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Success Hot Sheet From Kim Nishida and Ready to Evolve Coaching |
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I want to welcome back guest writer, Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen" with her fantastic article on employing the art of split testing to track and maximize your marketing efforts. Although she refers specifically to web sites, you can also adapt this technique to your direct mail campaigns, article and press release distributions, and even cold calling programs. Enjoy!
Kim Nishida, Small Business Success Coach In this issue: |
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Do you consistently miss the mark with your business goals? With three months left in 2006, there's still time to hit a bull's-eye! Grab this chance to fine-tune your skills and create an inspiring game plan that will propel you into a winning season: The Ultimate Plan for Strategic Success Workshop Sign up early to guarantee your spot. This is the last workshop available this year... |
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How to Do a SPLIT TEST and Improve Your Marketing, Guaranteed
by Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen" One great thing about marketing on the Internet is it's all very trackable, if you do it right. That means you can easily and quickly figure out what works BEST for your business. How would you like to know which headlines better get people's attention? Or what price point is more appealing to your target market? The good news is it's very EASY to find out, with something called a SPLIT TEST. In the past, setting up a split test practically required an advanced programming degree. But now, all you need to do a split test is a website, something to sell, and a good shopping cart system that will do the test for you. (I use, swear by, and recommend QueenCart.com.) Here's what to do: 1. Create the web sales page for your product. Make sure it's FINAL and everything is in place. (For step-by-step instructions on writing a web page that SELLS, see my quick-start guide.) 2. Create a duplicate sales page, but give it a different URL. For example, your first sales page could be www.mywebsite.com/salespageA.htm and your second sales page could be www.mywebsite.com/salespageB.htm. This is more for YOU to easily keep track and tell the difference between the two pages. 3. Change ONE variable on sales page B. The important thing here is to only change ONE thing. A few things you can test: 4. Set up your split test. The fastest and easiest way to do this is using the "Ad Tracker" feature in QueenCart.com. It takes less than 5 minutes to set up! All you need to do is enter both URLs. The system will then give you a tracking link. You'll use THIS link in your emails you send to your list. When your readers click on the link, the system will automatically alternate each visitor, sending visitor 1 to page A, visitor 2 to page B, visitor 3 to page A, visitor 4 to page B, and so on. And if a person returns to the link, she will be directed to the same page she saw. (Neat, yes?) 5. Interpret your results. When you log into QueenCart.com to view your test results, it will not only tell you how many sales came from each page, but the percentage difference in sales. The information you can learn from a simple split test can be INVALUABLE to growing your business! For example, I instructed one of my clients to test her new program at two price points: $87 and $97. She made 20 sales at $87 but NONE at $97. That means that $87 is a price ceiling for that group on this particular topic. (If she had made equal sales at both price points, I would have instructed her to make it $97 from now on, and to keep raising the price via testing until it hits a ceiling.) Another example: One test I did during a product launch revealed that a simple change in the *design* of the sales page resulted in 25% more sales! So you can be sure I used that design going forward. You don't have to use split testing only for sales. Wouldn't it be great to know which pages on your website get more opt-ins? QueenCart.com can also tell you how many people opt-in for your ezine while they're there. See how fun and interesting this can be? : ) Using simple tests like this GUARANTEES that you are ALWAYS improving your results. Now, every time I release ANY new product or program, I always use it as an opportunity to continually improve my marketing. And you should too! (QueenCart.com even has a 30-day trial for you to test this out.) © 2006 Alexandria K. Brown Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Straight Shooter Marketing' weekly ezine with 20,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at www.EzineQueen.com Copyright © Kim Nishida, 2006 all rights reserved. |
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CALL TO ACTION: I've made it a personal goal to reach 5,000 subscribers by the end of 2006. If you enjoyed this issue, please help me grow my business by telling your colleagues, friends, and family about it. If you received this newsletter from someone else, sign up for your own free subscription at http://www.readytoevolve.com/hotsheet.htm. Rest assured that I will never release, sell, or give a subscriber's name or email address to any other party or organization. Contact me with any feedback, questions, ideas, or your own personal success stories by sending an email to kim@readytoevolve.com. Many thanks and best wishes to your continuing success. KIM NISHIDA is the founder of Ready to Evolve Coaching. As a Personal Success and Small Business coach, she helps you realize your full potential through vision, strategic planning, and the power of positive attitude. She is also the author of the innovative programs Stop Wasting Time! and Conception to Completion: The FIT Mind Method to Getting It Done. For more information, visit http://www.readytoevolve.com. |
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