Direct Marketing - Testing And Tracking - Your Way To Success

I'll say this once, and once only. It is imperative that you continually track and test all aspects of your online business, including your ad or sales copy. Failure to do this results in loss of potential profits!

In order to create the most effective ad copy for your business you need to experiment with whatever it is you are testing.

For example, if you are testing and tracking your sales copy you should start by changing and testing different versions of the headline, or tweaking the design or altering the layout of the page. And most importantly, you need to be tracking your advertising.

The only way you can measure the results of your testing is to track all your changes, so naturally you should be implementing ways you can do this, such as using tracking software or something similar.

Ok. Now that you know the importance of testing and tracking, let's look at how you can do this...

Changing the Copy...

As already mentioned above, the most important part of any ad or sales copy is the heading. So the first thing you should test is the heading.

Try using different key words in your heading. Just changing a single word can have a significant effect on the response rate. Use different emotional trigger words to see which combination is most effective.

It really is as simple as test different versions to find the most effective wording. You may be surprised at how a small change can sometimes have a major impact on your results.

You could even add a video or audio to your site to see if this increased results. With video and audio becoming so popular this is a no-brainer and you definitely be testing this to see if it works on your site.

Tweaking the Design...

Studies have proven that simple things such as the type of font you use on your pages can influence the decisions of readers. So knowing this you need to test even the smallest of details such as using different font styles, font sizes and font colors.

Emphasize important words and phrases by placing them in italics, or making them bold, or sparingly using underlining or highlighting important phrases. Add a border, a different border color and/ or a different border style.

Here's a big tip that most people are unaware of... header images can reduce your profits!

That's right. Test's that have been carried with and without header images using the exact same sales copy, the exact same design, the exact same product. Nothing else was changed yet on most occasions the page without the header outperformed the page with the header.

Know your own results may prove different, and maybe the product you're promoting is better suited to having a header image. But until you test you will never know. It just may be that you are leaving profits on the table without even knowing it.

Try different combinations of all these things to find out which combination works best.
Altering the Layout...

Rearrange the components of your page to see if it affects the response rate. Add a short testimonial or two to see if that has any effect. Try adding more than one order link. You could even test different navigation links to see if this makes a difference.

Here's one that you may never have thought of...

If you have a capture page, which you should have, try adding more than one subscription box on the page. My tests have proven that by strategically adding a box above the fold of the page, as well as at the bottom of the page, significantly increased opt-in rates.

Test this on your own pages and you may just be surprised with your results.

Tracking Your Advertising...

It is of utmost importance that you track the response rate for any adverting without exception. As a successful online marketer you need to know where you get the best bang-for-your-buck.

Once you find a source that gives you good results, it's just a matter of repeating and improving the whole process. But unless you know what results you are achieving, this is not possible.

In order to maximize your profits you need to know what works and what doesn't. You need to know what components of your ad copy works and which don't. You need to know where your traffic is coming from.

You may get traffic from an ezine ad, from a forum post and from a banner ad. One of these sources may bring you a significant amount of traffic, but if you're not tracking them how will you know which of these you need to focus on so that you can repeat the process?

The bottom line is that you can only find this out by testing and tracking. And as only about 1% of your competitors are testing and tracking their online business you will have the edge over the other 99% of marketers.