Do you want to boost your copy’s effectiveness? TEST, TEST, and TEST some more! [Tuesdays: “Write with the Pen of the Masters”]
Legend has it that Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, had a unique hiring technique.
Whenever he would recruit anyone for an important position in his company, he would first have lunch with that person. If the potential employee would salt the food before tasting it, Ford wouldn’t hire that candidate.
Why?
Ford believes that salting the food before tasting it is an indication that the person would execute a plan without testing it!
According to Jay Abraham in the book, “Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got,” it’s important that marketers test everything before doing something for a certain business or brand.
In his words,
“It’s simple and the payoff can be enormous. It’s not all unusual when you test and compare the effectiveness of one approach against another for the superior approach to outperform the inferior one by as much as 10 or 20 times.”
Abraham also said that when you sell your products or services without testing, you might only deliver a fraction of what your approach or strategy might yield. This means…
Unless you start testing different responses and performance levels, you’re leaving massive potential on the table!
As a copywriter, how can you apply this principle?
Through copy testing.
Copy testing is a comprehensive approach used as part of marketing research to test the effectiveness of an ad based on responses prior to it being published. This method helps you understand whether or not your advertisements carry a strong and compelling message.
Why You Need to Test, Test, and Test Some More
Copy testing is important. Without it, you won’t know how readers will respond to your copies.
As a copywriter, you shouldn’t just use psychology and beautifully-designed graphics to make your copy appealing to readers; you should also conduct tests to make sure what you write is effective and addresses your customers’ pain points, demands, preferences, etc.
Here’s an example of a company that experienced the benefits and impacts of copy testing:
SwitchVideo is an animated video explainer company that helps clients produce, implement, and track the success of their video projects.
In 2019, the company conducted a survey to learn more about its customers. By asking a few questions about their preferences and reasons for checking SwitchVideo’s website, the company learned that most of its customers were interested in pricing.
The next thing that SwitchVideo did?
It conducted an A/B test on one of its web pages’ call-to-action button to see what between “Get a Free Consultation” and “Get a Free Quote” appeals more to online visitors.
After a week of testing, the company learned that more visitors clicked on the “Get a Free Quote” version of the web page.
Why?
The word “quote” is related to pricing and pertains to the last price at which a security or commodity is traded or the recent price that a buyer and seller agreed on!
The A/B test result was consistent with SwitchVideo’s survey that showed most of its customers were interested in pricing. This led the company to permanently use “Get a Free Quote” as the call-to-action button on its web page.
The result?
The number of people who signed up to get a free quote from SwitchVideo increased by 221% in March 2019!
See? Testing works to a brand’s advantage. In SwitchVideo’s case, it was just a one-word change and yet it made a significant impact on the number of form submissions the company received!
This example doesn’t require you to become a top genius to figure out that even a small change can make a BIG difference!
Here’s the bottom line: Avoid underestimating the importance of copy testing.
As Jay Abraham said, this could help you unleash revenue and profit potentials you never knew were possible for your brand.
Simply using logic and your knowledge of different copywriting techniques won’t get you to the best-converting copy. Sure, these will help you generate good ideas, though they won’t always guarantee that you’ll come up with compelling and effective copy for your target market.
So…
Make testing a part of your key processes as a copywriter!
You’ll see, this will enable you to experience breakthroughs you never thought were attainable for your writing career and your brand.
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Tuesdays: Write with the Pen of the Masters”
Who doesn’t find content writing to be a skill that requires a lot of practice and effort?
In fact, many people may even find copywriting very intimidating.
However, you can be a good writer as long as you have the right tools. You won’t always get things right the first time, but with enough time and practice, you’ll get the hang of it!
When you write a copy for any brand or for your company, your aim is to make an impact and…
…to get people to remember.
Getting people to remember means getting consumers to buy your product or to avail of your service.
And when you get your content to deliver the results you want, THAT is a great copy!
Every Tuesday, we publish content based on tips and insights from the masters of content writing, copywriting, and storytelling.
Become more familiar with ways to write great copy that helps you gain ROI from your efforts, drive profitability, and achieve your business goals.
Learn time-tested tactics that better capture the attention of your target audience, and maximize the benefits of great copywriting.
Hope you found this week’s insights interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next Tuesday’s “Write with the Pen of the Masters!”
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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