Contrary to what a few goo-roo fanboys think, I am not anti-testing.<\/p>\n
I think some marketing tests make sense.<\/p>\n
And, I think some don\u2019t make any sense at all.<\/p>\n
But, either way, I am always amused when people brag about their testing after they have a \u201clightbulb moment\u201d where they discovered the most basic and obvious of marketing principles, as if they were the first to discover it.<\/p>\n
Take the 2008 Obama email team.<\/p>\n
There was a detailed write-up about how they got so much dough many years ago.<\/p>\n
And, make no mistake, their emails made a lot.<\/p>\n
In fact, their emails brought in $600 million worth of donations with emails \u2014 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\u2019t. It was good ol\u2019 \u201cretro\u201d email.<\/p>\n
Anyway, they did a lot of good stuff.<\/p>\n
And, I even wrote an Email Players issue about it several years ago.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
And I believe this was the case because they sucked at research.<\/p>\n
They had the brand.<\/p>\n
They had the right message-to-market match.<\/p>\n
They even had great \u201cwriters.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019d have not only brought in way more bacon (I daresay in my infinite madness from my asylum, maybe even twice as much…), but wouldn\u2019t have had to waste so much time testing to find out the obvious about their market.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I talk about my way of research in the November \u201cEmail Players\u201d issue.<\/p>\n
Specifically, in the bonus “Ravings of an Adman” insert I am including.<\/p>\n
To get your hands on this sucker, subscribe before the coming deadline.<\/p>\n
Once I send it to the printer, it\u2019ll be too late.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the link:<\/p>\n