A little story for you, which may not seem related to Internet marketing right away. I promise to bring it all home for you in the end.
If I were to say “Montgolfier”, most people would answer that that name belonged to the two brothers who flew the first ever hot air balloon… and they would be close but not quite correct.
See, Montgolfier did invent the balloon and were the first to build one. However, they weren’t the first passengers on board their invention.
Since up to that point, human beings had never had a chance to become airborne, the effect of the air flight on a living organism was unknown. The Montgolfier were offered criminals as their guinea pigs. They declined. Instead, they picked a sheep, a duck, and a rooster.
Obviously, that story has a happy end. Nowadays, thousands of people get up in the air in airplanes, helicopters, gliders and, of course, hot air balloons. They don’t think twice about it and obviously don’t remember the three little creatures that paved the way to human flight.
What’s the moral of the story, you may ask? And what does it have to do with Internet marketing?
Well, imagine you are creating a new product. You’re excited. You’re so sure it’s going to be a smashing success. The website it up, the shopping cart is ready to take orders. You go ahead and spend a small fortune on the traffic and, to top it off, line up a bunch of JV partners.
The big day arrives. The traffic comes in fast and furious and…
… nothing! Your squeeze page didn’t squeeze and your sales copy didn’t sell. At least not to the extent that would be considered “reasonable”.
The money spent on advertising is gone forever. And so are the partners who vouch to never participate in your lame launches again.
That’s one possible scenario.
Now imagine doing things a bit differently.
You create a product and put together two different versions of the same squeeze page. You set up an A/B Split test and send the traffic to these squeeze pages through a link rotator, which you then promote to a relatively small in-house list (the online equivalent of the Montgolfier’s sheep, duck, and rooster.)
You generate a bunch of clicks, just enough to tell which squeeze page works better (and if it works at all). You pick the better version (“control”) and send it out to all the lists you can get your hands on.
Your affiliate partners come in and start promoting your product too. This time, the conversions are high. Everybody is making money on the upsells and everyone’s happy.
What was the difference?
It’s easy to see: Instead of trying to predict how your squeeze page would weather out in the marketplace, you did a limited test before opening the floodgates to major traffic. A small extra step in planning and testing your campaign can mean the difference between making it and not making it in Internet marketing.
In a few days, one of my JV partners will be sending out my offer to his super-big list. So guess what I’m working on now? Exactly: I’m setting up an A/B Split test for my pages that I will promote to one of my own list. And when the big traffic hits my squeeze page, I will put my best foot forward because I will know which one is, in fact, the best.
Technorati Tags: kaizen, a/b split testing, starting online business, product creation, internet marketing
Twitter: edsonbuchanan
16. Jun, 2010 at 10:13 am #
Hi Alex,
Product testing is something a lot of new and intermediate internet marketers for get to do. For a year or so I didn’t know how important it is but now I can totally agree with testing before selling.
I cant wait to hear about your results and hope it works out well for you.
Take Care,
Edson
Twitter: alexmakarski
16. Jun, 2010 at 11:59 am #
Going into a big launch or spending any major money on advertising before letting your campaign prove its worth on a smaller scale, is suicidal in the business sense.
Twitter: CaptnAffiliate
17. Jun, 2010 at 1:23 am #
Great advice, Alex! Recent spit testing of various squeeze page design styles showed me the conventional ‘wisdom’ as to what’s hottest right now is way off base – had I have just gone with the current common beliefs, my list wouldn’t be building as fast as it is…
Care to share with us the page you’re currently testing for your launch?
Doug Champigny recently posted..Affiliate Marketing 101: Too Many Voices In Your Head To Succeed In Affiliate Marketing?
Hi Alex,
This is some very great advice! I have to admit, I have overlooked split testing in the past. Thank goodness for you, it has been brought to my attention of how important it is.
I enjoyed reading and nice blog!
Jeff
Jeffery Baxter Jr recently posted..Where I’m At,What I’m Doing In Life, My Frustrations
Twitter: alexmakarski
21. Jun, 2010 at 12:10 am #
Doug, still working on my own pages. Did a test for a consulting client recently. It’s http://www.the5pillarsoflife.com. We tested video squeeze vs video fakeout. On IM lists, video fakeout did 2 times better than the other one. On personal development / law of attraction lists, both versions converted about the same. So we decided to keep the control (video) because we felt it would ultimately help our sales conversions.
Twitter: alexmakarski
21. Jun, 2010 at 12:15 am #
Jeff,
I was at a seminar recently and the instructor said something very profound. She said, the best way to learn is by teaching; that’s why we teach what we need to learn the most.
I do feel it’s important for me to be more diligent with testing and that I’m not doing it enough. Hence these articles. Glad you like them!
Thank you,
Alex