A/B Testing for Small Businesses: Stop Guessing, Start Testing.
Marketing can sometimes feel like a guessing game for many small businesses. A lot of owners tend to ask themselves “Which subject line will get more openings?” “Which call-to-action will generate more inquiries?” Instead of depending solely on assumptions, A/B testing enables marketers to let customer behavior direct what their next move will be.
Same Goal, Two Different Approaches
A/B testing is a method that helps compare two versions of a marketing elements while altering one main variable. Let's take one of my clients as an example. They are a small welding supply store, and for their email campaign I could test two subject lines:
A: “September Welding Deals Are Finally Here”B: “Save on Welding Supplies This September”
Both of these emails could consist of the same content, granting the business to compare open rates and decide which message best captured the customers attention.
Small Tests Can Answer Big Questions
The advantage goes way beyond selecting a winning subject line. A/B testing can expose what customers respond to and help businesses keep on improving their marketing.
Any business could test:
Subject lines → Open rates
CTA wording → Click-through rates
Landing pages → Conversions
Promotional messaging → Inquiries or sales
The crucial part is altering one variable at a time so the results in fact tell you something helpful.
From Testing to Better Marketing
The winning version should NOT be the end of the experiment, it should become insight for the following campaign. After a while, those small discoveries can help businesses really know their audiences and make better choices without significantly expanding their marketing budgets.
“Good marketing doesn't always start with knowing the answer. Sometimes, it starts with knowing what to test.”
If you want to explore more ways to measure what really matters, check out my recent post on why viral views don't always equal marketing success.
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