Every day is an opportunity to learn by conducting a marketing test. Whether it is subject lines, images, or channels, marketers who succeed focus on learning from the marketplace. What happens, for example, if instead of sending emails to clients, you send pizza delivery once a quarter to say thank you?
You improve your chance of success when you dig for gold with a few tactical testing tools. Building a culture of testing and learning is a powerful way to reshape how a business becomes more successful.
One of my new clients asked me to help them rethink their packaging to improve sales at retail. So, we are constructing some tests with mocked up packaging and measuring sell-through. The experiment is going to cost them a few thousand dollars, but if we find a hook that works, the benefits could mean millions of dollars of growth.
I like to know what people think, but what people do (action) is what moves the market.
This type of type is impractical, complicated, and frankly, a pain to execute. But it gives us a better chance to learn than if we did focus groups that only help us determine what people think, not what they will do.
Testing 1, 2, 3
What can you test that might help you expand your reach, grow awareness, or build deeper relationships with customers? Can you find a way to hack a marketing activity and measure impact?
Entrepreneurs know how to create small experiments that provide them with real-world insights into what a customer or client will do.
Test and Learn Culture
A test and learn culture can help you improve things like customer service. When you make the leap from opinions to data and facts, the impact can be enormous. Here are some things to test:
- Create two small groups of similar customers. Treat one group with significantly more attention than the other group. Over a six-month, is there any difference in retention, referrals, or revenue? What did you learn? How much did you spend? What is the return on the time and money invested?
- Give a small group of customers advance use of a function, feature, or product. Make them feel special. See if engaging them builds loyalty and value, in some measurable KPI. What happens when select clients get early access to something new? What does the experiment teach you about involving customers in your product development process?
- Test two, wildly different marketing idea. Construct a test of a digital outreach versus an ‘old school’ approach. Create two teams who have the same amount of money and similar customers but use distinctively different ways to get a message to customers. Make it limited in scope and spending, but require the teams to report back results, learnings, and failure after 90-days. Each team must create one clear and distinct metric for success before beginning.
Are you creating a culture of test and learn, or are you afraid of taking some risks?
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com The conversation is free, and we can explore working together.
Photo by Lacie Slezak on Unsplash
