Anyone in the internet marketing niche would easily agree that conversion testing is vital. For those who don’t know it, conversion testing is simply doing different testings (a & b or c&d or whatever!) that could make an impact on conversions. Let’s say I’m selling an info product. I created several landing page with totally different looks. One has red fonts and the other one has white big fonts (just an example). After quite some time I found out that the white one converts 10% more than the other.
Conversion Testing Is Important Yet…
Doing several testings could give you an increase (or decrease) in sales as high as 200% BUT I’m going to tell you it’s mind-boggling. Why? Because you really have to study a lot of variables side by side! And these are variables that we rarely have control about.
Example is if you changed lets say you’re buy now button to orange and increased your font by 1px. Then you saw a 10% increase in your sales, does that mean the change in buy now button impacted the increase? or the increase in font size? Or maybe that’s because it’s promoted during weekends (where most people don’t go in office)? Get my point?
Testing is something that I have deal with for a long time with me being an affiliate marketer. Rotating multiple ads, using several trigger statements, split-testing on different keywords, name it! And yet I don’t still consider myself a good one and mostly people really don’t become one.
Build Good Relationships Instead…
Yaro of Entrepeneurs-Journey once revealed he hates all conversion testing stuffs and so he doesn’t do it. Yet, he makes a good chunk of income with all his products and membership sites. And that’s because of how he was able to manage good relationship with his readers and subscribers, his potential customers.
Building a good relationship ALONE can make a big difference. And unlike conversion testing, this is something that you have control with. Write good blog posts, provide something for your readers, give free high quality products, reward loyal followers and the list goes on.
When these people at certain point see you sell something to them they would say, “Ah, this guy treated me well. I learned a lot from him and he’s awesome. Regardless of whatever pitch, I’m going to buy because he has proven he’s for real!” Isn’t it heart-warming to hear that statement from your customers?
What Now?
All those testing and marketing stuffs have been there even before internet marketing started. And they would stay forever. But why jump into it if you can do it the different way, yet easier and probably more profitable? I don’t know but I think marketers have to start thinking “modern ways”. Love to hear what you have to say about it..
its true, the page may sale for your but relationship that sale better.
relationship just like top sale person,
they create a hook,
a connection,
a trust and
a sale.
.-= izzat aziz´s last blog ..Serial killers that waiting to kill your blog =-.
The trust is great but you still need to do test to know how trusted you are.
.-= Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..WordPress.Com VS Blogspot.Com: Users Characteristic =-.
Nice to know how Yaro makes money online. Thanks for sharing.
I’m quite surprised that you’d change button color to orange and font-size at the same time, and then run the different versions after each other, not same time. Even if that was just an example, shouldn’t conversion tests always done as split-tests?
So you’d only change one thing at the time and altering the “A” and “B” versions of the page would be served by software. So no testing option A for one week and then B for another week. That’s not testing, that’s guessing. Service like Google Optimizer makes the split-testing very easy (and worth it!). You can even alter different elements with that and find the best combination of things!
I’m not saying that relationships are not important, in fact they are very important, just as you said. But conversion testing and building good relationships can both be done at the same time. If you personally don’t feel like (split-)testing, you should outsource it, as without testing different things, you’re running blind.
.-= Antti Kokkonen´s last blog ..How To Connect Your Social Media Profiles =-.
I’ve tried split testing on one of my niche product blogs and it was worthwhile. However, I never got serious about it since it took time to implement.
.-= Paula from Affiliate Blog Online´s last blog ..Friday Round-Up of My Favorite Links =-.
thanks for sharing this…… 😉
.-= ikogsakanding´s last blog ..Jennifer Lopez falls during her performance at AMA (video) =-.
I still believe in good old fashion testing. Yes, relationship is a big deal as well but that depends on the product and target audience. Yaro has a very specific audience and is able to sell very specific products and services through his relationships.
.-= John Uy´s last blog ..I was Wrong to Doubt you Pacquiao =-.
first of all, MY BAD! you’re right, even its just an example I totally butchered the whole point by stating a stupid example. That’s a good point its guessing not testing.
With regards to doing both well it would depend on what specifically you are trying to pitch. I mean, if you have a big community blog with ten thousand interactive readers then probably not focusing that much on testing is acceptable (for me).
On the other hand, if you’re an aff.marketer (im talking about the ppc-landingpage combo promoting rebills, acai berry), then doing conversion testing is more suitable than relationships.
I really dont think it can be done equally (or is necessary to). my 2 cents
yep that was the point that I wasnt able to state in the post. But again Yaro had a good specific audience not because they just came, but because of how he built, and managed the relationship