Let me be perfectly clear here:
What YOU think about your marketing, your landing pages, your ads, your images, your shopping cart pages, your headlines, DOES NOT MATTER.
What I think about your marketing, your landing pages, your ads, your images, etc. DOES NOT MATTER.
Straight up – I don’t care what YOU think. Hell, I care less about what I think.
So, what does matter?
What the client thinks. What the lead thinks. What your prospect thinks. What the person who is reading your ad thinks. What the person who is on your landing page thinks.
Duh.
Why do I mention this?
Because over and over and over again, through the hundreds of people I’ve coached & spoken to regarding their digital marketing, the top mistake I see being repeated is this:
They’re not split-testing.
Too many people marketing online are spending money on ads, sending traffic to pages, sending email marketing to opt in forms, sending mass emails and testing out funnels without split testing.
And I totally get it.
It’s much easier to just upload something you think may work, something that looks nice, and expect results.
I fully understand there are other dire digital marketing mistakes someone could make. Things such as not targeting the right audience, skipping the research, being too spread out in your marketing, not measuring results, taking too long to launch, etc.
But I believe split testing is the most important because it proves what’s working.
Think about it this way: If your marketing doesn’t work, what will you change? Moreover, if it does work, why is it working?
Now, let’s backtrack a little bit and define split testing – also known as ‘A/B Testing: Split testing comparing two versions of a piece of marketing to see which one performs better. These ‘pieces of marketing’ can be emails, landing pages, ads – anything your prospect sees.
You compare these two items by showing the two variants (let’s call them A and B) to similar visitors at the same time. The one that results in a better conversion rate, wins!
Here are examples of the things you can split test:
- Email subject lines
- Email body copy
- Images in email
- Headlines on landing page
- Color of opt-in button on landing page
- Images on landing page
- Video on landing page vs. text-only
- Meta-description of landing page
- Placement of opt-in/subscribe form on landing page
- Length of opt-in form on landing page
- Copy “above the fold” on landing page
- URL of landing page
- Headline of advertisement
- Subheadline of ad
- Image of ad
Something really important to keep in mind when split testing is to ONLY split test 1 variable at a time. A lot of people upload split tests with completely different creative and it nullifies the results. When you split test 1 variable, you know exactly what’s working and what’s not.
A rule of thumb I follow is to change 1 variable at a time after a couple days (or really distinct results) with split testing.
Yes, this is a ton to have to monitor. That’s why there are people who specialize in this. There are experts. But there is incredible value in this. If you’re not split testing, you’re not optimizing your time and money.
You’re not necessarily wasting your money by not A/B testing, but you’re not using it as efficiently as possible.
Need help setting up some split testing in your marketing collateral? Let’s chat – I’d love to help.
Here’s a lesson & reminder for you: Always Be Split-Testing
What big digital marketing mistakes have you made or seen others make? Let me know…
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