Mark Zuckerberg’s famous five-word mantra, “Move fast and break stuff,” inspired a generation of technology entrepreneurs who sought to emulate his success and get rich fast. For some (think Uber, Airbnb, and Netflix), this business philosophy worked well and left countless legacy competitors lying in the dust. But for others (think Theranos), breaking stuff meant breaking the law, which never ends well.
Moving fast and breaking stuff may work well for organizations with unlimited resources to devote to projects that may or may not yield a return. But for the majority of businesses, such as small and medium-sized businesses that are the backbone of the economy, breaking stuff willy-nilly simply isn’t a viable option. There is a much safer option for those businesses — move fast and test things.
Why is testing such an important marketing strategy?
A business that doesn’t test new ideas risks becoming complacent or even stagnant and, over time, being overtaken by more proactive competitors. Just because a strategy has worked well for you in the past doesn’t mean it will continue to deliver results long into the future. To secure your business’s longevity, you need to flex some of the creative muscles that got you into business in the first place.
This means you need to dedicate some time to testing new ideas.
No Such Thing as a Bad Idea
There is no such thing as a bad idea. However, some ideas are better than others. The only way to tell the difference between an idea with potential and one that falls short of helping you reach your objectives is to test those ideas and optimize your strategy based on the results.
The Problem with Ideas
Ideas are cheap; execution is everything. Creative marketers and entrepreneurs are often burdened with too many ideas. These ideas can present themselves at the most inappropriate moments when people may be ill-equipped to do anything about them (in the shower, on the school run, or working on a totally different project). Those little light bulb moments are fleeting and can and will slip from your mind if not captured at source. When those ideas are fully documented and start to build up, there’s the problem of what to test first.
5 Marketing Strategies to Test Using the emfluence Marketing Platform
The question of what to test first is often answered by the available resources in your business to conduct those tests. By bringing together a comprehensive suite of marketing technologies in one platform, emfluence provides the perfect environment to test, analyze, and optimize your marketing campaign strategies across the entire customer journey. Here are five test strategies to get you started:
Email Marketing Campaigns
- A/B Testing: Test different subject lines, email content, sender names, and more to determine which combinations result in higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
- Email Personalization: Test the effectiveness of personalized content, such as dynamic content blocks, conditional content, customized greetings, and product recommendations, in improving engagement and conversion rates.
- Email Design: Test email design with different templates and layouts to identify which designs resonate best with your audience and drive better results.
Website Landing Pages
- A/B Testing: Experiment with different headlines, calls-to-action (CTAs), form lengths, and page layouts to optimize conversion rates and lead generation.
- Design Elements: Test variations in imagery, colors, fonts, and button styles to determine which combinations result in higher engagement and conversion rates. You might be surprised how something as simple as changing the color of a button can yield significantly different results.
- Form Fields: Test different form fields and lengths, or consider using progressive forms, to find the optimal balance between collecting valuable information and reducing visitor friction.
Marketing Automation Workflows
- Workflow Steps: Test different sequences and timing of automated email sends, actions, and triggers within your marketing automation workflows to optimize engagement and conversion rates.
- Personalization: Test the effectiveness of personalized messaging and dynamic content within automated workflows to improve relevance and drive better results.
- Segment Testing: Test the segmentation criteria used in your workflows to ensure you’re targeting the right audience segments with the most relevant messaging.
Social Media Campaigns
- Ad Creatives: Test different social media creatives, including images, videos, and ad copy, to identify the most engaging content that resonates with your target audience.
- Ad Formats: Test various formats, such as carousel ads, video ads, and lead generation ads, to identify the formats that drive the highest engagement and conversion rates.
- Audience Targeting: Test different audience segments, demographics, interests, and behaviors to determine which targeting criteria yield the best results regarding reach, engagement, and conversions.
Analytics and Reporting
- Key Performance Metrics (KPIs): Test different key performance indicators and metrics to measure the success of your marketing campaigns, such as conversion rates, ROI (return on investment), cost per acquisition (CPA), and customer lifetime value (CLV).
- Reporting Dashboards: Test different reporting dashboards and visualization strategies to track and analyze campaign performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your marketing strategies.
How to Prioritize Testing: 7 Tips
Now you know what to test, it’s time to put those ideas to work.
Finding the time to test new marketing ideas and strategies can be challenging, but it is essential for continued growth and innovation in your business. Here are seven tips to help you allocate more time for testing new marketing ideas:
- Prioritize Testing: Set aside time blocks in your schedule to test new marketing ideas. Treat these time blocks as non-negotiable appointments to ensure you follow through with testing.
- Set Clear Objectives: Clearly define the objectives and goals of each marketing test. This will help you stay focused and maximize your time for testing.
- Delegate Responsibilities: Delegate tasks to team members to free up your time for testing new ideas. Assign clear roles and responsibilities so everyone understands their part in the process. If you are working with an agency partner, ensure they dedicate time and resources to testing new strategies on your behalf.
- Automate and Schedule Routine Tasks: Marketing automation technology can help you automate routine marketing tasks and free up more time for testing. This will require an upfront investment in content creation but will free up time to create more powerful campaign strategies proactively.
- Monitor Progress: Regularly monitor the progress of your marketing tests to ensure they are on track and yield valuable insights. Adjust your strategy as needed based on the results you’re seeing. Remember, a test never fails if you learn from the experience and incorporate your findings in future campaign strategies.
- Encourage Experimentation: Foster a culture of experimentation within your organization where testing new ideas is encouraged, celebrated, and rewarded. This will help generate more ideas from your team, leading to better marketing strategies.
- Continuous Learning: Stay informed about the latest marketing trends and best practices. Investing time in learning by reading books and blog posts, listening to podcasts, and attending online events can help you identify new opportunities for testing and keep your marketing strategies fresh and compelling.
Put emfluence to the Test
At emfluence, we want to make testing new ideas as easy as possible. That’s why we’re offering you the opportunity to test the emfluence Marketing Platform with a 14-day free trial. We’re convinced you won’t find a more intuitive, cost-effective, and powerful marketing automation platform anywhere else on the market. But don’t take our word for it — put emfluence to the test today.
