In Part I of our marketing automation strategy planning series, we offered a few steps to set yourself up for success in leveraging your marketing automation tool. Now that we are in the final weeks of the year, with hopefully some down time between holiday gatherings and cookies at the office, let’s talk about testing!

Every marketing manager should create their own test plan for 2016. Consider the testing that you’ve already done in your marketing. You know what works and doesn’t work. Now consider what you don’t know or haven’t tried yet.

1. Make a calendar. Hint: You can use the same calendar you used for your feature strategy, as the two may, and perhaps even should, align.
2. Focusing on each month, make a list of tests you want to run, questions you want to answer about what will work in your marketing efforts. Hint: Common testing areas include A/B testing on subject-lines, text-heavy vs image-heavy communications, audience/message combinations, and even changes in “from” names and addresses.
3. Consider your campaign schedule or large initiatives for the year. Align your tests with your marketing efforts throughout the year. Hint: Try to build on the results of previous tests. For example, after testing responsive vs non-responsive content performance, the next test could be whether the previous winner performs better with text-heavy vs image-heavy content.

Aim to try something new at least one a month. Reach out to us for some fresh ideas for the new year or to help putting your ideas into practice!