What Is A/B Testing and Why Does It Matter?

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By Omnizant Team
Law Firm Marketing Agency

A/B testing is a strategy for testing different design and copy choices to find the most effective option. It can be a powerful tool to improve your marketing ROI and all attorneys should know about it. In short, A/B testing can help legal professionals achieve better results by testing two different ideas with real users and providing data to select the more effective one.    

What is A/B testing?

A/B testing is a general technique where two options (A and B) are tested and then data is gathered about A’s and B’s performance. A and B could be anything, from the color of a button to the text of a call-to-action (CTA) message.

While it’s used in a variety of industries, this technique is primarily deployed during website design and marketing campaigns. Various software exist for automating A/B testing so you don’t have to do it manually.

A/B testing is extremely helpful for crafting content and campaigns that resonate with target audiences. 

You may think you know what people want to hear, but you must remember that you are not the user. A/B testing can help challenge your assumptions and gather real-time data to inform your legal marketing and design decisions regarding user experience.

What can you test with A/B testing?

You can test big and small things with A/B testing. You can test different colors, text, page locations, subject lines, hero images, time of publication, and more. 

Does a red button lead to more clicks than a black button? Does a landing page with an empathy-driven CTA convert more than an urgency-based CTA? Do more people fill out the Contact form if it’s at the top of the page rather than the bottom? You can find out with A/B testing!

Here are a few things that digital marketers often use A/B testing to evaluate:

  • Landing pages
  • Ad copy 
  • Newsletters

Ultimately, your goal is to improve the effectiveness of whatever you’re testing. But be careful—if A is too different from B, it can be hard to tell what actually caused the change. 

Think of A/B testing like a taste test. You should be comparing apples to apples, not apples to bananas. Give people two very similar choices where only one element is different, like font size or button color. This increases your certainty about which element actually affected the change in behavior. 

What do you need to do A/B testing? 

You need time, creativity, good software, and real users to start A/B testing.

Begin by crafting different messaging to test. This takes time and creativity. You will also need real users to test—A/B testing is not theoretical! If you already have an email list or a landing page, that’s a great place to start.

Good software can make A/B testing easy—and many programs can help you do A/B testing with minimal effort.

Most importantly, you must review your data often to fine-tune future testing toward the results you desire. The right testing period depends on what you’re testing, but just be aware that your results could be useless if you wait too long to review them.

Review and next steps

A/B testing is a powerful technique for improving digital marketing campaigns. From colors and fonts to messaging and images—if you can tweak it, you can test it. Software can help you organize your A/B testing. Regularly reviewing your campaign results is essential.

We know that legal professionals have more important things to do than design A/B tests. But every legal professional could benefit from this technique.

A/B testing is complex, and it’s best executed by trained marketers who understand the legal field and who are invested in your digital assets. Contact Omnizant to learn more about our comprehensive marketing services or explore our portfolio of featured attorney websites.

About the Author
Since 2006, Omnizant's team of digital marketing experts, designers, developers and writers has helped over 2,000 law firms develop powerful websites that drive business growth.