While this article mentions non-profits, the concepts discussed apply to all businesses. A/B testing takes a little time and creativity but it can really hone your marketing and increase its effectiveness. Even if you A/B test once a quarter, you will learn from the results and your marketing will improve. 
Measure Email Success Quarterly
Here’s some sound advice from Constant Contact about measuring your email marketing campaigns – Make quarterly plans and measure quarterly.
Measure success at the end of each quarter
If you spend all of your time tweaking your email marketing strategy, you’ll never be able to establish any consistency that will lead to success. Instead, let your plan run its course, and wait until the end of each quarter to monitor what’s working and what needs changing. Then, look to see if you’ve been trending upwards, downwards, or if you find yourself on a plateau.
Look for the campaigns driving success and ditch those that aren’t performing. If you’ve fallen into a plateau and can’t see a direction up or down, it may be time to try a bolder approach that will help create a more definable test. Choose a hypothesis you can stick to over the next three months, like adding more humor to every subject line, and see if it changes your metrics, such as boosting open rates.
YCL sends traffic reports after each email with comments about the strengths and weaknesses of the email. We never want to make decisions or change our marketing plan after one email, however. We want to look for trends. Are the Open Rates going up? Are the Click Rates going up? Is the number of Unsubscribes realistic?
If you would like to do a review of your email trends, call Pamela today. We can look at quarterly, semi-annual or even annual trends.
Good marketing is measurable!
Treat Your Clients With Respect
This is rude. If someone doesn’t want your emails, you don’t want to send them emails. So make it easy to unsubscribe. Let them leave with a good feeling that will encourage them to come back if their needs change down the road. Fine print like this doesn’t discourage unsubscribing. It increases spam reports. As in “I’m getting rid of you one way or another!” and it makes people mad.
If my email list has only 10 people on it, I want it to be 10 people who want my emails and care what I’m saying.
What Do You Base Your Decision To Open An Email On?
” 57% of email subscribers spend 10-60 minutes browsing marketing emails during the week. – ChoozOn
90% of email gets delivered to the intended recipient’s inbox, whereas only 2% of your Facebook fans see your posts in their News Feed. – Forrester Research
68% of Americans say they base their decision to open an email on the ‘From’ name. – Campaign Monitor
Across all editions, Outlook accounts for 56% of all desktop email opens and nearly 16% of total opens in any environment. – Campaign Monitor
Six in ten (61%) American workers who use the Internet say email is “very important” for doing their job. – Pew Research
Non-office-based workers to say the Internet, email, and cell phones have given them more flexibility in the hours they work (51% vs. 19%) but also that these tools have increased the amount of time spent working (47% vs.18%). – Pew Research”
Statistics from: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/
How Often Do You Use Email?
“The total number of worldwide email accounts is expected to increase to over 4.3 billion accounts by year-end 2016. – Radicati Group
Employees spend 13 of their working hours each week in their email inbox (on average). – McKinsey & Company
92% of online adults use email, with 61% using it on an average day. – Pew Research”
Statistics found on https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/
Email Marketing ROI
Email marketing has an ROI of 3800%. – DMA
The average order value of an email is at least three times higher than that of social media. – McKinsey
60% of marketers use conversion rates to evaluate an email’s effectiveness. – DMA
Nearly 1 in 5 companies (18%) reported an ROI of more than $76 in 2014, which is 3x more than 2013 figures (5%). – DMA
Email’s ROI was 28.5% compared to 7% for direct mail. – Chief Marketer
Revenue per email was $0.11 in Q1 2014 compared to $0.10 in Q4 2013. –Experian
29% of marketers look at ROI metrics to evaluate email effectiveness. – DMA
For every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI. – Campaign Monitor
Emails triggered by behavior were responsible for 30% of revenue in 2014, up from 17% in 2013. – DMA
77% of ROI comes from segmented, targeted, and triggered campaigns. – DMA
50% of marketers anticipate their company’s spend on email to increase during 2015. – DMA
Bring in Business with Email Marketing!
72% people prefer to receive promotional content through email, compared to 17% who prefer social media. – MarketingSherpa
Including a call to action button instead of a text link can increase conversion rates by as much as 28%. – Campaign Monitor
Statistics found on https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/
Email Marketing Can Convert to More Sales!
“You are 6x more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than you are from a tweet.- Campaign Monitor
Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter. – McKinsey
81% of online shoppers who receive emails based on previous shopping habits were at least somewhat likely to make a purchase as a result of targeted email. -eMarketer
When it comes to purchases made as a result of receiving a marketing message, email has the highest conversion rate (66%), when compared to social, direct mail and more. – DMA“
Statistics found on https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/
Want to increase interaction from your emails?
Want to increase interaction from your emails? Here are some stats that you might want to consider.
“Marketers have noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns. – Campaign Monitor
Marketers see an average increase of 20% in sales when using personalized web experiences. – Monetate
50% of companies feel they can increase interaction within email by increasing personalization. – Experian
Personalized promotional emails had 29% higher unique open rates and 41% more unique click-through rates in 2013. – Experian”
Statistics found from https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/
Personalize Your Emails!
“Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates. – Experian
53% of marketers say ongoing, personalized communication with existing customers results in moderate to significant revenue impact. – DemandGen
Segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. – DMA”
Statistics found from https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/01/70-email-marketing-stats-you-need-to-know/