Is your marketing department running an active split test campaign? If so, you’re one step ahead of many business owners. If not, it’s something to consider. Split testing helps business owners identify digital marketing elements that work best in order to develop the most effective control possible.
Split testing works by delivering two different versions of a web page to your website visitors. The page visits are split evenly, so if you have 1,000 visitors, 500 will see version A, while 500 will see version B.
Most marketers use split testing software to administer these tests. For instance, Optimizely has been a popular split testing platform for many years. The best part is that Optimizely now offers a CMS solution with a built-in ecommerce platform for the best experience all around.
If you haven’t adopted A/B split testing into your digital marketing routine, here are four reasons to get it going ASAP.
Table of Contents
1. You want better conversions
Who doesn’t want better conversions? When your goal is to increase sales, signups, and subscribers, every head counts. There’s only one problem – you need to figure out what web page elements are drawing people in and which elements are pushing people away. Split testing will help you figure this out.
Split testing, also called A/B testing, increases conversions by showing you which elements perform best on your web pages. For example, you might run a test to see which color works better on your “buy now” button.
You can run split tests with all kinds of variations, including headlines, introductions, copy in general, element positions, shapes, and more. You can test any page element you want. Although, you’ll get the most accurate results when you only test one change at a time. For instance, when you split test two different headlines, don’t test any other elements in that same test run.
As you narrow down which elements perform better overall, you can make those changes to your website and reap the rewards of a better conversion rate.
Run advanced tests with Optimizely
Before you start testing web elements on your own, consider using a split-testing platform. You’ll get better results and you’ll have more control.
For example, Optimizely gives you the tools to run advanced tests with full control over how those tests are executed. For example, you can force JavaScript to run before the rest of the page loads, which allows you to execute important JavaScript modules. This allows you to test interactive variables and not just text or image-based elements.
2. You want customers to contact you
While it’s normal to split test web page elements like buttons, signup forms, and headlines, you can also test contact page elements. For example, your customers might not be reaching out to you because your contact form is hard to use. By split testing the elements on your contact page, you might find an increase in customer emails.
Hopefully, you haven’t crafted your contact page to discourage people from contacting you. Some people believe this is a great way to reduce email overwhelm, but it also prevents you from helping leads and customers.
If you want customers to contact you with questions and concerns, split testing can help you find the right page elements that will encourage visitors to make contact.
3. Split testing will give you better insight into heat map data
Heatmaps are an essential marketing analysis tool that everyone should have in play. Heatmaps tell you where people click most, and some can even record full browsing sessions.
When you run a split test campaign with heat mapping, you can evaluate the relationship between clicks on product text vs. images.
Not surprisingly, Optimizely integrates with several heatmap platforms, including ClickTale, and offers a JavaScript API for custom heatmap applications.
4. You want to improve your content marketing
One of the more interesting ways to use split testing is to test your content marketing. To improve your content marketing success, you’ll want to split test several elements including headlines, content length, suggest post positioning, images, and call-to-action phrases.
Establishing which content elements work best will enable you to take your content marketing to the next level. Ultimately, that will amount to more sales and other conversions.
Split testing is a requirement for digital marketers
The bottom line is, if you want your digital marketing campaign to be successful, you need to split test elements on an ongoing basis. Split testing is the most reliable way to gain insight into what elements work best to generate conversions.