How to send a split test email

One way to test your customers' preferences and increase the chances to get higher read rates.

Oskar Smith avatar
Written by Oskar Smith
Updated over a week ago

**read on for more information

After spending hours creating the perfect content, design and offer for an email broadcast many people tend to overlook one of the most important parts of their entire email campaign - a great subject line!

What is Subject Line Testing?

In order to achieve higher open rates we recommend that you test your subject lines prior to sending a broadcast. The Console offers the opportunity to test up to five different subject lines for their effectiveness. This is sent to the most engaged people on your email broadcast list; you can define how many tests and the amount of time (a minimum of one hour) to wait for the result. Following the test, our algorithm then selects the most engaging subject line looking at opens AND clicks, and automatically uses it on the rest of the broadcast. 

Before you start… is your database big enough?

One thing you should consider is that a split test will base its results on a minimum of 500 contacts per split test with a minimum number of tests being 2 and having a maximum test sample of 50%, which means that your database will need at least 2000 contacts in order to test two subject lines.

Before the Split Test, make sure you have created and saved the email  (click here to read the article). Make sure you send it to yourself for testing and you are happy with the results. 

Let’s go!

  • From the left hand side menu click Send > Email > Simple Search. 

  • From this page, select all or the part of the database you want to send your campaign to.

  • As long as the selection returns a minimum of 2000 contacts, you can proceed ticking the box "Tick this box if this is a split test send".

  • Make sure the number of contacts is as expected by clicking on "Count Results" and then click "Next".

Choose the number of Splits Tests

You can choose to test between 2 and 5 subject lines depending on the size of your database. If the selected database has at least 2000 contacts, you will be able to test two subject lines. If the database selected has 5000 contacts or more, you will be able to test up to 5 different subject lines. 

  • Choose from 2, 3, 4 or 5 Split Tests

Select your Test segment

This step will ask you to choose the size of the Test segment, meaning the number of contacts you want to send the test to. This means, the email will be sent with different subject lines to this portion of the database. 

The Remainder segment will receive the broadcast with the winning subject. This will be automatically calculated. 

  • Use the slider to select the size of the database you want to send the Test Split to.

The Test sample, will always be a maximum of 50% of the database. 

  • Finally, define the period between the test send and the final broadcast choosing from a standard of 1 hour up to weeks.

  • Once you have defined the number of Split tests, Test segment and Testing period, you can proceed with the send by clicking "Next" which will take you to the "Email Creation" page. However, this time you will have the possibility to enter all the subject lines you want to split test. 

Happy testing and good luck to your subject lines!

Want to read more about the importance of subject line testing and how to create engaging subject lines? Just have look at this article - we hope you’ll find it useful!

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