Let’s TEST Your Marketing Skills
Decide for yourself which of the following headlines out-pulled the other by 500%. It’s the actual results of a 4 page sales letter sent to 1400 parents of small children, the purpose of the letter was to offer a children’s portrait service promotion. The only thing that changed in the promotion was the headline.
A split test was undertaken where 700 prospects received version A, and the other 700 prospects received version B. No other changes were made to the mailing and the letters were randomly mixed before they were sent. Which letter pulled greater response, you’ll probably be surprised.
Version A…
“I’ve Never Been Able to Get a Decent Portrait of My Child Until Now.”
Version B…
“Finally a Children’s Portrait that’s Worth More than the Paper it’s Printed On.”
So which one did you choose? Version A or version B? Do you think you picked the winner?
Truth is I often pose this question to a live audience and generally speaking it’s somewhere around a 50% split. But in reality, one version got a 5 times better response than the other. That’s 500% better.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know which was more effective before you sent it? How much more money would you earn by just a simple change in wording. And best of all how much more would it cost to use one sentence over the other, absolutely nothing.
Okay, so here’s what you’ve been waiting for. B out pulled A by such a huge margin it wasn’t funny.
Why?
The answer is, who cares. When you test, you find out which one works, that’s the principle I teach all the time. You know it’s very useful to know what works. It’s not all that useful to sit around and try and figure out why the heck it works.
If you chose B, congratulations, you’re a winner, your results would have been 500% better than if you chose A.
By testing you get to learn what works and what doesn’t work. So the pain of trying to figure out what works will actually ensure you achieve success faster.
WARNING: There is enormous resistance to this wise counsel. Most would prefer to struggle thinking they know what will work best. Many times also I’ve tried to push a “fat, happy, lazy” client merrily piling up money to test and measure, only to be summarily evicted. Some people pay me to be annoying. Others are unwilling to. You go figure.
Sarcasm is just one free service I offer.
Best regards
Mal
