It’s Better than A/B Testing!

A/B Test.

On the second day of Direct Marketing 101, your mentor or boss told you to test, test, test.

(On my whiteboard, everyday, I see ABT: Always Be Testing!)

If you are new to Direct Response marketing – either in Direct Mail or online in an E-commerce business, you want to test new ideas to see what can give you the best jump start.

Test a new headline.

Test a new image.

Test new envelope copy.

You start every test with one simple question: will A generate X better than B.

Will a new CTA generate more leads, or more sales, or a higher average order, than the current CTA.

If you are a mature Direct marketer, you want to fine tune your results, so you test all the time, and make subtle tests.

Like, will the image of a couple generate more response than an image of a single person…

Or will a larger font increase the number of older customers who I want to reach…

For one client, we once tested the colour of the paper we used for the sales letter. (Blue buff beat grey buff.)

But you are always testing, right?

You might even try your hand at multi-variant tests.

Multi-variant tests include multiple elements at one time, but measured one versus another.

For example, you might test three lists and two offers and maybe two formats all within the same direct mail campaign.

It might look complicated, but it will give you a great deal of feedback in one go.

The big hurdle is cost.

You need to create separate test cells for each version in the test (with possibly 5,000-10,000 names for each test cell.)

Multi-variate testing is most often used for beginning promotions when there are so many questions. Eventually as your program matures, you will have some sense of what is working and your test become more focused.

Try Something Better!

If your promotions are mature (your tests program have gone on for more than two years) you might soon run out of ideas to test.

It’s time for a Challenge!

Once per year, you should do a challenge to your control.

In a Challenge, you go to an outside set of eyes, and outside set of brains, an outside set of talent, and ask these outsiders to create something new and exciting.

Hire a freelance copywriter and a freelance designer.

Tell them what your product is, and what price point (or profit margin) you want to attain.

That’s it.

Don’t tell them more.

Ask them to NOT look at your current materials. They should not see what you tested last month, or what your current copywriter/designer is working on.

Turn them loose. Let their “new eyes” see your product or service not as you see it, with familiar eyes, but with the mind of a person who wants to explore new ideas and new solutions.

You can, if you want to, set a few small rules: use only the current logo, font, and colour set.

Tell them not to change the product itself. Don’t make a promise we cannot keep (like 6-hour delivery on a product that takes two weeks to build.)

Challenge your current concepts, ideas, and patterns.

Give your challenge a fair chance: in Direct mail, that means you should mail between 5,000 and 10,000 pieces of the new Challenge package. In the online world, that means you run the challenge for at least two weeks and send as many leads to the challenge page as to your current control.

After the challenge is complete, stop.

Ask a pile of questions: how many orders or leads did we get? If we wanted leads, did they convert better – more conversions, higher value conversions – than the control? How many customer complaints did we get? Was the Challenge profitable, or did it cost too much for an equal return?

The most important question is this: Did the Challenge teach us anything about our product or service we did not know already? Did the outside eyes add clarity and reveal new horizons for our product?

Test?

Yes.

Challenge?

Absolutely!

Reach out to an experienced freelance Direct Mail or Direct Response Copywriter and a freelance Designer.

Challenge your thinking and discover unrealized potential!

Feel free to add your comments below…

Peter T. Britton

Idea Generator. Wordsmith. Resultant

PTB@novuscom.net