How to Get Better Results: Try Something New!

You want to know how to get better results?

Everyone says they want better results.

So why aren’t companies more adventurous when it comes to trying new things? Do they want to know how to get better results?

It’s the “I hate brocolli” syndrome of marketing and business.

If you ask the average CEO, “What’s the rationale for the way you’re currently marketing your services?”  Many say: “It’s what we’ve always done.”

The sad truth is that many companies are engaging in the same old tried marketing tactics rooted in strategies that were developed eons ago (a.k.a. 2007).  They’re wasting money on tactics that are not rooted in any real, current strategy – or based on the realities of today’s marketplace.

How to get better results: Higher response rates and higher conversions

“Nothing fails like success.”

There an old saying: “Nothing fails like success.” People get a little taste of success. They get lucky because they tried something, and it worked, so they naturally think that if they just keep doing whatever it was that made them lucky, they’ll keep enjoying success.

Unfortunately, times change.  So what worked once, at one moment in time, may not work today. That’s why it’s important to continually test new ideas. 

Any Direct Marketing old timer will tell you that the secret to getting and maintaining high response rates and higher conversions is: “Test. Test. Test.”

In fact, there are some who say that  30% of your budget should be set aside for testing.

If you’re testing new ideas agains the old ones it’s the only way to know for sure that you’re marketing is continually improving. That’s how to get better results.

Apply the principles of continual improvement to your marketing. In Direct Mail it’s called “A/B Splits and Multivariate Testing.” In Google Web Optimizer it’s called “Marketing Experiments.”

Test everything. Test in order of importantance. Your offer, your keywords on your pay-per-click ads, your landing pages.

Or if you don’t really want new and better results, you can just keep doing what you’re doing — what you’ve always done.

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• 12 Marketing Ideas to Grow Sales

If you’d like someone to help you test some new ideas and show you how to get better results, please contact me today.

1 Comment

• 
  Marty Thomas January 28, 2010 at 12:23 am

  Another good way to give your response rates a boost is to use personal urls. An example of a Personal URL would be: yoursite.com/Jim.Smith and when “Jim” visits his personal url, the website will usually be customized to him. It also allows the marketer to track who is responding. Learn more at: http://purlem.com.

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