We’ve all heard the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I believe the same can be said about testing, especially in the marketing space. Although testing can often be last on a busy marketer’s priority list, its benefits far outweigh any development or execution costs. When a proper testing strategy is in place, you have the power to not only optimize your marketing, but also learn key details about your buyer’s behaviors, purchase patterns, and conversion anchors.
How do I start?
Like anything, starting a testing program can seem daunting. The options appear endless. My suggestion is to start small and focused. As always, start with your “why.” Why are you running these particular programs or sending this email or building these online pages or doing retargeting? What are your goals? Beginning with your ultimate objectives will help to set the stage for your overall testing strategy.
Once you have answered those questions, define the metrics that determine whether your goals are being met. This will help to focus your attention on the areas that can benefit most from testing. For example, how are your email’s open rates? Click rates? Click-to-open rates? Within you landing pages, what are your time-on-page and conversion rates? What about your website? How long do people stay online? How are they engaging with your content? When and where do they convert? What are the impact metrics around your digital marketing programs, and where can we push for more success?
Once you have your priority list, you’re ready to start building your testing plan. Whatever you include, remember to start small. Pick one thing on which to focus for each test so you can see the true impact of your changes.
What should I test?
Once you create your plan, the areas to test will slowly start to emerge. For example, are you looking to increase click rates in your emails? If so, consider what may impact someone clicking your link or button. Elements such as headers, text, images, button placement, button language, offers, etc. can play a critical role. Remember, true testing goes beyond components and can include segment strategy, messaging, and overall marketing approach.
If your open and click rates are great, but your landing pages are not seeing the same conversions, you may need a different testing approach. In this case, consider testing the number of form fields displayed or the return on investment for someone’s time and information. Similar elements can be tested here as well, including images, form placement, and call-to-action text and offer.
Assuming that you’re using a standard marketing automation program to build your emails and landing pages, testing should be fairly simple. Most platforms have automated ways for you to test variants of emails and landing pages to see which perform better. A/B testing will rule the land, but if you’re daring, you can start to explore multivariate testing to define how blocks of elements work together to impact success metrics.
Testing on your website may prove a bit more cumbersome, but it greatly depends on the technologies at your disposal. Tools such as Oracle’s Maxymiser make it easy to swap and change elements on your site to gauge, in real-time, how visitors respond to different offers, colors, placements, and text. You can also customize how various segments and profiles interact with your website based on demographic information, past behaviors, buying stages, and intent data. Although that sounds advanced, Maxymiser makes it quite easy. Of course, if you don’t have Maxymiser, you can work with your web team to make small changes on your site that can then be measured through behavior data gleaned from your website analytics platform.
How do I get deeper?
Some of you may already be deep into testing across your marketing elements and your website. Now you want to take it to the next level. I’ve alluded to more advanced ways you can run testing (segmentation, content, etc.), but I’ll also challenge you to think about testing in a different way. Instead of guiding your design and creative elements, think about how you can use testing and analytics for real-time segmentation and marketing strategy.
As you’re testing your online elements, look for ways you can utilize behavioral data to trigger actions or segmentation further in your marketing. Similarly, look for ways that your behavioral and engagement data can help refine your testing/personalization elements. To do this effectively, it’s best to explore tools such as Oracle’s Infinity which, in conjunction with Maxymiser, can provide tailored experiences based on in-session behavior along with recommendations based on machine learning. Plus, since both platforms integrate with Oracle’s Eloqua and Responsys, if you’re utilizing either of these marketing automation tools, you can build holistic programs and campaigns that provide a unified cross-channel experience.
If you’re looking for ways to start or enhance your testing and optimization strategies, let us know. We’re always here to help.
