Split Testing - The Most Powerful Marketing Strategy You will EVER Learn
Every business owner is looking for that golden marketing strategy that works like magic to grow their business. Well, I hope youre sitting down because I am going to tell you the most powerful marketing strategy you will ever learn. The strategy is called split testing.
What the heck is split testing, you ask? Split testing is the process of comparing the results (sales, leads, etc.) of one marketing piece against another marketing piece to see which generates the most sales. Clear as mud, right? To make split testing easier to understand, I will show you an example of split testing using direct mail sales letters.
You write 2 sales letters to sell the sales training course you are offering. Both sales letters are identical except for one thing they each have a different headline. Sales letter A has the headline, How to easily double your sales in 180 days with this little known marketing strategy and sales letter B has the headline, Learn the marketing secret twelve small businesses recently used to increase sales by over 173% in less than 180 days. Then, you send letter A to 2,000 prospects and letter B to 2,000 prospects. You then track which sales letter produces the most leads and sales. The results tell you which sales letter is the stronger sales tool letter A or letter B.
But how do you track which sales letter is producing the most leads/sales you ask? Easy. You add a unique key code to each letter campaign so you can track it. So, for letter campaign A you use the key code 111 at the bottom of each letter and for letter campaign B you use the key code of 222 at the bottom of each letter. When a customer calls (or places an order), you simply ask them for the key code in their sales letter. Then you track these codes in a spread sheet so you know which letter produced the lead and the sale. After a few weeks to a month, you will know which sales letter is producing the most sales and you can feel confident sending the stronger sales letter to the rest of your prospects.
What happens if both sales letters bomb and produce poor results? Then you write two more sales letters and test them against each other on a small scale (sales letter C versus D). Testing like this is far less expensive than sending a single, untested sales letter to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of prospects. By split testing different messages on a small scale, you can test the pulling power of a sales message without breaking your bank. And, you learn which sales message is the one that generates sales like crazy and will grow your business. If you want to be successful in marketing, always test on a small scale and once you find a winning message, then market on a large scale. NEVER market on a large scale with an untested sales message or you will almost certainly lose a ton of money.
While testing the headline is one of the most important things you can test when testing marketing pieces against one another, you can also test things like price, ($99 per widget in letter A and $79 per widget in letter B), coupon versus no coupon, promotional specials (get 3 widgets for $197 versus get 4 widgets for $249). But the key is to only test one thing at a time. Do not test a headline in one letter against a price in another letter because you cannot compare the two. Only test a headline against a headline and a price against a price.
This sounds like a lot of work you say. Explain to me again why is split testing so important because I still dont get it? First of all, you are right. Split testing is a lot of work. However, the reason it is so important and worth all the work is that it is the one market tool that allows you to significantly increase your marketing return on investment while greatly reducing your financial risk. Split testing allows you to determine which sales message (campaign) is producing a profitable result while eliminating marketing campaigns that are not producing profitable results. Using the sales letter example above, lets say that the results of your split test of letter A versus letter B showed that letter B produced 34% more leads than sales letter A? Wouldnt you rather use letter B for marketing to the rest of your clients instead of letter A? Of course! That is why you do split testing. You do it to find out what sales message is going to generate the most sales and make you the most money! So, split test your way to success.
Peter Geisheker is the CEO of The Geisheker Group Marketing Company. Peter specializes in developing and implementing strategic marketing programs for small businesses. For more information and a free marketing plan ebook, please visit http://www.marketing-consulting-company.com
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