I have a confession to make.
To this day, I struggle with taking the time to TEST my marketing materials, (ads, headlines, and other marketing materials) before spending money on mass advertising.
It is strange, we ALL KNOW that every marketing piece must be tested before the actual promotion, but we never take the time, or have the patience to actually do it.
I didn’t have the patience or the wisdom for testing and analyzing numbers. I was too anxious to put my ideas to work.
It took me years, and I have made many many many mistakes to realize, that my laziness is costing my business a lot of money in wasted advertising.
I learned the hard way that, by taking a little time to test your ads and products will make you a better marketer, save a ton of money, and you’ll make a lot more profit.
Testing is essential for the long-term success of marketing programs. It’s the only way to prove what works in the marketplace.
The realization of this simple step, changed the way I market on the Internet now.Every paid ad campaign that I launch is tested for at least the basic numbers.
Here are some of the basic marketing stats that I keep track of, when I do a A/B Split testing:
1. Opt In rate
2. Conversion rate
3. Exit pages
For marketers who currently don’t test your marketing materials, I strongly urge you to start with your next promotion or product.
Here are some tools and advertising avenues, especially geared towards marketers who want to test their ads and landing pages before spending a lot of money on mass advertising.
iMediaMarketingTools.com - Ad tracking, survey software, list building software and more.
Rent-A-List.com - Low cost advertising packages for testing your ads.
To learn more about the importance of testing, read Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising.
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hey this is a very interesting article!
Beyond split testing and more, you can now use the Internet to do some initial user testing of your marketing materials.
One example is http://www.feedbackfast.com.
Simply post your marketing materials on a web site somewhere, then request an evaluation. Feedbackfast.com will provide an expert evaluation of the material, providing a video of their review with the mouse location highlighted and audio comments and a written summary of recommendations.
Additionally, you can supplement the expert review with independent user evaluations. A selection of people who meet your basic demographic requirements will be solicited to review the materials. Their feedback (video and audio) will be summarized by the FeedbackFast expert and incorporated into the package you receive.
Tests start at $49 and the results are usually delivered in less than 24 hours.
This is idea for Web usability testing, collateral and newsletter review, and ad testing.
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