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This is a Test – Only a Test – of Your Direct Response Marketing Strategy

If you woke up tomorrow and your accountant or office manager advised you that all you had left in your advertising budget for the rest of the year was $5000, how would you react and what actions would you take?

Oh, and one more thing…

The advertising has to produce sales results otherwise your business will go under.

Bummer  ☹

This scenario above is one that many a small business owner could learn from and possibly save his or her small company. You see many small business owners still believe in the old adage that you have to advertise in order to keep the people coming to their businesses, yet they don’t have a clue if any of it really works.

And they have trusted their hard earned money to certain media outlets that say it’s working, yet can’t prove that the advertising is bringing in people who are purchasing or buying products and/or services.

So again the question arises – if all you had was $5000 for the remainder of the year, would you buy media (offline or online) that simply flashed your company name and fancy photos on the screen, channel or paper or would you buy media or create content that would bring in sales?

Oh, and one more thing I didn’t mention earlier… You need good creative to attract your target market. This is where direct response marketing comes in to play.Direct Response Marketing Strategy

Yes my friend, a direct response marketing strategy could be what saves your bacon. The thing is your creative needs to be response oriented and have tracking and capture mechanisms attached so the person footing the bill can see actual results. Actual results means traffic and then you need to convert the traffic (prospect) into a new customer or client.                                              

Direct Response Marketing Strategy 

So the Direct Response Marketing Funnel & Process looks something like this…

  1. Create Good to Great Creative (words, pictures, music, voice) that is designed to attract your target audience.

  2. Find and Test Media or Content (most likely online) that your target audience is involved in.
  3. Send Your Target Audience to a page, phone or place that they can interact with you so you can share your offer.
  4. Present Your Offer and Make a New Sale, Create a New Subscriber (because you captured his or her name and info), or Created a New Interested Prospect that now knows who you are and what you do.
  5. Follow-Up with Your New Customers and Subscribers to create more sales and referrals. Utilize email software to do the heavy lifting.

Now doesn’t this direct response marketing strategy look like a better plan versus throwing your $5000 budget up on the mass media wall with little or no chance of bringing in any new business?

Remember – you only have the $5000 and it has to last you for six months. The question is will you test, make sales or throw mud up on the wall and watch it dry and flake off?

Will you create a direct response marketing strategy?

Only time will tell and in six months we’ll see if there’s a small business with your name on it in the small biz obituaries or if your sign is still lit and the phone and email are still connected.

To your direct response marketing success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher 

PS – I really meant it when I said utilize email software to do the heavy lifting, and believe me when I say you can use the software for your offline marketing too…

Testing Advertising and Your Wallet

No matter if you are testing advertising via new media or testing the effectiveness of advertising concepts, testing your advertising and marketing is very important if you intend to increase profits and return on investment.

Testing is one of the toughest topics to discuss with business owners, especially when it comes to advertising. I personally enjoy it because it’s the one area that really opened my eyes years ago and lifted the curtain so I could see behind the scenes.

Which saved us money that was being flushed down the drain by ads that didn’t produce and drive traffic to our phones, email and front door.

You see, I just got plain sick and tired of paying all these companies for advertising, yet we didn’t really know what worked and what didn’t. And neither did they!

With some business owners, I almost feel like I’m tawkin’ to tha wall. And Yes, that’s some real NY accent coming out. But I mean it has has been a challenge in the past, seeing small business owners who refuse to test their advertising and marketing.

I’ve been a tester since the mid 1990’s, when I first did it the old fashioned way with paper and spreadsheets and to some extent I still use a spreadsheet for data tracking.

What does all this mean for you, my loyal reader?

About a month ago I joined a very small group of marketers in a Testing Lab that was very intense, advanced and fast paced. No joke – it was a four week whirlwind.

As we worked though and dug into the material, one of the presenters said that 95% or more of online marketers don’t test. Now this doesn’t come as a surprise. I mean look at the off line world and small businesses that advertise both on and offline. How many do you think test, split test and survey? Not that many has been my personal experience in the last 25 plus years.

So why should the online marketer test, track and survey?

I’ve been into testing for a long time. And here’s the bottom line….If you aren’t testing then you are missing out and are most likely still playing the guessing game.

Why Guess when you can Test? 

In the ‘ole days’ we had to test the old fashioned way; with physical surveys, special phone numbers, traditional email and spreadsheets. It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort and the time it took to accumulate the data.

For our small business this meant really seeing what was working and what was not. It was an eye opening experience that made me realize how important testing and surveying can be to a small enterprise.

So let me ask you a few questions:

Do you really want to spend money on advertising? Or do you want to attract new leads and convert them into clients? And put more money in your bank account?

After all, it is your money we are talking about here, not just testing.

Are you asking the tough questions – Why is this ad working? Why is that ad not working?
If not, then you should be. It’s your business. Your wallet and your future.

The only way to know is to test and test you must, if you desire to get the best results – meaning opens, click through rates, conversions to sale, subscriptions or some kind of action.

So do you really want to take your business to the next level? Do ya? Or are you just comfortable enough to say – I’m doin’ ok Dave – this testing sounds like a lot of work.

If you are ready to make the change, then start testing today, now, pronto, ASAP! And if you need some guidance, contact The SmallBiz Mechanic, he might be able to shine some light on the subject.

Test to Success,

Dave Krygier
Publisher