Here’s some of the best ad advice I ever done got:
“If you are not running enough tests that are really flopping, then you are not doing your job…A very good copywriter is going to fail. If the guy doesn’t fail, he’s no good. He’s got to fail. It hurts. But it’s the only way to get the home runs the next time.”
Who said that?
The late great grand puba of marketing Eugene Schwartz.
And he wasn’t just whistlin’ dixie, either.
Case in point:
Right now I’m writing a fartload of squeeze pages for a client. Not just 2 or 3 test panels… but before I’m done I’ll probably have 20-30 test panels being tested. Some of them play it “safe” (not veering too much from their current control) and some are so off the charts crazy different, they probably think I’m a nutcase for even submitting them.
But you know what?
I fully expect 95% of these tests to FAIL.
To me they are all dead ads walking to that great electric chair of cyberspace where probably only one of them will survive the onslaught.
In fact, my first test already failed by a fat 20%.
And that’s good!
Did not bother me one bit.
I knew it’d either win big or lose big.
And that’s really the name of the game.
I mean, what would you rather have — 100 “play it safe” tests that add up to a 100% increase over weeks or months… or one BIG winner that beats your control by 100% in a day?
Which do you think will make you money faster?
Something to think about.
To paraphrase one of the great American minds:
“Failure is COOL, Beavis.”
Ben Settle
P.S. Hey, those old school marketing guys knew their stuff. If you want to learn at the feet of one of the last few old school direct marketers (still teaching), then check out the free teleseminar Doberman Dan is putting on for web marketers who want to learn the ins and outs of direct mail.
Plus, when you attend you get a cool gift:
A free Crypto Marketing Newsletter issue (in pdf) about direct mail.
Details at:
