Copywriting Tips:
How to write incredibly powerful sales letters by split testing
by
Peter Geisheker,
CEO, The Geisheker Group
Marketing
Company (920) 592-9595
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Every
business owner is looking for that golden marketing
strategy that works like magic to grow their business.
Well, I hope you’re sitting down because I am going to
tell you the most powerful marketing strategy you will
ever learn. The strategy is called split testing.
“What the heck is split
testing”, you ask? Split testing is the process of
comparing the results (sales, leads, etc.) of one
marketing piece against another marketing piece to see
which generates the most sales. Clear as mud, right? To
make split testing easier to understand, I will show you
an example of split testing using direct mail sales
letters. |
You write 2 sales letters to
sell the sales training course you are offering. Both sales
letters are identical except for one thing – they each have a
different headline. Sales letter “A” has the headline, “How to
easily double your sales in 180 days with this little known
marketing strategy” and sales letter “B” has the headline,
“Learn the marketing secret twelve small businesses recently
used to increase sales by over 173% in less than 180 days.”
Then, you send letter “A” to 2,000 prospects and letter B to
2,000 prospects. You then track which sales letter produces the
most leads and sales. The results tell you which sales letter is
the stronger sales tool – letter “A” or letter “B”.
“But how do you track which sales letter is producing the most
leads/sales” you ask? Easy. You add a unique key code to each
letter campaign so you can track it. So, for letter campaign “A”
you use the key code 111 at the bottom of each letter and for
letter campaign “B” you use the key code of 222 at the bottom of
each letter. When a customer calls (or places an order), you
simply ask them for the key code in their sales letter. Then you
track these codes in a spread sheet so you know which letter
produced the lead and the sale. After a few weeks to a month,
you will know which sales letter is producing the most sales and
you can feel confident sending the stronger sales letter to the
rest of your prospects.
“What happens if both sales letters bomb and produce poor
results?” Then you write two more sales letters and test them
against each other on a small scale (sales letter “C” versus
“D”). Testing like this is far less expensive than sending a
single, untested sales letter to tens of thousands or even
hundreds of thousands of prospects. By split testing different
messages on a small scale, you can test the pulling power of a
sales message without breaking your bank. And, you learn which
sales message is the one that generates sales like crazy and
will grow your business. If you want to be successful in
marketing, always test on a small scale and once you find a
winning message, then market on a large scale. NEVER market on a
large scale with an untested sales message or you will almost
certainly lose a ton of money.
While testing the headline is one of the most important things
you can test when testing marketing pieces against one another,
you can also test things like price, ($99 per widget in letter
“A” and $79 per widget in letter “B”), coupon versus no coupon,
promotional specials (get 3 widgets for $197 versus get 4
widgets for $249). But the key is to only test one thing at a
time. Do not test a headline in one letter against a price in
another letter because you cannot compare the two. Only test a
headline against a headline and a price against a price.
“This sounds like a lot of work” you say. “Explain to me again
why is split testing so important because I still don’t get it?”
First of all, you are right. Split testing is a lot of work.
However, the reason it is so important and worth all the work is
that it is the one market tool that allows you to significantly
increase your marketing return on investment while greatly
reducing your financial risk. Split testing allows you to
determine which sales message (campaign) is producing a
profitable result while eliminating marketing campaigns that are
not producing profitable results. Using the sales letter example
above, let’s say that the results of your split test of letter
“A” versus letter “B” showed that letter “B” produced 34% more
leads than sales letter “A”? Wouldn’t you rather use letter “B”
for marketing to the rest of your clients instead of letter “A”?
Of course! That is why you do split testing. You do it to find
out what sales message is going to generate the most sales and
make you the most money! So, split test your way to success.
You may reprint
this article for free as long as you include a link to
http://www.marketing-consulting-company.com and the author, content and links remain
unchanged.
If you need help
creating a marketing program to determine the precise strategies
you should be using to market your company, or you need help
developing marketing materials such as a brochure, a press
release, sales copy for your website, a display ad, or a sales
letter for a direct mail piece, please call (920) 592-9595 or
email us. We would love to help you improve your marketing.
To view all of the different marketing services we provide,
please visit
http://www.marketing-consulting-company.com.
To Your Success!
Peter Geisheker
President and CEO
The
Geisheker Group Marketing Company
"Innovative Marketing for Innovative Companies"
(920) 592-9595
Fax: (920) 491-9090
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