Techniques vs Tactics

[The Niche Man]

Quick ... Off the top of your head what captures, compels or moves you more

Knowing the latest "techniques"

or

Knowing the latest "tactics"

Thanks for the input.

[Cam Connor]

Originally Posted by The Niche Man

Quick ... Off the top of your head what captures, compels or moves you more

Knowing the latest "techniques"

or

Knowing the latest "tactics"

Thanks for the input.

For What? Some audiences might favor tactics, other techniques,... split test your way to success.

[ewenmack]

When you have the choice of 2 words and they both imply the same meaning,
then go with the shortest.

In your case, tactics.

Best,
Ewen

[max5ty]

Originally Posted by The Niche Man

Quick ... Off the top of your head what captures, compels or moves you more

Knowing the latest "techniques"

or

Knowing the latest "tactics"

Thanks for the input.

Although you didn't say where the words would be used, I'll use this example.

If I saw a headline that said: "Latest Marketing Techniques", I'd assume it was an educational piece.

If I saw a headline that said: "Latest Marketing Tactics", I'd think it was a piece that experienced marketers would use to learn how to use their techniques.

Just a couple examples.

[Alex Cohen]

Originally Posted by The Niche Man

Quick ... Off the top of your head what captures, compels or moves you more

Knowing the latest "techniques"

or

Knowing the latest "tactics"

Thanks for the input.

Tactics. It stirs up more emotion.

And put a good adjective in front of it... like "proven" or "unique" or whatever idea you're going for.

Alex

[Cam Connor]

Originally Posted by Alex Cohen

Tactics. It stirs up more emotion.

And put a good adjective in front of it... like "proven" or "unique" or whatever idea you're going for.

Alex

+1. At first glance, sure I would say tactics first, and if you can only use one, then yea, tactics. But you never really know until you split-test, which is worth doing, especially if this is a Headline you're talking about, as I take it that it is.

[visimedia]

I think tactic is the big picture of what you will do to achieve a goal, let's say you want to have $1,000 per day income then you choose your tactic maybe you want to have 10 sniper sites that makes you $100,

while techniques is technical stuff like conversion rate, detailed stuff, how to do SEO, backlinking, etc.



What do you think?

[Alex Cohen]

Originally Posted by Cam Connor

+1. At first glance, sure I would say tactics first, and if you can only use one, then yea, tactics. But you never really know until you split-test, which is worth doing, especially if this is a Headline you're talking about, as I take it that it is.

Cam,

If you're split testing small crap like that, you're wasting a whole lot of time.

Just split test the components of a sales letter that have the biggest potential pay off.

Alex

[Cam Connor]

Originally Posted by Alex Cohen

Just split test the components of a sales letter that have the biggest potential pay off.

Agreed. I was just saying IF, it's the Headline, which can account for up to 80-90% of the success or failure of a page, it would be worth it to send around 25-30 clicks to a headline that used Techniques, and 25-30 to a headline that said tactics... Even small changes like that can drastically change the success of the rest of the copy, but I specified IF (and only if), we're talking about a Headline. I just assumed it was a headline of some sort he was talking about, because some random word in the body copy probably wouldn't make that much of a difference, as you said. Though, it depends how thoroughly he can afford to test, so you're right...

I'm a little fanatical about testing headlines, though, your advice is always solid.

Edit: As a quick note, you should be testing the "angle" of your headline, before the individual words. So, this is "assuming" you've already tested the angle of the headline (the broad scope of what you want it to say). If you've already tested the angle, then start testing the individual words, if not, use "tactics", and then test completely different angles with your headline.

[The Niche Man]

Thanks guys, good input so far. Actually to be more specific the winner will go into a sub head. In addition to the body copy, perhaps a mixture.
So far it seems like the winner is tactics.

Also thanks for adding the reason why to your pick. Educational for me as well as others who read this post.

[Mark Andrews]

Always use simple words in sales copy over longer words. The simpler you can keep it the better.

Using longer or more complicated words might make you feel superior in some way but they won't impress anyone typically in this industry except yourself.