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8Testing, Measurement
and Optimization
Your email marketing program is not carved on a stone tablet. You can review
your decisions to see what’s working and to make it run better, whether you’re
fine-tuning your email messages or remaking your entire program from top to
bottom.
Optimization, then, isn’t just an optional extra: It should be built into your
email workflow, applied to everything from acquisition to message creation to
workflow management.
Optimization starts with a simple question – “How could we do this better?” –
and then uses testing to answer the question and analysis to find corrections.
Which subject line will get more opens and drive more conversions? Are we
doing everything we can to retain our subscribers? Which improvement could
help our program revenue break through to a higher level?
Testing, measuring and optimization are things many marketers know they
should be doing but don’t think they have the time or tools to do. In truth, if
you aren’t testing at least some of your most securely held beliefs about your
email program, you could be wasting money on things that don’t work and
watching your competitors slip past you.
Many email programs and email service providers have built-in measurement
and optimization tools. You need to dedicate some time – and, possibly, money
– to use them, learn from them and apply them to your programs.
The tools are out there for you. You just need to pick them up and use them.
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