Testing and tweaking in online marketing

Posted by Philippe Moisan
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Testing and tweaking is an essential part of online marketing.

You've just created the greatest sales page ever. That one will get more sales per minute than Apple got with the iPad.

I know, I know, I'm exagerrating. :) Nobody except me can get results like that.

Laughing ? Great ! That was the effect I was looking for.

Now, just relax, take a deep breath, or two, then keep on reading.

As I write this blog, I am actually applying the principles of the blog's title. Please let me know in a comment if I succeeded, or failed utterly. I'm begging you, please post a comment. :)

Back to topic. About that sales page. You launch your campaign.
A few minutes ( hours, days ) later, all the seats have been taken in your campaign.

Drum roll please.

You have chosen a 50-seat campaign. With the powerful words you've used in every phrase in your sales page, combined to the thrilling website the members will have viewed thanks to the link, you expect an 80 % conversion.

Your product sells for $97. Piece of cake, with 24 bonuses worth $1,243.

For some reason, there's some tickling at the back your head. What is it ? Oh, that nagging doubt is showing its ugly head again.

Come on, let's get on with it, go take a look at the results, then you can impress your friends with the proof of payment. After all, you know nothing of Photoshop, so you can't create a false proof of payment like you believe some marketers use.

Click. Click. No emails. Oh, ok, the emails are slow coming in sometimes. Where is that site ? Yes. P-a-y-p-a-l dot c-o-m

Login. What is that damned password again ?

No sales. Impossible. My eyes are playing tricks on me. No, I get it, a hacker reached my Paypal account and stole the funds.

Nope.

No sales. Not one.

Before you throw your PC out the window and go back to gardening, not that there's anything wrong with that activity, I have good news for you.

You can create another sales page. You have some credits left to launch another campaign.

Ok, let's get to work. Let's see, in the news feed, has there been a promotion for a system that will make you rich in the next 24 hours ? Hey, there's not one, there are three. For free. They find the referrals for you. They do this and this and that.

You're excited again.

That first sales page was about a program that doesn't work any more. Why would anyone want to buy  the Doors 8, the new competitor to Windows ?

Stop. Relax. Keep your money, and your time.

Here comes the meat. The point of this whole blog.

Testing and tweaking.

Everybody knows that building relationships is the first key to success online.

IMHO, common sense is the 2nd key. I wrote another article about that, so I won't get into it here.

The 3rd skill to acquire is as important as the first 2.

However, you can't learn it in books.

There are tons of books, eBooks, videos, articles on the subject. Online, offline, guideline, pipeline, every line.

The skill is copywriting.

The only way to acquire it is : testing and tweaking.

For your sales page, it means 3 possibilities :

  1. Rewrite it, or just modify here and there.
  2. Launch a new campaign with the same title.
  3. Change the title of the campaign.
Don't do this till the end of time.

After some time ( no, I can't tell you how much time ), if you haven't made any sales, move on to something else.

It can happen. You will have failures. If you don't have any, you are not promoting, you are sitting on the couch watching TV.

Test. Tweak. Test some more, Tweak again. Hey, one sale ! Great ! You're getting the hang of it.

To conclude, I just wanted to tell you one of my own experiences on the subject.

I had read a blog, very intriguing. The author didn't name the system. Still, I signed up.

Then, I said hey, I will promote it too.

I created a blog of my own, with a totally different strategy. I revealed the site name, as well as the features that excited me.

I had 4 signups the next day.

What if I wrote a blog in the same style as the one that got my attention ?

I did. Then I promoted it a few times. No signups.

A few days later, I saw the guy had launched a campaign for that blog where I had signed up.

Hey ! Why didn't I think of that ?

I launched a campaign for my first blog.

2 more sign ups.

I launched a few campaigns, some successfully, some not.

The lessons here : Watch, learn, and most of all, be patient.