at a time—otherwise it’ll be impossible to know what change contributed to your success!

Some key features that you could test include:

Colour

Experiment with the colour of your email to see how different colours impact your customers’ decision to click. Different colours elicit different reactions. For example, blue elicits a sense of peace and calmness, while yellow is bright and grabs attention.

Content

Content is king, but do you know what works for you? Some people prefer short content that is straight to the point, while others like more information that delves a little deeper. To figure out how your customers are reacting, try sending campaigns with different amounts of text and see which performs best.

Preview text

It’s the wingman of your subject line and can help you get that click. So, try sending a campaign with preview text and without to see which performs better. You could also try using different content in your preview text, like adding a question or compelling offer to generate more opens.

Subject lines

Subject lines are the first impressions of emails, so it’s important to get it right. Not sure how to do it? Check out our article on creating killer subject lines, and then, test a few different ones out in your upcoming campaigns.

Time of send

Different days and time of send have different results. Think about when your audience is most likely to check their device and interact with your content. Maybe that’s 10AM on Tuesday, or maybe it’s 5PM on Thursday. You won’t know unless you try out different times and see which gets you the best response.

By sending yourself a test email and testing these features in your upcoming campaigns, you’ll be able to improve your results and refine your campaigns for the future.

Did you find this article useful? Let us know below!

Sources: campaignmonitor.com