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Secrets to Success
Deborah Cole Micek
and John-Paul Micek
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Test waters first before you 'go big'
Part 11 in a 13-part series
TEST, measure and track before you "go big" with your marketing. That's Law No. 10 of the "12 Laws of Online Marketing with Business Blogs, RSS, and Podcasts."
First, what do I mean by testing and measuring?
A magazine ads may pull differently when run during different times of the year. You won't know until you test.
So it is with your business blog or Web site. Changing something as simple as the headline on your name-capture offer can result in a registration difference of 250 percent or more, but you won't know what works best until you test.
Second, test small before committing a major investment of time or money to any marketing method.
Never agree to a discounted rate for running a new ad multiple times. Always "waste" a few dollars up front to run it one time to see how it works. If it works once, it will work again and you'll quickly recover the few extra dollars you spent on the single run of a test ad.
Treat every ad, every sales letter, every promotion, and every product as a test.
Marketing with business blogs can give you a host of advantages that you won't otherwise get with a regular Web site or standard sales letter. Since business blogs are conversational and focused more on educating and/or building relationships with your target audience, you can get a better measurement of what's most important to them.
Tracking and measuring in the following three areas will show you what you're getting right with your target audience, and where you need to improve:
» Traffic volume and flow;
» Keywords used in search engine to find your business blog;
» Response rate to offers made in the visitor landing areas.
For most business bloggers, this will mean using a third-party site measurement tool like www.statcounter.com or www.3dstats.com
If you're really serious about propelling your profits, testing must become the cornerstone of any marketing program. Only by careful and continual testing can you tell which ads, headlines, letters, lists and media, regions of the country or world, and niches produce the strongest, most profitable results for you.
With the right plan and strategy, your business blog can play a major role in revealing all of these marketing secrets to you.
This will take extra work on your part; but if you want to win big and lose small, this is the only way to do it.
John-Paul Micek is the lead business coach at RPM Success Group Inc. Reach him at
JPM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.
Deborah Cole Micek, chief executive officer of RPM Success Group, is a business success coach and life strategist. Reach her at
DCM@RPMsuccess.com or toll-free at (888) 334-8151.