When I am consulting with businesses about advanced
strategies to increase overall bottom-line profits, the
one part of the business plan that I rarely see being
implemented is a solid testing strategy as it pertains to
marketing result
tracking.

In fact, often times when I begin talking about testing,
I see the eyes of my client's sort of ¡°glaze over¡± as I
put them into a silent slumber¡­until I mention a few
magic words¡­. ¡°And once you do this¡­and then
that¡­you have increased profits of x¡±¡­waking them up
immediately¡­as they rustle in their seat saying
¡°wait¡­what¡­what did I miss¡­what did you say about
increased profits?¡±

I must admit, while testing may not be the sexiest
conversation, nor is marketing result tracking as a
subject, it is certainly by far the most valuable thing
you can do in your business. Did you hear that?
Testing is where the money is made with your
advertising. PERIOD!

Many people then ask the most natural question next.
Why test? What does testing have to do with
marketing result tracking? Great question!

Ok, let's say you are sitting around with your sales
managers and you decide to write an ad for this
coming weekend's sale. Perhaps you are an auto
dealership, and you are going to place 25 cars ¡°on ad¡±
as well as advertise an increased rebate from the
manufacturer.

Ok, so, you need to ask yourself, is this the only time
throughout the entire year that you will run an ad that
is similar to this ad? Or is this a one time occurrence?
You may even go as far to ask yourself if marketing
result tracking is important along with your testing.

So, you and your team finishes writing the ad, you call
your newspaper representative, he/she runs down to
your dealership to ¡°take your order¡±. Now the
weekend comes! People come in¡­buy your cars¡­and
you start all over again the following week.

Now, let me ask you a question, in an effort to answer
the question about WHY to test.

Do you know with 100% certainty that the ad that you
and your team had written was the ad that would get
the maximum result from your target audience? Do
you see any need for testing and marketing result
tracking?

If you can unequivocally say yes¡­well¡­congratulations.
You have accomplished in one weekend what the
advertising industry has tried to get ¡°right¡± for over
100 years. Now, I am not trying to be a
wisenheimer¡­I am merely just trying to make a point.
Testing and marketing result tracking are mandatory if
you are interested in growing your business.

Marketing Result Tracking lets you know what is really
going on!

You don't know! You do not know if it was the best ad
for your target audience, and you will not know until
you test the different components of the ad that you
are placing.

So, the only answer to the question of ¡°why do we
test¡± is a simple answer, to ensure that we are getting
the absolute best results with each and every ad that
we place for our target prospects and customers. Only
through a testing procedure will we actually be able to
constantly improve our results incrementally.
Marketing result tracking is, as I like to put it¡­the way
of the JEDI!

Now, the next question that I am asked is¡­ ¡°Ok
Margaret, what do we test¡±? This is where client's
ears generally perk up, as they begin to ¡°see it¡± and
the huge benefits that testing and marketing result
tracking can give an organization over its competition.

I usually like to begin with all of the ad copy that an
organization uses. We would go through the
newspaper ads, any spot ads they may like to run, and
then finish up with any other print advertising, finishing
up with the all important Yellow Page advertisement.
Next we would dive into audio media such as Radio
and TV. We want to engage
marketing result
tracking in all areas of the business.

After examining all forms of advertising of an
organization, it is important to identify what the
objective of the testing strategy is.

Let me give you the simplest answer right here¡­the
objective of the testing strategy is to give your
company incremental increases in response. By
employing proper marketing result tracking methods,
we are able to gain these incremental increases.

Let me give one simple example of a test from
beginning to end.

Let's go back to that newspaper ad that I mentioned
above. Remember the team of managers that wrote
the ad. They sit at the table in the sales
office¡­construct the ad, look at each other when
completed and say hey¡­. ¡°That's a good ad¡­run it!¡±

Ok, good, you have to start somewhere. Now, this is
where the marketing result tracking and testing comes
in.

But, what would happen if you broke the ad down into
distinct components. The HEADLINE, the Sub-Headline,
the Offer (or body of the ad) and the Call-to-Action
(what ever it is that you want the prospect to
do¡­whether it is call your dealership¡­visit your
dealership, etc.).

Ok, so¡­If you are in a larger city, this next part of the
process is a little easier, if you are in a smaller city or
town, it may take a little longer, but you will ultimately
get the same results. Marketing result tracking does
not discriminate; it just takes a little longer in smaller
areas.

So, here is what you would do. You would run the ad
that you have written in ? of the city¡­and the exact
same ad that you have written, with 1 exception, in
the other ? of the city. The one exception would be
the headline. Now, you will have the exact same ad,
with the exception of the headline running throughout
the entire city. Now comes the test and the actual
marketing result tracking.

You will simply track the amount of calls that you
receive from each ad and record them in your
marketing result tracking log.

At the end of the weekend you will have a winner.
Now, I have oversimplified the process for the sake of
time, but the objective here was for you to understand
the objective of testing and marketing result tracking.

The objective is to test each of the four components I
outlined above, then utilize the strategies of marketing
result tracking, in order to come up with the perfect
advertisement for your particular market.

Now, let me ask you a simple question. If you ran this
simple strategy, for a period of 3 or so months¡­with an
ad that you routinely run, do you think that you would
be able to ultimately be able to create an ad that can
achieve a higher response rate? Well, if you were not
able to, you would certainly be the anomaly.

You see, by testing your ad in your market, your target
audience will always tell you what they want to read,
and respond to. Then by deploying a proper marketing
result tracking system, you will be ahead of the game.

I hope that this was something that has at least
piqued your interest as to the possibilities of increased
profits that testing and marketing result tracking can
deliver.

It truly is nothing short of amazing¡­and you will be
dominating your local market in no time with ads that
turn the heads of your prospects and customers while
your competition is trying to figure out what happened.

We strongly recommend that you and your
organization implement a testing and marketing result
tracking strategy immediately, don't wait for your
competition to figure this low-cost high-reward
technique first.

Visit the site below to subscribe to the free monthly newsletter now, and to see how their Testing and Tracking department can help you with your
marketing result tracking.

Margaret Miller specializes in advanced testing and tracking methods. Having been given the distinguished compliment of "Queen Mother of Result-Based Testing" you can rest assured that her strategies and techniques themselves are thoroughly tested. Benefit from Margaret's monthly newsletter publication she publishes with her Breiter Strom colleagues, a highly successful Marketing company located in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.