They say in Real Estate that three most important words are “Location. Location. Location.” Well, I believe the most important words in marketing are “Test. Test. Test.”
Most service professionals I’ve worked with say they’ve tried one marketing tactic or strategy “once” and “it didn’t work!”
First of all, there are many reasons why it might not have worked. For instance, one client said he “tried direct mail and it doesn’t work.” What I later found out was that he purchased a generic list of 10,000 names, wrote the letter himself with no offer in it, and mailed to the entire list. He spent almost $16 thousand dollars on the list, printing, and mailing costs.
Among the varied things that didn’t go right for him (Wrong market. Poor message. And, not the right media.), he didn’t test a small portion of the list to see if anyone would respond first before wasting all his hard-earned money on the rest of the mailing.
Had he tested a smaller portion of the list, and had he contacted me before he did the mailing, he would have found out that perhaps what he was offering (which was nothing) didn’t work (and not the medium necessarily – direct mail).
Testing is one of the most important keys to marketing success. Here’s what a few direct marketing experts have to say about the subject of testing:
A few components of your marketing you should always be testing:
Or, any other variable that might enhance your marketing performance.
Remember, before you invest a lot of money into a marketing campaign, think about testing your propositions first. Do a split-run (A/B) test. Run one offer versus another. Or, run one headline versus another. See what works first. But, always – I mean , always – TEST before you invest.
“Enhance your marketing performance!”
Craig Valine
blog@craigvaline.com
http://www.craigvaline.com
