Most B2B marketers rely heavily on data to make marketing decisions. This is because when you have more information about your audience, strategies, and performance, you can use the data to improvise future actions.
One of the ways to collect and analyze data is to perform A/B testing. Also called split testing, in this process, you test variations of marketing material to arrive at which version is most effective. Based on the results, you can refine your communication and thereby improve performance.
Let us take a closer look at how A/B testing works.
How to conduct A/B testing
Before you start the process of split testing, it’s important to identify your goals. These could include increasing views, improving clicks, or boosting sign-ups. This will give purpose to your efforts and help you glean actionable takeaways.
Owing to digitization, here is how you can simply A/B test any element today.
- Identify an element to test.
- Create two variations of the element.
- Randomly divide your audience into two equal segments.
- Show one variation to each segment.
- Track and analyze which element performed better.
Once you know which option has worked better, you can A/B test variations of it further, to pinpoint the most preferred option. However, assess only one element at a time. When you run the experiment with multiple items, it becomes difficult to keep track of the effect that they might be having individually.
What elements can you A/B test?
Now that we know how to conduct the assessment, take a look at a few of the various elements that you can test as a B2B marketer.
1. Social media content
Within the ambit of social media content, you can test headlines, language, and tonality, as well as post style, post length, use of emojis, and punctuation, amongst others.
2. Website content
In addition to tonality, language, and headlines, test text separators as well as placement of images or videos. Split testing website content is especially important when it comes to landing pages, as they have a direct impact on conversion.
3. Preview content
Preview content has high visibility and is hence crucial to test. Here too, test both content as well as imagery to determine the most impactful communication.
4. Graphic elements
When it comes to graphics, experiment with various media types and formats to test engagement. Check how your communication performs without visuals and then with a combination of images, videos, infographics, GIFs, and animations.
5. Call-to-action
A CTA button is a crucial part of your marketing campaign since it compels the visitor to take action. Try variants of the call-to-action button to see which option is most persuasive.
6. Ad format
Test variations of PPC and social media ad formats to determine which variant works best for which type of ad. For instance, a carousel post may perform better when you’re talking about your product/service catalog. But, it may be ineffective when it’s used to communicate an offer or discount.
7. Hashtags
Phrase hashtags differently to know which style works best for you. For instance, compare ‘#leadgeneration’ with ‘#lead’ and ‘#generation’. Also, check the difference between using and eliminating hashtags.
8. Target audience
Here, instead of sharing two variants, expose the same content to two different audience segments. This is pertinent because each group may perceive things like personalized content or retargeting campaigns differently.
9. Social media platform
Here, you experiment by posting the same content on different social media platforms to see how the audience reacts. This reveals which kind of communication is apt for which social networking site.
10. Time of posting
Social media users are not always active on all platforms. Identify at what time your target audience is active on Facebook vs. LinkedIn, for instance. Thereafter, to get even more granular data, organize periods of activity and dormancy as per geo-locations, for each platform that you’re targeting.
A good digital marketing strategy becomes great when you continually A/B test, observe and optimize. At Resolute B2B, we take care of the entire process, from creating a digital marketing strategy to optimizing it with the help of rigorous split testing. For more digital marketing and lead generation tips and tricks, follow us on LinkedIn.
