Enable A/B testing in workflow/automated emails

[katharine]

I was disappointed to see that I can't do an A/B test in an automated email:

https://knowledge.hubspot.com/articles/kcs_article/email/how-to-create-an-a-b-test-email

Marketo (a HubSpot competitor) allows this functionality.

Can you add this to the product sometime?

It's particularly helpful with a Welcome email sequence which is key to on-boarding new customers.

[Sandy]

I've built out a free trial workflow for new users who sign up for our community and would like to to do some A/B testing of the emails ( starting with a simple subject line test). 

I've noticed that once I have activated my workflow I am not able to add an A/B test in the email builder. Is there a way to add this in without pausing the workflow? 

Thanks,

Sandy 

[coachcourt]

Hello @Sandy, 

Currently, you won't be able to create an A/B test with an email that is saved for automated workflows. Make sure your email is set to send at a specific date/time or immediately (under the Sending tab in your email). 

The reason behind this is an automated email will continue to send over time at different intervals depending on when someone gets enrolled in the workflow. I would suggest if you wish to test some variables of your email you run an A/B Test on a regular single-send email and then depending on the results could implement that functionality into your automated email. 

Best, 

Courtney Sembler 

Inbound Professor 

[bellawu]

A/B testing an entire workflow to see what places could be improved to improve conversion rates.

 http://ideas.hubspot.com/forums/76407-general-hubspot-ideas/suggestions/5333193-a-b-testing-workflow...

[arthurmaitre]

Agreed - this is some must-have functionality if you ever want to optimize your automated email workflows.

Even just A/B testing the subject line would be helpful to maximize open rates.

[roo12]

We would like to A/B test the effect that sending out special offer emails to our database has on open rates and conversions. The best way we can think of is if there was a way to randomly put, for example, 1 in 10 subscribers into a separate static list that can be excluded from special offer emails. 

Another way this could be done is if we were able to pull subscribers from a number attribute (for example year of birth) based on 'number ending with X' which should give a relatively random selection. 

[lilliclark]

+1.  This seems absurd that it is not possible.  Many of our 'most important' emails are saved for automation in workflows.  It's non sensical that we can't optimize them.

[Kateb]

++++1 I can't believe Hubspot has not prioritsed this as a feature! An A/B testing functionality is an aboslte must for our automated emails! 

[twandeleijer]

I was really surprised to find out that this is not a feature in Hubspot. I thought Hubspot was all about automating the lead nurturing process. Without the ability to optimize the emails we use in our automated lead nurture workflows, there is really no way to optimize this workflow. Very dissatisfying..

[JesRichards]

I completly agree with this. Being able to test out different parts of a workflow could mean results are drastically changed. This would be a great feature to have. 

[mcostet]

I have the same issue. I think we constantly need to improve the messages we delivered our customers so A/B testing in automated emails is a must.

Hubspot you should develop that feature

[AdrianB]

Same boat. I would really appreciate this feature becoming a reality as it would multiply returns on time and fluidity tenfold.

[StevenB]

We really need this feature

[leslie]

I would love to have this feature too! Please prioritize 🙂

Thanks!

[davidoudiette]

It seems to make very little sense for A/B testing to be availabe anywhere but in workflows, where they get their whole potential. I've been advised to test complete workflows against each other, but setting it up is pretty much a nightmare compared to creating A/B test variations in an email. 

[twandeleijer]

@davidoudiette Imagine if you have a workflow that contains 2 emails, that would means testing 4 workflows. Or 3, that would mean 8 workflows. You can do that on the rest

[ckindrick]

ditto. 

[Emina-Demiri]

Complete nightmare this. Every time I want to test a single email in a workflow I need to replicate the workflow and test it that way. It's not even easy to do that. You need to create new properties and add custom HTML to form embeds. Its shocking that this is not a simple functionality. 

Please add this

[janik]

Came here to find out how to set up A/B testing for my worklfows. Really disappointing (again) to see this obvisous feature is not implemented yet.

[mecalagill]

I totally agree because we are always updating our workflows to better serve our leads and clients. Even for just the beginning of an email workflow if we had the A/B testing options then we could see which one was performing better and that we could keep for our workflow. We are NOT going to get that info from a one-off email if it is in our workflow. That just doesn't make sense. 

[sravi]

Agreed! I had  submitted the same question to Hubspot. Not being able to see which emails are are doing better, what's working whats not is important. These workflows are a big part of my email automation. Checking single emails doesn't give me any insight at all. I specifically create emails that are a part of that workflow only. Also, having ability to see which clients are using a majority of the platform would make my life easier. Right now, there are so many testing browsers. Designing an email in a certain browser may not be optimal for viewing for the other. This is time-consuming and I have to make allowances for a lesser design. So, having that feature which tells me whats the majority of the population using to view these emails - will be a great thing!