Testing Your Way to Success

Like every facet of business today, marketers are being asked to do more with less, stretch resources and prove positive bottom-line impact.

Testing your programs and approaches against each other provides the foundation for challenging existing assumptions, developing new insights and continuously improving marketing results. And that is what we are all after, right? Before you start, know your goals. Take the time to write them down, and compare your test plans to your goals. Ask yourself if the test will move the needle against your goals.

The first step is to decide what to test. The possibilities are nearly limitless, so focus on getting the most benefit from your initial tests.

Actionable tests

The goal is to deliver a quick win, so prioritize testing changes that can be acted on quickly. Likely candidates include calls to action, offers, email subject lines or campaign concepts.

Start at the top of the funnel

Focus on getting more prospects to your website or into the top of your conversion funnel. The increased traffic or prospects will allow faster and easier testing of the later stages of your conversion process, such as your registration form or your telemarketing scripts.

Look for impact

This is a great opportunity to pull from the pool of ‘if we just changed this’ ideas you already have. The obvious is worth stating here: maintain focus on changes that can drive a strong ROI. Someone will want to add a test to answer an interesting question, even one that is not actionable. Maintain your focus on improving results and judge each test opportunity by the potential improvement. With a solid approach to testing, marketers can continually improve results, doing more with less and proving it every step of the way.