What’s an A/B test you’ve performed that surprised you and why?

[chrlee]

Tell us about an A/B test you've conducted in email marketing. Give us some context about your company and industry, then tell us about the parameters of your experiment. What were the results and why did they surprise you?

[ADebebe]

Ya , I did A/B testing if having the audience name in the subject line increased open rate to our small bussiness promotional event. The email was to people who downloaded our free lead magnet.

[MCasiano2]

I haven't done A/B testing but I would like to one day be able to do it.

[OBreedlove]

I've never done any A/B testing, but I would love to hear tips and feedback on this method!

[LRay6]

In a small business/content-driven brand, I ran an A/B test on a promotional email where Version A had a straightforward subject line and Version B used a more curiosity-driven, benefit-focused subject line. Everything else stayed the same (same audience segment, send time, and content), so the only variable was the subject line. Surprisingly, the curiosity-driven subject line significantly outperformed the straightforward one in both open rates and click-through rates. I expected the clearer subject line to win because it was more direct, but the results showed that sparking curiosity and emotion motivated more people to open and engage, which reinforced how much psychology and wording matter in email marketing.

[Andrian]

Hi, I have personally never used A/B testing, but I am looking forward to using it for a future project.

[VOkpara26]

I have never done A/B testing before.

[AzuraDM]

I have never write any email yet, but there times i do A/B  test on copy and sometimes you  could get a lot more difference starting from the hooks and the clarity

[SMoraa6]

In my role within the agribusiness/sustainability sector, I conducted an A/B test on an email campaign aimed at internal and partner stakeholders. We tested two subject lines: one data-driven and one benefit-driven. The benefit-driven subject line achieved a higher open rate and click-through rate. This surprised us because our audience is typically technical, but the results showed that even professional audiences respond better to clear value-focused messaging rather than statistics alone.

[AVargasRossi]

Hello everyone, I have never performed and A/B test but I'm curious on reading the xperiences you have had! 

[EduAcosta]

A/B testing has really expanded my perspective on what a strong subject line or preview text can look like. It also opened the door for valuable conversations with the team and helped us refine how we segment and communicate across channels.

[Omkar2]

• it is much better but I don't have company A/B text are great to make chages in email marketing

[GHardy]

I don't currently have experience with creating email or copy. With an A/B test I feel that it will help create comparative examples, which will lead to making a clear, easily comprehensible, and prompt copy to submit in emails. 

[LuckyM]

I haven't performed A/B testing in email marketing yet, but I think A/B testing can be used in other categories. I can't wait to use it in the future to elevate my emails. 

[DValerio2026]

I had a huge reactivation campaign (60k+ customers with no other KYC or segmentation data than their email addresses). Although the open rate was decent given the conditions, I wanted to see if we could push it forward and grab the attention of more of them. Since these were unopened emails, it meant that the only means of communication I had with them was through the email subject, so I tested several alternatives with personalization and FOMO.

[SeanBarruga]

I haven’t personally run an A/B test yet, but I’ve seen examples where even small changes, like tweaking an email subject line, can lead to a significant difference in performance.

[LKakera]

I havent personal run an A/B test yet , but ive learnt from examples where changing something as small like an email subject line led to a big difference in performance.

[MGauvin1]

I haven't had the chance to implement A/B Testing in email marketing as of yet but I look forward to in the future. 

[MyaRiley]

I work for a nonprofit in the municipal policy and urbanism space. We rely on donations from our members, but have had a long-running policy of not asking for members constantly. Instead, we have focused on providing value consistently and then having a twice-annual member week where we really push people to become members.

Last spring, I wanted to test whether it was better to send an email inviting people to become members every day or only on MWF. My hypothesis was that fewer emails would be more powerful and could potentially outperform the number of members acquired by more frequent CTAs. (A secondary hypothesis was that we'd get fewer unsubscribes if we sent fewer CTAs.)

The results shocked me. The MWF group accumulated 457 clicks — a 1.9% overall click rate. The daily group accumulated 716 clicks — a 3% overall click rate. Not only did the daily audience click more overall, they also clicked more in EACH email. To me, that suggests that daily emails not only provided more opportunities to click but also made people more likely to click on any given email.

As for unsubscribes, the daily group did have more unsubscribes total. However, when I just looked at the emails that were sent to both audiences (on MWF), the number of unsubscribes were just a smidge higher from the MWF audience than the daily audience. Basically, what I expected to see with the click rates — fewer emails causing a more powerful response while more emails provided more opportunities for a response — played out with unsubscribes instead.

[09433]

Hello Everyone,

I am already doing this A/B testing in my current company and find very useful to get more opens & click rate. This is we can do with both like with subject line and with content.

[ABelicia0]

I am new to A/B testing looking forward to implement what i have learnt