If you send out emails, are you testing different subject lines to see which gets opened the most? And what is driving conversion on your site? Should you add video? Or perhaps you think making the Add To Cart button a little bigger would help? If you don’t test any of these hypotheses…who knows?
Keep on reading to find out why you should be testing and how to get started.
Testing Saves Money
One of the most important benefits of routinely testing your marketing strategies is cost-effectiveness: it saves you money in the long run. Testing new strategies and slight variances in existing ad sets is a great way to understand what drives ROI and what doesn’t, allowing you to divert funding to what is most effective.
For example, you can create two versions of the same Instagram ad with different copy: version A says “20% Off” and version B says “20% Off For A Limited Time Only”. You can test both at the same time to see their results and, depending on their effectiveness, you can choose the one that should get more attention and helps you gain more conversions. This way, you can devote your precious marketing dollars to the most effective version of your campaign.
But testing variables aren’t just limited to ad copy (although it is an important one). More examples of testing variables are: layout, calls-to-action (CTAs), landing pages, content offers, color palette, size, email templates, email subject line and sender, images/video, timing, frequency, and much more – with today’s technology there’s almost no limit to what you can test.
Testing Teaches You About Your Business
But wait, while testing for advertising efficiency is super important, that’s not all. Once a marketing campaign is over, you can still benefit from the test you performed. How, you ask? Let’s continue with our previous Instagram campaign example and imagine that version B performed better than A. It received more engagement and ultimately drove more sales during the testing stage, which led you to push your spending towards version B.
Since the variable we were testing in this example was ad copy, we should compare the two copy variants after the fact and see what was different and why. In this case, it seems pretty simple: the sense of urgency that version B implied drove people to take action (ie. to convert) more. We have learned something about our customer base that we can not only apply to this specific campaign, but now look to incorporate this into other channels to increase their ROI.
From now on, our imaginary business can use these findings and include time constraints in their messaging elsewhere: on their homepage, other sale offers, email campaigns, etc., knowing that our customers will likely respond positively.
Every test should provide a new learning. Here are some examples of real business learnings that companies have gathered along the way:
- Some clothing companies find that customers prefer images where models are wearing the product over just the product images. However, they prefer to not see the face of that model and convert better when the face is cut-off at the top (are they perhaps envisioning themselves in that body?)
- The New York Subway system (sadly) found out that people are more likely to follow orders from a male voice and take instructions from a female voice. That is why we hear “stand clear of the closing doors” from a male voice, but the next stop is always announced by a woman.
- Movement is king in social. Most advertisers in social media find that video and animated images are more likely to become thumb-stoppers. In fact, tech companies anticipate that 75% of all mobile data will be video by 2020.
Higher Quality First Impressions
Today, users decide in just a few seconds whether what you are showing them is worth their time. This applies to every aspect of your brand and digital presence, such as websites, emails, ads, etc. This is a key aspect for small and mid-market businesses, because their website is often their first impression to new customers and partners. This debut matters when it comes to directing future traffic and business to your product. Testing allows you to continually improve on usability, which in turn increases conversion potential and customer retention rates.
Customer Satisfaction
Testing is powerful because it provides a continuous feedback loop wherein your customers can show you the efficacy of your strategies. By continuously testing features, offers, or even products, you are letting your customers help decide what it is that delivers the highest value for them.
In addition to testing your assumptions and getting answers about specific questions you have, you can generate new ideas from potential customers through testing. Conducting post-use surveys or focus groups can generate ideas for new features, reveal product benefits that you didn’t realize existed or tell you to change your packaging, price, or other marketing tactics.
Nowadays, It's Easy
Testing does not have to be an arduous task. You can easily use a free tool like Google Website Optimizer to test the effectiveness of one headline or offer from another. You can also use Facebook’s split testing capabilities. You can add Google Analytics to your web pages to get a better feel for how people view your pages. You can access the workforce of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk or UserTesting.com and get usability testing done on your web pages. There is a world of possibilities.
Whatever the strategy, your marketing tactics will benefit from testing over and over again. You never finish testing as the marketplace keeps changing every day. From price to place to promotion to the product or service – every element of your marketing needs to be routinely tested and optimized to achieve your goals.
