Contrary to what a few goo-roo fanboys think, I am not anti-testing.
I think some marketing tests make sense.
And, I think some don’t make any sense at all.
But, either way, I am always amused when people brag about their testing after they have a “lightbulb moment” where they discovered the most basic and obvious of marketing principles, as if they were the first to discover it.
Take the 2008 Obama email team.
There was a detailed write-up about how they got so much dough many years ago.
And, make no mistake, their emails made a lot.
In fact, their emails brought in $600 million worth of donations with emails — which blew away everything else they did for fundraising, including direct mail and social media. Everybody thought it was social media that brought home the bacon but it wasn’t. It was good ol’ “retro” email.
Anyway, they did a lot of good stuff.
And, I even wrote an Email Players issue about it several years ago.
They found lots of interesting insights from testing. But, it was as amusing as it was astonishing to me how they had to test to find out the most basic info you already probably know just reading my free emails, much less reading my monthly Email Players newsletter and accompanying Email Players Playbook.
And I believe this was the case because they sucked at research.
They had the brand.
They had the right message-to-market match.
They even had great “writers.”
But, had they known the right market intel going in, with the right research, using my not-so-secret way of doing customer research (that allowed my ads and emails to dominate handily, and without even breaking a sweat, including when I knew nothing about those markets, in overheated markets like weight loss, golf, and self defense) they’d have not only brought in way more bacon (I daresay in my infinite madness from my asylum, maybe even twice as much…), but wouldn’t have had to waste so much time testing to find out the obvious about their market.
Anyway, I talk about my way of research in the November “Email Players” issue.
Specifically, in the bonus “Ravings of an Adman” insert I am including.
To get your hands on this sucker, subscribe before the coming deadline.
Once I send it to the printer, it’ll be too late.
Here’s the link:
Ben Settle
