If You Fail Your First Driver Test When Is the Next Time U Can Test Again

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The post-obit extract is from Robert W. Bly 'due south book The Direct Mail Revolution: How to Create Profitable Direct Mail Campaigns in a Digital World. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple tree Books | IndieBound

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In directly mail (DM), testing is the process of putting a letter or package in the mail, counting the replies, and coming to a determination based on the results.

Testing is a huge reward that straight marketers have over branding and general advertisers: We first exercise a small test to determine whether our straight-mail package works. If it does, we can gradually expand the campaign. On the other hand, if the exam bombs, we know early on that the parcel doesn't work. The test costs only a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, and it saves us many more thousands of dollars by not continuing to mail a DM packet that consistently loses money.

Testing is one of the central ideas of direct-postal service marketing: Test small, then roll out in larger quantities once the tests evidence yous which is the winning bundle.

Related: The 5-Step Program for Turning Prospects Into Customers

The 3 nigh of import factors to exam

What are the three most significant factors you can test -- the ones that can have the greatest influence on response?

Number one is the mailing list. There could be a half-dozen mailing lists suitable for your offering -- or even more than. You lot can't assume you lot know which one is best based on your personal biases. The only way to know for certain which list will pull best with your packet is through a test mailing.

The second about of import factor to test is the price. This applies mainly to mail-lodge selling. For instance, let's say you've published a chiliad-folio marketplace-inquiry report on broadband internet. How much volition people pay for it? $195? $495? $1,200? Yous simply don't know until you lot test. And frequently you'll exist amazed at how many people identify orders at prices you lot retrieve are sky-high.

The third most important factor to test is the offer. Should you lot try for mail orders or leads? Should you offering a premium? If you practice, will you become better response offer a gift particular such as a digital scout or free information such equally a booklet or special written report? You won't know which works better unless you exam.

A/B split tests

When 2 mailings or mailing factors are tested against each other, it's chosen an A/B split test, with i version labeled as test cell A and the second as examination cell B. For instance, yous might test letter A against letter B to encounter which pulls more orders. Or yous might take letter A and mail it to two different lists, to run across which list produces the amend response. Or y'all might post a control every bit test cell A against a new test package as test cell B.

A control is the electric current best-performing DM package. For instance, a marketer may be mailing thousands of the same direct-post package month after month because it's profitable. Just how do they know another package, with unlike graphics, size, colors, and copy, won't generate even better results? They can't, unless they test it. So they periodically committee a new direct-post package or put one together in-house and then mail it against their control in an A/B split up test.

In that location are two approaches to carve up testing, and each has its place. The first arroyo is to test two completely dissimilar DM packages and come across which one is the winner. The winner beats the current command and becomes the new control. Nonetheless, if the new test package is completely different from the control (different graphics, re-create, price offering, guarantee, package format, etc.), you won't know which of these elements made the difference.

The 2d arroyo is to exam multiple versions of the control where just a single element is different; for example, the envelope teaser, copy theme, size of envelope, price, premium, or splendid vs. third-class postage. By testing just one variable at a time, you can make up one's mind how each factor influences response.

Related: Looking for Leads? These 4 Direct Mail Offers Are Your Answer

Number of DM Pieces per Exam Cell

Statistical assay shows that you can get a valid test upshot with equally few as 2,000 names per cell. The validity is determined not by the number of pieces mailed but rather the number of replies received per prison cell.

Feel and statistical assay indicate that 14 responses per test cell requite you a fairly reliable reading of each cell'south performance. If your boilerplate response is 1 per centum, and then 1,400 names per examination cell is an adequate size. All the same, because response is unpredictable, 2,000 per cell will give yourself some jerk room.

Tracking Responses

When testing, you lot must be able to runway response -- to identify that answer as coming from a specific mailing or from a recipient whose proper name was on a specific mailing listing. In that location are several ways to do this. The simplest is to put a key code on the respond element. This code can be a series of numbers and letters in fine print tucked abroad in the corner of the answer card, or it can be worked into the accost. Your list broker can handle this for yous.

If y'all're affixing or imprinting the recipient's accost on your reply carte du jour or lodge form, the mailing-list possessor tin can add a key code to the order form. The same coding can exist done for telephone responses. For catalogs, when you call to club, the customer service representative typically asks for a code printed in a blue or yellow box on the dorsum cover about the recipient'due south address.

Related: How to Avoid Each of the six Most Common Reasons Digital Lead Generation Systems Fail

Rollout

After a successful test, a winning direct-mail package is "rolled out," significant it's mailed to more names on the profitable lists. But can the results of a pocket-sized test mailing remain statistically valid regardless of how many additional names we mail to? No. The dominion of thumb is that the full quantity yous mail service to should be no more than than 10 times the number of names you tested. Therefore, if y'all got a 5 percent response in a test of 5,000 names, you can mail service to equally many as fifty,000 boosted names on the list and be confident that yous'll get a similar response.

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Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/326371

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