Testing Part 2

I promised in my last message that I’d talk some more about the importance of testing your marketing and ways you can go about doing that.

To reiterate the importance of testing, if you’re not testing you’re just throwing money out the window.  You want to be vigilant at analyzing how well your efforts are doing so that you can work to improve each time you begin a new marketing campaign. 

P.T. Barnum, one of the greatest early marketers of our times, used to say that he knew he wasted 50% of his efforts, and if he could only determine which 50% that was so he could eliminate it and do more of the other 50%.  Well, we’ll never be able to get 100% return on our marketing efforts, but if we can improve the percentages we’re already getting then we’re making good progress.

So what should you be testing?  In a nutshell, everything.  That’s right, EVERYTHING.  Don’t leave anything to chance.

So what’s everything?  Well, this isn’t a complete list but it’s a good start:

• The envelope (if sending a sales letter)
• How you address the envelope
• The font you use to print the envelope
• Using a label versus not using a label
• What type of postage to use
• Using a return address versus no return address versus a return address with address only
• Putting teaser copy on the outside versus not using teaser copy
• Using a standard #10 envelope versus using a different size envelope

And that’s only the envelope!  Just imagine all the things that could be tested once you get past the envelope.  Or if you’re testing a new yellow pages ad, or newspaper ad, or postcard, or information sheet you give to your clients, or a new website, or……well, you get the idea.

Again, testing is what allows you to fine tune your marketing so that eventually you’re using a laser guided missile instead of a shooting a shotgun blindfolded.

Now, is testing an easy thing to do?  Unfortunately not.  There’s no easy way to go about it, but if you’ll expend the time and effort to do so, I guarantee you’ll see a significant improvement in every piece of marketing you send out.

Stay tuned because next time I’m going to tell you how to actually test these elements so that you can get maximum results from your efforts. 

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