You can easily test your mobile message using Action Network’s mobile messaging tool. This can help you find out what kind of content works best with your mobile list. You can then use the random limit feature in mobile messages targeting to test your various message versions to a small segment of your list.
Note: You’ll receive multiple test messages when you send yourself tests, but your recipients will only receive one version.
Testing MMS images
If you're sending an MMS message, you can test which image performs best. Next to the section to link or upload your image, click the green plus button. This will provide another place to input a link or upload your image. If you'd like to remove a test segment, simply delete the URL.
Testing mobile message bodies
Below where you write your original message body, click the green plus button to ‘add alternate body’. This will copy your original body over to the alternate, where you can fully edit the body. Give your alternate body a name, which will appear on the ‘test results’ tab of your mobile message manage page, so you can track how your message is doing.
If you want to remove an alternate body, delete the content and leave the alternate body blank.
Random limit
At the bottom of the mobile message targeting page, you can enter a number in the random limit box. This will take the total number of activists targeted with your includes and excludes and cut it down to the number you entered by choosing random activists in your universe. For example, if you targeted 5,000 activists using includes and excludes and then set a random limit of 1,000, your message would be targeting a random 1,000 activists in your larger 5,000 person universe.
Random limits enable easy message testing. For example, let's say you wanted to test two different calls to action in your message to see which did better with your activists. You’d create your message testing two email bodies, using a different CTA in each. Then you'd enter in a random limit of, for example, 1,000 to target your mobile message to 1,000 random activists in your targeted universe.
On the mobile message preview page, we'll show you your random limit compared to the total activists that match your targeting criteria.
Viewing test results
After you send your mobile message, you can navigate to the ‘test results’ tab of your message manage page. From here, you can evaluate the statistics and pick your “winner”. You can duplicate or duplicate with exclude the message directly from that tab.