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by Todd BrownWhile hanging out at the ETR Bootcamp last week I heard a great little “gold nugget” about testing and optimizing your marketing results.
Mary Ellen Tribby, one of the sharpest business women I’ve ever encountered and good friend of our little Strategic Profits crew, was on stage along with the the other expert panelists. Attendees were lining up at the microphone to grab their few minutes of “consulting time” during the Q&A portion of the event.
Personally, I was in the back of the room checking my email on my iphone. So, I didn’t hear the exact question posed. But, the moment I heard Mary Ellen’s answer I perked up. Here’s what she said…
“You want to test the things that scream. Not the things that whisper”
What a great way to articulate the importance of testing the truly impactful things, I thought to myself.
And, it’s totally and completely a savvy point.
Testing and tracking is essential to optimizing your marketing results. In fact, you can’ t improve the results you’re getting without proper testing and tracking. And, that’s really where the beauty of marketing online comes into play.
No matter how poor your results are today, you can always improve what’s happening by optimizing the key areas within your marketing and sales funnel. And, your optimization efforts come from the tests you conduct on the areas within your marketing and sales funnel that can have the biggest impact on the bottom line.As I explained in our recent Conversion Clinic, when testing to improve conversions, you want to invest your time and attention on the big things. On the things that can have a significant impact on the numbers.
You don’t want to invest your time on minor aspects of your promotion or funnel (i.e. the color of your signature, the font you’re using, words that are bolded or underlined, etc.).
You want to focus on the things that play a massive role in conversions (i.e. the big idea or hook behind your promotion, the headline, the lead, the offer, etc.).
Think of it like this:
If your job was to double, triple, or even quadruple conversions and sales, what would you test? Whatever the answer; go test it.
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16 Comments to “Your Online Business: Marketers Are Testing The Wrong Things…”
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That is a very true statement! So important and so overlooked by many entrepreneurs. I must say Todd, the Conversion Clinic was awesome!! Worth every penny and more! :)
Thanks Paul. Always appreciate it. :-)
In our more than 20 hours of case studies and interviews with the likes of Alex Mandossian, Ken McArthur and dozens of other six and seven earning internet marketers, it became clear that one of the fastest ways to double your subscriber list is to Double Your Conversion. And the fastest way to double your conversion is to focus on the obvious few areas that matter most. (and it’s FREE) Mary Ellen Tribby is genius.
You can change your results overnight.
Jill Koenig
great points on focusing on what gets you conversions. I agree with that sometimes entrepreneurs will spend more time on font/color than a headline.
Excellent post. Another example of the 80/20 rule in action.
WOW really cool this so cool its realy awesome really cool guys its great thanks so much!!
Great teachers are always finding ways to help their students remember important concepts. Thanks, Todd, for retrieving this one and passing it on — and for making common sense make so much sense!
Now if we just practice your ways, common sense becomes inevitable, and profitable.
Marketers are Testing The Wrong Things…
“You want to test the things that scream. Not the things that whisper”
this really hit the nail on the head for me. Our profits are based on the major things and not the little things we often focus on. Great points.
Man I wish I could have attended this!
Great work, keep it up!
Chris Hughes
http://WhosChrisHughes.com
Todd
I agree, up to a point. Testing should be focused on results, and the bigger the improvement in results the better. And I also agree that there are more things to test than you can possibly get to so you need to avoid testing the “little” things.
But, there is a danger in the message that Mary Ellen and you are delivering if taken too far. Yes, you want to focus on the things that will deliver the biggest improvements to the bottom line. But, be very careful when you decide that you think you know which are the important elements that are going to make that difference as that defies everything we know about direct marketing and testing. If direct marketing has taught us anything, it is that our job is to learn from our market by measuring results and to not assume that we can predetermine the outcome as we will be wrong as often as not.
Testing should be managed be addressing the purpose and potential impact more than it should be judged by how loud or soft the test is. If there is a possible test that could have an impact on the “big things” that really improve results, you should be testing it even if it looks like a whisper.
Many of the biggest direct marketing breakthroughs have come from unlikely tests that were the result of a marketer being smart enough to identify a test that could make a different and brave enough to allow the market to show the way to the best results.
Stuart Jordan
Hi Todd
I think it is a good go for it style statement however Stuart Jordan
makes a cracking point above which reminded me of one my grandad
used to say “look after the pennies and the pounds/dolars will look after
them selves” also a bit iffy but of similar value.
Testing as we know is not unique to marketing we have product testing
software testing even crash testing the theory is basicly the same.
Therfore think of it this way you take you and the kids out in your car
are you bothered only about the screaming engine and stereo or do you check
(test the market) to find the car with the little whispers like comfort safty ?
when microsoft tested windows millenium they worried more about the screaming design than their overall product development so it flopped.
In my experience sometimes not always :-) it is the little whispers that grow to be a real big noise if nurtured correctly they can become a million dollar deal
that would have been lost by not testing and listening to the wisper. Agree with me or no :-) you should listen to Stuart hahah :-)
Todd, You are absolutely right. Testing should be focused on results, and the bigger the improvement in results the better. BTW; Conversion Clinic was awesome! Keep us the good work.
Have a nice day, Christy.
Todd,
This is yet another excellent post on things that bring home the bacon.
One thing I would say that’s kind of a “cousin” of testing/tweaking is having a solid offer in the first place.
I mean if an offer is converting at 0.5% maybe there’s something there that is destroying that conversion.
I mean headlines, call to actions, order buttons, etc are great to test…but tweaking one bonus or taking away a bonus that detracts from the offer can instantly change your conversion rates.
One thing I’d even say, and you mention this in the picture in the post, is the geometric nature of things.
For example, let’s consider the typical viral business…
Number of invites X Conversion > 1 then you’re viral…imagine a SMALL change of 5%…and you’re talking about a business that completely changes and becomes self sustaining and unstoppable.
That’s one great example of geometric math that can take conversions to new heights.
Thinking that way can even improve products that aren’t designed to be viral…I just used that to illustrate the extreme example of viral math that makes conversions stick out even more.
Cheers,
Brad Spencer
Well done an interesting subject!
These are all excellent points! I think it all boils down to the http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/central/product you are selling. Is there demand for it? Is the product of high-quality? Would you be proud to sell this product? If it meets these criteria you have a winner. Great article!
These are all excellent points! I think it all boils down to the you are selling. Is there demand for it? Is the product of high-quality? Would you be proud to sell this product? If it meets these criteria you have a winner. Great article!