Tracking and testing are two of the most important practices you should cultivate if you decide to build a business online. If you are not tracking and testing regularly, you are more than likely losing a lot of revenue that your business could definitely use to expand and grow. But if you don’t set clear goals for each marketing campaign, how can you tell what to track, and how to test? Or how long to test before you come up with a ‘winner’ that converts highly?
Traffic is terrific, but engagement is much more important these days, and in particular, conversion rates, that is, how many people subscribe, buy and so on. Only by setting your goals can you give your audience the correct call to action.
There are several reasons why tracking and testing are so crucial to your Internet business, and the good news is that it is not that difficult to get started. The first thing to do is take a snapshot of your site, such as traffic to it, email subs and so on, BEFORE you launch your new marketing campaign. Then you will easily be able to track the results of the campaign.
The second way to track is to make sure every one marketing initiative gets its own URL. Also consider a new page for every traffic source. This may sound excessive but will give you a fast look at how successful the promotion has been and which sources are giving you the most bang for your buck.
Once you have your benchmarks, you can start to test. Split test headline, sub-head and opening paragraph. See what happens when you change the headline. Try to beat your results. When you are sure it is the best one you can offer, tweak and then track and test the subheader and so on. Keep track of your changes so you can go back to the old version if the new one doesn’t work as well.
This may seem like a tedious process, but the better your conversion rate, the more money you will make. And that can only be a good thing for your business.
FURTHER READING
How to Track and Test Your Online Business Success (Marketing Matters)
