Send a multivariate campaign

Send a multivariate campaign

Multivariate is a type of campaign that you can send from Delivra. This type of campaign allows you to test email components, like the subject line or email design, to determine if changes impact recipient engagement with the campaign.  

You can create a multivariate campaign using a guided workflow that requires only a few steps to complete. If you are not there already, navigate to your Campaigns dashboard to begin.

Click the “Create Campaign” call to action button in the top right corner of your screen. This will launch the guided workflow.



How-To Steps

Tip: Open images in a new browser window for larger view.

Setup

In the Setup tab, you will configure a few required components like providing a campaign name, setting the campaign type, choosing an email template, and setting your From & Subject lines.

Campaign Details

(1) Enter a name for your campaign and (2) choose the type of campaign. The regular campaign type is chosen by default, click on Multivariate Test to change type.

(3) Choose what you like to test: Subject lines, From lines, Email Designs, or a combination. Example: 2 Subject lines + 2 Email Designs.


Design
Choose how you will start the design—from a template, from blank, or from uploading a HTML file. If starting from a template, mark the radio button for the listed template file.

Email Setup
Choose your Sender Name and Address (From line) and enter your Subject line. Optionally, enter Preheader text. If needed, choose the Footer to use for the campaign.

  • In this example we chose to test Subject lines, therefore we see Subject Line 1 & Subject Line 2 in the Email Setup box.


Once these basics are set up, click “Save and Next” to move to the next step, Design.


Design

Moving into the next step, you’re dropped into our drag-and-drop email editor.

On the left you will find Layout, Content and Action elements that you can add into your design.
  • From Layout, drag in new rows, add spacers or divider lines.
  • From Content, drag in new text or image blocks.
  • And from Actions, drag in a call-to-action button.

In the middle of the page you click on an element to edit it. This opens edit tools on the right side of the page. Design tools will vary based on the type of element: text, button, image, etc.



Once your email design is complete, click “Save and Next” to move to the next step, Contacts.

Contacts

In this step you’ll choose the audience to receive your campaign.

From the left column click and move one or more segments/tags to the right column. 

And, if you have not yet imported your mailing list, click the “Import Contacts” button. You can quickly import your list and tag it to receive this campaign.



Once your audience has been chosen for the campaign, click “Save and Next” to move to the next step, Preview.

Preview

In the Preview step of the workflow you can (1) preview a browser version of the design rendering and (2) preview the combinations created for your multivariate campaign.

This page allows you to preview these campaign parts:

  • From & Subject line
  • Contact merge: enter an email address to merge data into the preview
  • File size indicator
  • Link to the online version

For multivariate campaigns specifically, you can choose the combination to preview.


When you’re done using the Preview tools, click “Save and Next” to move to the next step, Test.

Test

The Test step allows you to send copies of the campaign to yourself & teammates for review ahead of sending it live to ensure that the email generally renders as expected and that all images display and that all links are working. Test functionality for multivariate campaigns will automatically send a copy of each combination. There is no need to choose which combination to test in this step. 

Here you will configure these options:

  • Send test to: the email(s) of people to receive a copy of the campaign for review.
  • Send this many test copies: how many copies should be sent to each person indicated.
  • Send the following parts: choose if the HTML or the TEXT version of the campaign should be sent.
  • Send a spam analysis report: run your campaign through email client spam filters & get a score back.


Click “Test and Next” to move to the last step, Schedule.

Schedule

In the final step of the workflow you’ll find multivariate settings that will determine how the campaign is split, how the winner will be determined, and more.

Pick The Winner: Distribution

Set the total number of recipients to receive a combination of the multivariate campaign. Set either a % of the segment(s) selected or set a specific # of recipients.

Notes:

  • Setting distribution to < 100%
    50% of the segment selected for the campaign will be used & split into 2 equal parts (25% each). In earlier steps, we determined that we would test 2 subject lines totaling 2 possible combinations.
    When the campaign sends, 50% of the audience will be sent 1 of 2 versions and 50% of the segment audience will be held over to send the winning combination to at a later time.

  • Setting distribution to 100%
    Setting distribution to 100% will take the entire selected segment and split it into equal parts based on the # of combinations. In earlier steps, we determined that we would test 2 subject lines totaling 2 possible combinations.
    When the campaign sends, 100% of the audience will be split into 2 parts of 50% each and there will be no held over audience.

Pick the Winner: Automatic or Manual

Automatic

Choosing the automatic winner selection means that, if you tested to < 100% of your audience, the system will evaluate campaign results from the sample and send the winner for you on a specified date or at a specified time since the sample was sent. This setting also requires that you set how the winner will be chosen: opens, clicks, etc.

Manual

Choosing the manual winner selection means that, if you tested to < 100% of your audience, you will return to the Campaigns dashboard after the test sample is sent to review the results. At that time, you will choose which campaign combination is the winner & send it to the remaining balance of the segment.


When do you want to send this campaign?

Schedule the multivariate campaign to send.

  • Send Now will send the test samples or the entire audience immediately. 
  • Send all at the date and time specified will schedule the test samples or the entire audience at a later date & time.

Note:

If your distribution sample is less than 100%, send/schedule options apply only to the test samples.



Resources

Visit our e-Learning hub for online modules to learn more about multivariate campaigns & other Delivra features.


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