Why Testing And Tracking Is Vital To Your Email List

Today we focus on the last of our “prep” stuff to make sure our list building efforts bring the best possible results. For that to happen, we have to know what’s working, what isn’t, and if there’s anything we can do to make things work better. I’m talking about testing and tracking your opt-in forms and opt-in pages.

Why Are Testing and Tracking Important?

Let’s run some numbers to show you why testing and tracking is so important. Let’s say you get 1,000 visitors to your website or your opt-in page and the goal is to get them to sign up for your list. Your current opt-in form or page converts at 2%. That means 20 people end signing up to your list that day.

Not bad…

But what if you did some testing and figured out a different version of your opt-in form or page that converts at 15%. You end up with 300 new subscribers to your list. That’s a big difference to 20 people… and we’re talking about just 1,000 visitors to your site. Multiply that over days, weeks, and months, and it can make a huge difference in how fast your list grows and how hard you have to work.

Even small improvements in conversion can have a huge impact over time.

Setting Up Your Tracking

Most autoresponders today make it very easy to test and track different opt-in forms and opt-in pages. Refer to your documentation for help, check out the help files on the website, or speak to customer support. They should be able to point you in the right direction.

With Aweber for example, you can create two different versions of an opt-in form, and then set up A/B split testing of the two forms right in your Aweber interface. Instead of copying the code for one of the forms into your website, you copy and paste a different piece of code, and they take care of everything else.

Half the visitors are shown the first opt-in form; the other half, the second one. Opt-in conversions are tracked and displayed within your Aweber interface.

Take some time to get your tracking set up today and get your first test up and running.

Things You Should Test

Testing will be an ongoing process. Your goal is always to try to find something that converts better than your previous version. Start simply by testing two headlines against each other or the color of your signup box. Down the road, you can get as creative as you’d like. Test different text, different calls to action, asking for more or less information, changing the entire message of your opt-in page, adding or removing images, using different images etc.

The Rundown

The sky is the limit when it comes to testing. Simply try something new, let the test run for a few days and then keep the version that performs better and try something else. Over time, you will see your conversion rates go up and up. And that’s a very good thing.