Ever have an argument with a co-worker about which subject line would be better? I know we have them here at Bronto. Heck, we’ve even had company-wide contests to drum up fresh ideas for subject lines – anything that might take it to the next level.

When you have that many ideas about how to hook people into reading your message it can be hard to know which to use. Even when everyone agrees on which to use, it’s still just a guess. This has been brought to light in a recent post by DJ about first name personalization. Some of our clients have taken DJ to task and are doing the tests themselves (see the comments on the above linked post).

The new A/B split feature that we introduced in the Bronto Fall 2008 Release has come to the rescue. This is just what A/B splits are all about, testing and learning something new. One of the best part about A/B splits is that they are so easy to do.

Almost any time you send a message you should be doing an A/B test. If you always assume that you are doing what’s best for your email marketing program then you aren’t getting any better. Trust me, there’s always room to improve. In Bronto, we make it very easy to send an A/B Split. It is right there (look!) waiting for you to click it.

A/B splits don’t just come in one flavor. You can run A/B/Winner or Champion/Challenger tests.

A/B/Winner

A/B/Winner tests send out emails to two or more test groups with the best performing option being sent out the remainder of your list at some designated point in the future.

Champion/Challenger

Champion/Challenger tests just split up all of your list amongst two groups. The Champion/Challenger tests are great for trying something new with a small percentage of your group.

At Bronto we make this quick and easy, with powerful reports that allow you to see where each version excelled. But if you don’t have that built into your email marketing tool, that doesn’t mean you can’t run A/B splits. Just do two different deliveries and print out the results for each.

A/B splits can be really fun. Place a friendly bet, or maybe just your pride, on your subject line. But don’t bet too much, you may be shocked by the results. Just ask DJ!

Adam Covati
Product Manager at Bronto

Related posts:

1. Challenging the Status Quo: Champion-Challenger A/B Splits We’ve talked about A/B splits a number of times –...