Hey, it’s Brooks. Welcome to Mondays with Money Marketers, where Wall Street meets Madison Avenue.

As a quick reminder, we provide flexible, compliance-approved content solutions for financial service firms to help retain clients and generate leads.

Every Monday we share tips and tricks we’ve learned that you can implement yourself.

Before we dive in here's a link to my calendar if you'd like to discuss how we can help you generate more business.

In today’s edition:

• Highlighting how important A/B testing is

• Experiential marketing is back

• How young is too young for estate planning?

First time reading? Sign up here

LINKS WORTH A LOOK

🗣️ Marketing News & Insights

• Spending on experiential marketing tops pre-pandemic levels (Marketing Dive)

• Rethinking SEO in the age of AI (Lenny’s Newsletter)

• Email Promotions Tab Hysteria Is Back! (Thanks, Apple) (MarketingProfs)

💼 Industry News & Insights

• Bad Timing Cost Fund Investors 15% Of Gains Over Past Decade, Morningstar Says (FA-Mag)

• Will This Be Another Disastrous Year for the FAFSA? (Wealth Management)

• Blackstone, Brookfield Compete to Cash In on India’s Asset Management Boom (Institutional Investor)

🤔 Honorable Mentions

• I’m Way Too Young for Estate Planning. Or Am I? (WSJ, Subscription Required)

• Wealthy millennials and Gen Z are redefining philanthropy (CNBC)

• Gimme credit: Three ways to manage kids with credit cards (Reuters)

DEEP DIVE

Using A/B Testing to Optimize Your Email Campaigns

Want to run a successful email marketing campaign? You better be ready to optimize. And I mean, constantly. There are “set-it-and-forget-it” aspects of email marketing, which I love. But in order to truly drive engagement and conversions you need to test and optimize all — the — time.

One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through A/B testing. Also known as split testing, A/B testing involves sending two variations of an email to different segments of your audience to determine which version performs better.

In today’s edition, we’ll explore how we leverage A/B testing for our own newsletter, The Street Sheet, and how you can use it to get the most out of your campaigns.

By the way, this email was A/B tested with two subject lines :)

Why A/B Testing Matters

The success of email campaigns can hinge on seemingly minor adjustments. An improved subject line, call-to-action (CTA), or email layout can significantly impact open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

A/B testing helps you take the guesswork out of your strategy by providing concrete data on what resonates with your audience.

What We Test in The Street Sheet

For The Street Sheet, our hyper-engaged audience of self-directed investors means we can’t afford to rely on assumptions. Here are some elements we frequently A/B test:

1. Subject Lines:

   • We experiment with subject lines that tap into curiosity vs. those that highlight actionable insights. For example:

     • Version A: “This Stock Might Be the Next Big Thing 🚀”

     • Version B: “Actionable Insights: Top Trade Idea of the Day”

     • By testing these variations, we discover whether our audience prefers intriguing hooks or straightforward descriptions. Whether they like emojis or not.

2. Send Times:

   • Timing can make or break your campaign. We test different send times to see when our readers are most likely to engage.

3. Calls to Action:

   • Different CTAs generate different levels of engagement. Testing variations like “Read Now” vs. “Unlock Today’s Trade Idea” helps us understand what motivates our subscribers to click.

   • Different CTA formats like buttons vs. plain text can also drive different results.

4. Preheader Text:

   • Preheaders are often overlooked, but they play a huge role in improving open rates.

   • We test different types of messaging—like highlighting benefits vs. posing questions.

5. Email Design and Layout:

   • Some readers prefer a minimalist layout, while others respond better to more dynamic, image-heavy designs.

   • Through A/B testing, we identify the format that leads to higher engagement.

How We Measure Success

When running A/B tests, it's essential to define your key metrics. At The Street Sheet, we focus on open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

Each metric helps us pinpoint what’s working and where we need to pivot. The key is to test one variable at a time to isolate the cause of any performance difference.

Best Practices for A/B Testing

• Start Small: Test a single variable at a time to avoid skewing the results.

• Segment Your Audience: Ensure that your test groups are randomly selected and evenly split to reduce bias.

• Monitor Trends Over Time: One-off tests provide useful insights, but the real power lies in consistent testing over time.

• Use the Results to Refine Future Campaigns: Apply what you learn to future campaigns to keep improving.

Example

Take a look at the example above from one of our recent email campaigns. In this campaign, we actually tested 4 different subject lines. We sent this test to 30% of our list and then the “winning” subject line got sent to the remaining 70% of our list.

One subject line had an initial open rate of 15.12% (no bueno)

The winning subject line had an initial open rate of 27.52% — this is a HUGE difference

That is a 12.4% difference!

Think about that difference this way: if you had a list with 100,000 people on it

• Your lowest open rate means your email would have been seen by 15,120 people

• Your highest open rate means your email would be seen by 27,520 people

That is a massive, massive difference when it comes to end goals like generating leads, converting on sales, booking calls, etc.

Conclusion

A/B testing is at the heart of how we optimize The Street Sheet and deliver consistent value to our audience. It’s not just about finding what works—it’s about constantly iterating and staying ahead of audience preferences. If you’re looking to take your email campaigns to the next level, adopting a disciplined A/B testing approach will provide the insights you need to succeed.

At Money Marketers, we specialize in helping financial service firms craft high-performing email campaigns.

Need help with your A/B testing strategy? Click here to schedule a time to talk. Make it a great week, we’ll see you back here next Monday.

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