How I do my TEST marketing!

"Testing" is what separates the winners from the wannabees in the mailorder business and, now, the Internet marketing business.

In the mailorder business, 'testing' is usually accomplished by printing a code on the order form or response envelope; adding a suite # to a street address; adding a letter-code at the end of a Post Office Box #; or using an extension # in conjunction with a telephone number. Then, as responses (orders or inquiries) come in, the printed codes are tallied, response rates are computed; productive media are identified and non-producitve media are discontinued.

Having been involved (successfully) in the mailorder ... direct mail ... business for over 30 years, "testing" has become almost second nature to me - but - when I started marketing on the Internet, I had to find ways to adapt my mailorder testing methods.

My first attempt at learning where my potential customers were coming from was to ask my ISP to provide me with a "traffic report" for my web site. -- They did, but it provided very little detail ... only counting the number of visitors with no information about where the visitor came from or what pages they visited while on my site.

After testing an half-dozen traffic reporting services, I settled on the FREE service from http://www.websitetrafficreport.com. -- I added their very simple HTML code to every page on my web site. -- Their daily e-mailed reports give more detailed information than I had originally ever hoped for, including ... where the visitor came from; if from a search engine, referring web site, an e-mail I sent, a discussion board, or from one of my article sposted on someone else's site ... the exact time (to the second) of when the visitor visited ... what pages the visitor visited; with the exact time they went to that page ... the number of search engine hits; with the key words ... and much more. -- By reviewing the FREE e-mail report each morning, I can get a comprehensive overview of the activities of my visitors for the preceding day. (About the only thing it doesn't tell me is the visitor's e-mail address ... dang it.)

One of the things I like about my morning traffic report is that I can see, not only what pages my visitors visited but also how many minutes & seconds each visitor spent on each page ... how many times they revisited a page ... and where they went from page to page. -- I study the report ... sometimes running to 20 pages or more ... every day.

How do I use the information from my traffic report for my testing purposes?

By studying my traffic reports, I can tell which referring sites are giving me the most response. -- For example, if you click on the link at the bottom of this posting, I will know (tomorrow morning) that you visited from this posting ... what page you entered my site on ... what other pages you visited ... how long you stayed on my site ... how long you stayed on each page. -- Knowing that, I can determine whether or not this posting inspired anyone to visit my site.

Another way I use the traffic reports is to check how many visitors I get from paid ads. -- When someone visits my site by clicking on a link in a paid ad, the traffic report tells me the source. -- That way, I can determine whether or not the paid ad was effective.

One test I ran was when I used one of those services that promise "thousands of visitors to your site, guaranteed." -- That particular service didn't produce the "thousands of visitors" they promised - but - they did produce a few hundred - BUT - each of the visitors came directly to my home page, stayed a few seconds (just long enough to leave mud on my carpet) ... never went to another page ... never visited again. (Found out the "service," paid people to visit the sites listed ... total payments equalling about one-fourth of what I paid for the ad.) -- Didn't do that again.

Another way I use the traffic reports is to check "updated pages" on my site. - Since I keep records of each page's visits, when I update a page I simply compare the visitors' activities for the updated page against the visitors' activities for the old page. -- Do they stay longer, or leave sooner? Do they revisit the page? Do they leave the site at that page? Where do they go from that page? - If the "new" page is better than the "old" page, they will stay longer ... maybe even revisit the page. If the "new" page isn't as good as the "old" page, they will leave sooner and not revisit the page. -- You would be amazed at the things I learn about my visitors' foibles from the way they navigate my site.

While I was learning to use my traffic reports to 'test' my marketing stategies, I also learned about the "query" line. -- By simply putting a "?" at the end of my URL, the server would ignore anything after the "?" but whatever was after the "?" would appear in my traffic report at the end of the URL for the page address visited.

Learning that, I could very easily add a "query" line (just a "?" followed by my code) at the end of my URL ... no matter where I posted or listed the URL ... and know where the visitor came from.

Also, when I use a mailto: e-mail address in an ad, posting, or article, I add the "query" line at the end with "Subject=" followed by my coding message to be placed in the subject line. -- That let's me know exactly where the inquiry (or whatever) came from. -- I use the same technique for my autoresponder ads. The 'subject' in the autoresponder inquiry tells me where the inquiry came from.

Beyond the "query" line, I also asked my ISP to set up my website e-mail so (anyname)@businesslyceum.com would come into my central mailbox. Then, I set the filter on my e-mail program so each different name would go into a separate folder in my inbox. -- That way, I could use the e-mail address itself as a "code" to track responses.

With these limited tools ... I am sure there are others I haven't discovered, yet (I'm a newbie) ... I can "TRY" every harebrained marketing scheme that comes down the Internet pike - and - by tracking the responses, or activity, I can pretty easily determine what will work for me ... and what won't.

As an example: An Internet marketing guru advised that posting to "News Groups" was a highly effective method of driving "traffic" to a web site; giving a number of News Group addresses that would accept ad-copy. So, I joined all the News Groups he recommended and proceeded to post my messages ... each message with one of my tracking methods embedded in the message for response ... obeying the rules of each group. -- It didn't take very many postings to learn which News Groups produced results and which were a waste of time.

I have also used the same technique for various (and many) "Free Classified" sites, "FFA" sites, "E-zine" ads, "Discussion Boards," and even direct e-mailings to (supposedly) qualified opt-in lists. -- Keeping those that produced results ... deleting those that didn't.

Just as I have always done in my mailorder business, I will slowly, but surely, build a stable of methods, techniques and media that work for me and just do it over, & over, & over ... multiplying my profits. And, even when I seem to have a full stable, I will continue my testing to continue adding methods, techniques and media that work for me.

As I said in the beginning, "testing" is what separates the winners from the wannabees in the mailorder business and, now, the Internet marketing business. -- But, you gotta do it every day ... you can't just use your tracking methods once and forget it. You have to do it with every method, technique and medium you use ... keep good records ... watch every indicator ... leave nothing to chance.

Right now ... using only the tracking methods I have thus far discovered ... I can identify the source of right at 80% of the visitors to my site. -- Not quite as good as my mailorder tracking - but - it's getting there.

By the way, I am still learning -- so, if, after reading this article, you know of other testing methods I might use, PLEASE tell me about them.

Ain't it terrible ... having to work so-o-o-o-o hard to get rich quick.

Jim


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