A/B Testing for Inbound Marketing Basics and Strategies

In simple terms, an A/B test compares two versions of a web page to see which one performs better. (Let’s call them version A and version B.) The tester shows the experiment to users at random. The tester then uses statistical analysis to determine which version performed better. A/B testing can be incredibly helpful when improving your inbound marketing strategy.

Why You Should A/B Test for Inbound Marketing Strategies

Why should you conduct A/B tests for your inbound marketing strategy? Odds are you want your website visitors to convert from visitors to leads, then to customers.

A/B testing allows you to make the most out of your existing website traffic by minimizing guessing when it comes to your optimization efforts. Instead of guessing, you can make data-driven decisions to convert your website visitors into leads more effectively.

So, what can you test? The short answer is: anything on your website that affects your visitors' behaviors, including:

• Headlines
• Sub-headlines
• Paragraph copy
• Testimonials
• Call-to-actions
• Images
• Content near the fold

But, you can’t just test things to test them. You have to make sure the things you’re testing tie back to your goals and revenue. You also have to make sure your tests are statistically significant.  Here are 4 things to avoid when A/B testing:

4 Things You Should Never Do While A/B Testing 

1. Pull the Plug Early

Running a test too long or not long enough can have consequences, including limited information or a sample size too small to actually learn anything.

To get a big enough sample size to see an impact, you need to run a website test for at least a week. Taking the extra time to gather a substantial amount of data will drastically improve the A/B testing of your lead generation marketing strategy.

2. Test Too Many Small Things

Testing small elements, like buttons and forms, won’t produce the impact you need or, more importantly, result in any learning opportunities.

Emails can be A/B tested as well. A/B testing for a website can yield extremely valuable results.  Email marketing is about maximizing your open, click and response rates while simultaneously generating leads. 

There are an unlimited amount of variables you can test on any of your web pages. It’s crucial you develop a hypothesis before you start testing. Before testing anything, ask yourself:

• Why do I want to test this variable?
• What is the expected outcome from testing this variable?
  

3. Ignore Positive Results

This one probably speaks for itself. If you have an A/B test that’s statistically significant (one version performs better than the other), you need to implement your changes. 

Don’t be the person who runs a test then does nothing with the results. It’ll just be a waste of time and potential revenue. Allowing your results to go to waste would be a disservice to your business. Implementing these results into your lead generation strategy is crucial.

4. Not Test at All

Every test you run isn’t going to be a slam dunk, but every test will teach you something -- including what works and what doesn’t work. So fail ... then fail some more. It’ll only make you better at A/B testing for your inbound marketing strategy.

It's Time to Test for your Inbound Marketing Strategy!

We’ll leave you with this FunnelEnvy quote: “The truth is, nothing else offers the ROI potential of a good conversion rate optimization campaign.” Elevate your inbound marketing strategy with these A/B testing basics. 

Happy testing!