Multivariate tests

The Multivariate Testing option (MVT) allows you to test multiple areas of your email to identify the best performing options. For example you might want to test different images, call to action buttons or offers. Traditionally this would be achieved with creating an A/B Split Test, with a different email for each different combination of variants. However this could mean you end up producing dozens of emails.

MVT allows you to create a single email in the system, and simply define each of the different variations as a Content snippet. Simple tags reside in your email where the different variations will go, and the system takes care of ensuring equal numbers of recipients get each combination of variations.

Creating your test variants

Once you have decided what to test we need to go and create all of the content for these. Each of the content variations need to be put into a snippet. Snippets are reusable pieces of HTML & Text which are stored in the Content section. Normally they are used within dynamic content driven emails or as reusable content assets but Maxemail extends their use to MVT.

Under Snippets create a sub-folder to store all of the relevant pieces of content for the MVT - this is not essential but may help you stay organised once you have several MVTs on the go.

Create the snippets and load in your HTML & Text in the usual way.

Next, against each snippet you need to assign a tag so Maxemail knows which snippets to use in the MVT. So if you have uploaded snippets to test different call-to-actions, maybe you would create a Snippet tag called 'CTA' (Tools menu > Manage Tags and create this under Snippets) and assign this to each of the call-to-action snippets.

For your other elements you are testing (perhaps the header, subject line and so on) you should use a different tag. Also remember any snippet tagged with your chosen tag will be used - so either remove tags from old tests, or use a different tag for your new tests otherwise old test elements will be sent out still!

Adding MVT Tags to your email

Now within your email template you need to drop the placeholders where your MVT snippets will be displayed. These look similar to other Content Tokens:

[snippettag:MVT=<tagname>]

Replace <tagname> with the name of your tag. The tag name can be copied from the properties screen of one of the snippets, or inserted using the editor.

You can check you have done this correctly by viewing the email in the preview tool, where the tag should be replaced with one of your chosen tests.

You can see all combinations in the preview tool, and send yourself test emails of these. Please note though that while a particular persons version might always display with certain combinations in the preview tool, these are likely to change when the live email is sent.

The rest of the process is just like scheduling other emails - and don't forget you can follow the exact same process for Recurring Emails. Indeed your daily automated emails aimed at improving conversion are probably the first ones to look at.

MVT Reporting

Once sent extra reporting will appear, showing the different combinations. You can choose between Combination which shows each possible combination of email, or Snippet which just shows how each snippet you tagged performed. This can be useful if you are low on numbers to be confident in the reliability of the combination results, or if there is no clear combination winner