Guerilla Tactics to Test and Track Your Way to the Top
- ARTICLES |
I am sharing another of Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero's (Redhotcopy) awesome articles. This one is about the about value of testing and tracking your copy.
She has PC software klckstartcart which makes testing and tracking website, salespages and ads a breeze.
Guerilla Tactics to Test and Track Your Way to the Top
By Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, Expert Copywriter
It’s interesting that one of the world’s best copywriters, Mike Fortin (who had a hand in the “Million Dollar Day” that stealth marketing guru John Reese had online last year) said he doesn’t consider himself to be a good copywriter so much as a fanatical tester. That says a lot about the value of testing and tracking.
But a lot of people get wigged out over testing. It sounds so hard and complicated. Let me break it down for you by explaining what a simple split test is.
Here’s how it works. Write two identical versions of your copy with one change in one element. (A and B). Then upload each version to its own page in your website (so each has its own website address) – example, www.red-hot-copy.com/A and www.red-hot-copy/B. Use a split test software installed on your website or through your shopping cart system (more about this in a moment) to rotate the pages equally. Whichever one has the most clicks, leads or sales is the winner.
It’s been said that there are some 2,000 plus variables that can affect website response. But of course, according to the 80/20 rule, some will have much more impact than others. So if you value your time, it’s obviously more effective to focus on the 20% that brings 80% of the results. So you need to understand which 20% that is. This is where split testing comes in to help you figure out the puzzle. But where do you even start split testing?
Well, these are the most commonly split tested elements:
¨Headlines
¨Pre-headlines
¨Sub-headlines
¨Above-the-fold elements (anything you see on your computer screen WITHOUT scrolling down)
¨Opening/hook
¨Offer
¨Price
¨Guarantee
¨Fonts (size, color, face)
It’s critical to remember that you only want to split test one element at a time. Otherwise your results are skewed. For example, I hated my old sales letter for my home study course. So I gutted it. Immediately, it started getting better response. The bad thing is I had no idea which element turned visitors into buyers. I had changed too many things at once. Not a good idea.
So how do you get a split test system of your own? Well, there are some different products out there but you need a programmer to install them:
¨http://www.proanalyzer.com/
¨http://www.clickalyzer.com/
¨http://convertmoretraffic.net/
There is also a system called the Taguchi Method that was designed to test hundreds of elements at the same time. In general, that system is price prohibitive right now (it was created for large manufacturers). This software is the closest one to it and it runs about $500.
¨http://www.multitrackgenerator.com/
But my favorite split test system is my shopping cart. All you do is set up an account, log onto your shopping cart and click to the ad tracking module. You manually add two separate URLs you want to split test to the ad tracker. The cart does the rest, rotating each page of copy, counting the hits and telling you which one did best. Keep the best one and get rid of the other. Over time you should see your sales rise as your copy becomes more and more in tune with the prospect.
I love my shopping cart because it does so much. Autoresponders, products, follow up, database management, subscriber management, special sales and promotions and best of all, ad tracking. If you don’t have a cart, you can use the free trial of mine for 30 days at
KickStart Cart.com **FREE Demo & Marketing Tools!
But beware! When you start shopping around for a split testing system there are 2 key features that you should look for:
¨Ideally the different test pages for a single test should all be displayed through one URL, invisible to users. In other words, if people go to a certain web page or URL on a website and click on a tracking link, it shouldn’t be obvious that it’s a tracking link. I’m sure you’ve seen them in emails – the long affiliate links. Well most software generates a similar link. It’s ugly and would be difficult to type in manually. For example, here is a tracking link generated by my shopping cart:http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=100214 (That click rotates my two home study sales pages.)
¨
Split test software should be designed to set a cookie in the user’s browser. So if they return to that same URL later they’ll see the very same test page version that they saw previously. That way you’ll get much more accurate split testing results. Any testing at all is better than none.
Next…how do you know when to stop testing? How many people would you say is a good test? That’s something that’s debated among many direct marketers and statisticians. Personally I go for about 50 hits which is about what John Reese typically does. Copywriter extraordinaire Gary Halbert says 200. The more hits, the more true your end result is. If you’re in doubt you should just let the test run longer.
At the end of the day, the one thing you have to remember is what a lot of marketers say works in their markets may not have been tested in YOUR market. You really need to do your own testing.
Sound complicated? Like it’s too much work? Yeah, it did to me too. But that mindset is nothing more than a mental obstacle. Of course, we don’t want to take on more work with our busy schedules. But remember the return on investment of testing and tracking. Time and money wasted by doing little or nothing to improve our marketing response is not a wise approach. Even if you’re a top copywriter you won’t always know what works best up front. There’s virtually always room for improvement in ALL copy. And small tweaks can boost results even further. So unless you test and track, chances are you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
Finally! A PC Software that Takes the Guesswork Out of Creating an
Attention-Grabbing Headline!
Dania
www.homebusinesstalk.biz
www.makingmoneyhowto.bia
www.momsebizblog.blogspot.com
She has PC software klckstartcart which makes testing and tracking website, salespages and ads a breeze.
Guerilla Tactics to Test and Track Your Way to the Top
By Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, Expert Copywriter
It’s interesting that one of the world’s best copywriters, Mike Fortin (who had a hand in the “Million Dollar Day” that stealth marketing guru John Reese had online last year) said he doesn’t consider himself to be a good copywriter so much as a fanatical tester. That says a lot about the value of testing and tracking.
But a lot of people get wigged out over testing. It sounds so hard and complicated. Let me break it down for you by explaining what a simple split test is.
Here’s how it works. Write two identical versions of your copy with one change in one element. (A and B). Then upload each version to its own page in your website (so each has its own website address) – example, www.red-hot-copy.com/A and www.red-hot-copy/B. Use a split test software installed on your website or through your shopping cart system (more about this in a moment) to rotate the pages equally. Whichever one has the most clicks, leads or sales is the winner.
It’s been said that there are some 2,000 plus variables that can affect website response. But of course, according to the 80/20 rule, some will have much more impact than others. So if you value your time, it’s obviously more effective to focus on the 20% that brings 80% of the results. So you need to understand which 20% that is. This is where split testing comes in to help you figure out the puzzle. But where do you even start split testing?
Well, these are the most commonly split tested elements:
¨Headlines
¨Pre-headlines
¨Sub-headlines
¨Above-the-fold elements (anything you see on your computer screen WITHOUT scrolling down)
¨Opening/hook
¨Offer
¨Price
¨Guarantee
¨Fonts (size, color, face)
It’s critical to remember that you only want to split test one element at a time. Otherwise your results are skewed. For example, I hated my old sales letter for my home study course. So I gutted it. Immediately, it started getting better response. The bad thing is I had no idea which element turned visitors into buyers. I had changed too many things at once. Not a good idea.
So how do you get a split test system of your own? Well, there are some different products out there but you need a programmer to install them:
¨http://www.proanalyzer.com/
¨http://www.clickalyzer.com/
¨http://convertmoretraffic.net/
There is also a system called the Taguchi Method that was designed to test hundreds of elements at the same time. In general, that system is price prohibitive right now (it was created for large manufacturers). This software is the closest one to it and it runs about $500.
¨http://www.multitrackgenerator.com/
But my favorite split test system is my shopping cart. All you do is set up an account, log onto your shopping cart and click to the ad tracking module. You manually add two separate URLs you want to split test to the ad tracker. The cart does the rest, rotating each page of copy, counting the hits and telling you which one did best. Keep the best one and get rid of the other. Over time you should see your sales rise as your copy becomes more and more in tune with the prospect.
I love my shopping cart because it does so much. Autoresponders, products, follow up, database management, subscriber management, special sales and promotions and best of all, ad tracking. If you don’t have a cart, you can use the free trial of mine for 30 days at
KickStart Cart.com **FREE Demo & Marketing Tools!
But beware! When you start shopping around for a split testing system there are 2 key features that you should look for:
¨Ideally the different test pages for a single test should all be displayed through one URL, invisible to users. In other words, if people go to a certain web page or URL on a website and click on a tracking link, it shouldn’t be obvious that it’s a tracking link. I’m sure you’ve seen them in emails – the long affiliate links. Well most software generates a similar link. It’s ugly and would be difficult to type in manually. For example, here is a tracking link generated by my shopping cart:http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=100214 (That click rotates my two home study sales pages.)
¨
Split test software should be designed to set a cookie in the user’s browser. So if they return to that same URL later they’ll see the very same test page version that they saw previously. That way you’ll get much more accurate split testing results. Any testing at all is better than none.
Next…how do you know when to stop testing? How many people would you say is a good test? That’s something that’s debated among many direct marketers and statisticians. Personally I go for about 50 hits which is about what John Reese typically does. Copywriter extraordinaire Gary Halbert says 200. The more hits, the more true your end result is. If you’re in doubt you should just let the test run longer.
At the end of the day, the one thing you have to remember is what a lot of marketers say works in their markets may not have been tested in YOUR market. You really need to do your own testing.
Sound complicated? Like it’s too much work? Yeah, it did to me too. But that mindset is nothing more than a mental obstacle. Of course, we don’t want to take on more work with our busy schedules. But remember the return on investment of testing and tracking. Time and money wasted by doing little or nothing to improve our marketing response is not a wise approach. Even if you’re a top copywriter you won’t always know what works best up front. There’s virtually always room for improvement in ALL copy. And small tweaks can boost results even further. So unless you test and track, chances are you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
Finally! A PC Software that Takes the Guesswork Out of Creating an
Attention-Grabbing Headline!
Dania
www.homebusinesstalk.biz
www.makingmoneyhowto.bia
www.momsebizblog.blogspot.com