For any B2B company that’s serious about its marketing, A/B testing isn’t optional any more — it’s a standard part of lead nurturing campaigns.
A/B tests can be performed with most of your digital marketing efforts and will provide great insight into future marketing efforts. You may, for example, find that personalizing your email subject lines increases the amount of opens you get with a particular persona. The more experiments you run, the easier it will be to develop and improve your marketing strategies.
Most of the 29 items on this list can be tested within a few hours, or 2-3 days at most. How many of these are you going to experiment with?
Calls to Action
- Buy now? Purchase? Check out? Add to cart? Change your CTA text on your buttons to see which word or phrase converts the most visitors.
- Vary the location of your CTA button—make some more prominent than others.
- Test different colors, shapes, and sizes for CTA buttons on your website
Content
- Test gated content against non-gated content. Find out which gets more downloads and whether users are willing to fill out forms.
- Test how your content is displayed. Do users prefer to scroll down the page, or click through to another page to learn more?
Copy
- Test different headline texts. Try headlines that are more straightforward, goofy, or creative.
- Test paragraphs vs. bulleted lists.
- Test shorter vs. longer copy on your website, emails, and landing pages.
Visual media
- Test different types of imagery on your landing page—people vs. products vs. illustrations are a good place to start.
- See how stock images stack up against images of your employees or customers in action.
- Test auto-play against click-to-play.
Site navigation
- Test the order of your menu items in your site navigation.
- Test the display of your navigation bar. Do visitors prefer a horizontal or vertical orientation?
Forms
- Test the length of sign-up forms.
- Try a special offer, discount, or promotion to increase signups.
- Try asking for different information in your form fields.
Mobile site
- Try different displays and navigation options. Blinds, buttons, and blocks are a good place to start.
Ads
- Test the headlines on your paid campaigns to see what gets more clicks.
- Try changing the display URL on your ad.
- Try different landing page variations—copy, image, CTA, and form.
Social
- Test different images in social ads. See which ones get the best results.
- Test length and copy of your email subject lines.
- Test personalized vs. un-personalized emails by using the recipient’s name in the subject or email text.
- Find the optimal time to reach your audience by measuring open rates on different days of the week and at different times.
Personalization
- Test different page designs and messaging for new vs. returning visitors.
- Test auto-filling form fields related to a visitor’s site location.
- Create seasonal or location-based offers and test them on visitors living in specific locations.
Pricing and Shipping
- Test a free trial offer vs. a free demo offer for short-term and long-term conversions.
- Test annual billing vs. monthly billing on your pricing page. Which generates more subscriptions?
A/B testing will help you find what you’re doing right and the areas you can improve upon to maximize your response rate. It’s easy to do, and costs little or nothing.
Want more? Here are some A/B testing best practices from the the good folks at WordStream.
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