This month our team is running tests on email subject lines, website copy, and adding mini-assessments to our blogs:

For fun, here are the tests we're running up top. Take your best guess at which versions won and I'll spill all the deets below.

This month's tests: 

EMAIL SUBJECT LINES

• Are you still master of your domain? vs. Have you really mastered content experience?
• Are you an all-star or a newbie? vs. [First name], are you an all-star or a newbie?

WEBSITE CTA BUTTON COPY

• Request a demo vs. Get started

In each case, who do you think won? The answers may surprise you. Before you read below, take a minute to make a guess. And then scroll down a bit further for the results. 

Email Subject Lines

This month, we launched a content experience assessment to a very select group of leads we were itching to learn more about. For this campaign, we wanted to help them (and us) understand where they are in their understanding and mastery of content experience in their marketing.

ROUND 1

What we did: We tested two rounds of subject lines. On the first send we tested the subject line "Are you still master of your domain?" a cheeky play on a very memorable Seinfeld episode against a more straight forward "Have you really mastered content experience?

Why we did it: While the Seinfeld reference was a winner in my books, we suspected not everyone would understand or appreciate the approach. We debated what to do and ultimately decided to test it.

Results: The more straight forward subject line technically won, but it was negligible. And the click-through rates for the subject line A were higher. 

Learnings: Not all subject lines will work on all people, that's why testing is so important. In our case, the test didn't prove one approach was better than the other. But I was happy to know my jokes are still relevant ;)

ROUND 2

What we did: For the second round send of this same email a few days later, we tested personalization. For subject line A, we chose a very common approach for assessment-based emails—"Are you an all-star or a newbie?" For subject line B, we simply added the recipient's first name before the subject line.  

Why we did it: We preach personalization, so we wanted to take this approach with our emails. Overuse can render the personalization meaningless, so we don't use it for all or even half of our emails. In this case, we wanted to see if asking the person in a straight-up manner what type of marketer they are, we'd get better engagement and open rates.

Results:  Personalization most definitely worked here. The results were impressive enough for us to continue this approach.

Learnings: While personalization can lose its impact when overused, finding the right moments definitely can pay dividends. It's something I'll try moving forward if I feel like the subject line is speaking directly to the type of person the recipient is.

Website CTA Copy

What we did: As I'm sure is true for most B2B SaaS companies, demo requests have a high rate of lead to opportunity conversion. And so we're always looking for ways to optimize our demo request CTAs on our homepage, and eventually site wide. We opted to test the copy on our demo request button. For as long as I can remember it's said "Request a Demo" so what would happen if we changed it to the more immediate "Get Started."

Why we did it: Beyond being a huge demo request driver, that copy has been the one constant through all of our homepage and website copy iterations. So it was time for a change. Research had shown that "Get Started" performed well for all sorts of businesses and we were interested in increasing our conversion rate.

Results: When we changed the copy to "Get Started" in all places "Request a Demo" previously appeared, we saw the conversion rate jump to 5%. And we most certainly declared a winner.

Learnings: Despite not allowing access to the product at the click of the button, the more immediate copy felt less intrusive and less sales-y than "Request a Demo." 

So there you have it! That's just a peek at some of the tests we've been running and the results we've seen so far.