How to A/B test subject lines and email content

Email & Newsletters

A practical guide to running controlled experiments on email subject lines and body copy to improve open and click-through rates.

Who is this for?

Marketing teams, newsletter managers, and data analysts seeking data-driven improvements in email performance.

Before you start

A mailing list, a plan for metrics, and time to run a test and analyze results.

General Process (How it works)

  1. Set a clear goal such as increasing open rate by a specific percentage or click-through rate
  2. Choose one variable to test at a time (subject line or email body) and decide variant count
  3. Estimate required sample size and a significance level to detect a meaningful lift
  4. Draft 2-3 subject lines and 1-2 email content variants that isolate the variable
  5. Randomly assign recipients to variants and ensure consistent send time and tracking
  6. Execute the test for a predefined duration or until significance is reached
  7. Compare metrics for each variant, compute lift and statistical confidence
  8. Apply the winning variant and plan future tests to continue optimization

Jump to tool:

🏆 Recommended for this task

Quick Comparison

ToolFree Plan?Min Price
Kit Yes $33 / month

Which tool should you choose?

Kit

Kit provides an end-to-end A/B testing workflow for Broadcasts with built-in variant handling, live analytics, and automatic winner rollout. Its intuitive UI streamlines variant setup, duration control, and post-test delivery, making it faster and more reliable than external tools. This yields quicker, data-driven improvements to open rates and engagement.