This Subject Line is an A/B Test

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4 Ways Marketers Can Get Started with A/B Testing

Pop quiz!

What did Google do in the year 2000?

In case you couldn’t guess from the title of this section, they ran their first ever A/B test in 2000. Since that point, they’ve run approximately a gazillion A/B tests per year. There’s a good reason for that — A/B tests are freakin’ awesome. Like…real awesome.

The whole point of an A/B test is to find something that works and then make it work better. If you’re not conducting these tests, you’re missing out on the opportunity to find out what your audience really responds to.

Ready to dive into different A/B tests that you can try? Us too. Let’s get into it, with help from our friend, Jenny, at Wistia (Hi, Jenny! 👋):

Social media A/B tests

• Posting frequency  —  How many times a day are you sharing posts?
• Content type  —  What type of content resonates most with your audience?
• Post copy  —  What words work for your audience? Casual, formal, goofy, bold?

The thing to remember with social media A/B tests is that you can only test one thing at a time. There are too many other variables to try and change multiple things at one time.

Paid ads A/B tests

• Audience Targeting  is one of our favorite things to A/B test. Take two unique audiences, run the same ads, and see which one performs better.

Email tests

• Changing the “From” copy  —  Will a more personal email handle increase open rates?
• Video thumbnails  —  Will using a video thumbnail encourage more clicks?
• Body text  —  Should you use a ton of text or very little text?

Landing page tests

• Forms  —  Is your form too long or too short? Sometimes more is less.
• Stats and social proof  —  Will adding these to your landing page increase conversions?
• Media types  —  Are videos more effective at getting your message across than static images?

That’s about all the time we have for today, folks. Dive into the post for real examples from Wistia, and tips for great A/B test results.

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5 Advanced Methods to Promote Your Content in 2018

Okay, crew, we’re cutting right to the chase today ’cause today’s feature is too good. Content Marketing Institute is bringing in the goods with advanced content promotion.

1. Get influencers involved early in content promotion. Let’s define early, shall we? You should be reaching out to influencers before you start writing. Starting this early means you will be able to:

• Determine whether the topic you chose is actually industry-worthy
• Gauge influencer excitement. High excitement means better promotion.
• Ask for feedback or examples from the influencer
• Invite influencers to review a final draft

When it’s all said and done, don’t forget to send a follow-up. In it, make a note of your appreciation, send the final content, ask the influencer to share, and see if you can reach out in the future.

A tool to use: Voila Norbert to find influencer emails

2. Amp up traffic to your content with sharing communities: Hubpages, GrowthHackers, Flipboard, Medium, Reddit, Blog Engage, and Triberr. Think of it as sharing your content with a large network of like-minded people.

Choose a sharing community based on where members of your audience are active. But you have to contribute to these groups. You don’t just want to be seen as self-promoting.

3. Present your content in a digestible way and easily shareable. Test engagement by creating multiple variations of social posts. Here are some tactics for you to try:

• Create multiple titles by varying length & complexity (oh, hey…this sounds a lot like A/B testing…☝️).
• Ask relevant questions
• Use statistics in your messaging
• Add a call to action

You’re gonna want to test between 20 to 30 variations on different platforms.

4. Update and expand existing posts. CMI reports that marketers who do this are 74% more likely to see positive results.

• Schedule a monthly review of old content for updating opportunities
• Quickly update content when new developments occur

Another move is transforming your old content. Do this by creating an infographic, video, or e-book based on the original content.

Oops, we ran outta room. We recommend reading the rest of this one 👇

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The Secret Of True Coffee Lover

Tell us. Are you a Starbuck fan or Dunkin’ fan? Conspirator or hippie-dippie? Apple or Android? Star Wars or Star Trek??… We could keep going.

You don’t really have to tell us. But it is strange how things can divide us so easily. A Slovak coffee producer thought so too. They recently released an ad that addresses our social-bubble-driven society.

Their message surrounds tolerance. Because your coffee will taste better when you aren’t commenting on other people’s coffee. We think that’s a pretty solid message. Plus, this ad has that quirkiness that we love.

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