Are You Guessing — Or Testing?
Having trouble deciding what to call your newsletter? Or what to charge?
Well, you’re on the Web now, and that means you can do quick, easy, and inexpensive testing to get answers. I’ve done it a number of times and it’s been a useful experience each time. Here are three examples:
Change and measure
A key objectives for one of my websites was to get visitors to subscribe to my newsletter, Abbott’s Communication Letter. When I started working to improve the ratio, the conversion rate was about 9%; that is, roughly one in 11 visitors subscribed.
In a bid to improve that ratio, I added a strong ‘because’ section at the top of the index page, explicitly listing the benefits of subscribing. Again, I measured responses, getting several hundred of them before drawing any conclusions. And what did I find? Adding the ‘because’ section improved the ratio, from 9% to 15%; now one in 6.6 visitors were subscribing.
To do this kind of testing, vary just one detail at a time, measure the results (more about calculating results below), and if the change worked, make it permanent and start over again with another change.
A banner example
Here’s another challenge from several years ago that seemed natural for testing: Which of two slogans should I use on the front cover of my book, A Manager’s Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results?
Solution: I created banner ads for each slogan, and tested them with the help of Mike Scanlin of Four Corners Effective Banners. Each banner got 3,000 impressions and when the test was done I had my answers. The answers came from determining which slogan received a higher clickthrough rate (in other words, how many clicks each banner got per hundred viewings).
I would no longer recommend banners as a way of testing; instead I would use pay per click (PPC) text advertising. Open an account with one of the many PPC companies, create two ads that alternate, and select the one with the higher clickthrough rate (also known as CTR).
You can also test prices, as well as words and phrases. Simply put the price into each of the ads. One price in one ad, and a different price in the other ad, and keep everything else the same.
How to test?
If you try to test a lot of concepts at once it gets complicated. Believe me, I‘ve tried. So change just one detail at a time, measure the results, compare with the original, keep or reject the change, and try another.
How many responses do you need to know if you’ve got a good result? Well, again, you can fine an answer online. Simply visit the website http://www.splittester.com/ and enter the results of your testing, as directed. You will get a result that not only shows you the numbers, but also indicates how much confidence you can have. If it’s a relatively low level of confidence, keep the test going longer.
The important thing is that you test, not guess, because testing is the foundation of a successful initiative. And, using the power of the Internet makes it quicker, easier, and cheaper than ever before to test. That’s a deal you don’t want to pass up.
