So, you've spent all this time on creating your product
and you've read all the advice from every marketing expert
on the internet. You've discovered one common ground
among them all. And they all do agree on this one thing.
Testing the headlines is critical.
They all say that it's the absolute one critical element
to any successful marketing campaign. Whether it's the
headline on your website, your subject line in your email
or the first words you speak over the phone in a sales
call. It's the most important feature and you should spend
80% of your time coming up with just the right one.
It's the difference between success or failure in any campaign.
If you're lucky to find an expert that is willing to share with
you the exact details as to how he tests his headlines. You
discover that it's the basic A/B split run test in newspapers.
Sounds simple. But did you know that most newspapers will
not even consider going through the trouble of running A/B
splits unless you are a major account paying for those high
dollar advertising spots.
What's the answer for the average marketer that can't build
up a huge marketing budget if he can't increase his sales in
the first place.
Well, one answer that I've found is to copy the big boys in the
corporate world. Use a focus group technique. Where you
ask a number of people to look over a select group of your
headlines and let them tell you which ones they prefer.
Let me tell you a story of one famous CEO.
His name is Fred Smith of Federal Express and when he hired
a marketing executive to come in and help him with some of his
branding issues... here's what happened.
He suggested that Fred Smith post sketches of 10 or more different
color schemes for his airplanes on the wall of an office. He then
asked numerous people to come in and look at all of them. He
quietly sat back and watched which sketch actually attracted the
most attention... one particular drawing kept bringing people back
to it over and over again...
They didn't know what it was about that one particular color scheme
but something kept them coming back to review it more than once...
that's how he pre-tested the color scheme for that famous branded
image of an airplane we all know and recognize as FedEx today.
A small focus group of people sharing their thoughts on what caught
their eye.
If you have a small group of friends, co-workers or even a small email
list that you can run a survey by then it could do wonders for your
marketing campaign. I can recall receiving a email from a newsletter
publisher that did that very thing about every portion of his newsletter.
He wanted to know which font his readers preferred over another.
He asked which font size was best for his readers over another.
He continued to ask these questions and he even posted the results
and now his entire newsletter is -- you guessed it -- exactly like what
the majority of his readers recommended and preferred.
A focus group could even do wonders for your headlines. The experts
say you should write out at least 100 headlines and only then begin
to start narrowing your list down to the most power pulling headline
possible. Naturally your best headline would be the one that makes
you the most sales...
But... after you've written 100 headlines -- which one do you
spend money on in advertisements that actually charge you to
run the ad. That could become a very expensive test. A focus
group could help you tremendously save literally hundreds even
thousands of dollars determining which headlines you should
avoid and which ones you should work with.
Yes, headlines are the most critical part of any marketing
campaign - so don't put money into any advertisement without
first testing the Headline.
About the Author:
Thomas A. Hilton, Jr, of Ails Marketing
Corporation is co-founder
of http://www.headlines2go.com
- if you need help testing your
headlines without spending a fortune in
advertising fees, our
Focus Groups Can Vote On Your Headlines Within
Minutes --- Absolutely Free!
email: mailto:thomas@ailspromotions.com
|
Send to a Friend
Post a comment
