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7-Letter Word That Should Determine Everything

Can you answer these 4 'savvy' Internet marketing questions...

1. Why do many savvy Internet marketers use lots of links in their email promotions?

2. Why do many savvy Internet marketers continually change their opt-in page?

3. How do savvy Internet marketers continually improve their results, ROI, website conversions, etc.?

4. What one thing do most savvy Internet marketers base ALL of their marketing decisions on?

The answer lies in one little 7-letter word.

And, it's a part of Internet marketing that most successful marketers take seriously while a majority of novices rarely even consider it.

Personally, I believe it's the one thing that truly separates the really successful marketers from the ones that never quite "figure it out".

So, what am I talking about?

Well, before I give you the answer, let me just give you a little word of warning:

As I'm writing this blog post, I'm sitting on the balcony of our suite up in Orlando over-looking acres and acres of undeveloped woods. It's a rarity in Florida, especially South Florida and the West Palm area, where I live. So I'm really soaking in the view.

I'm here for a little mini-vacation with my family; yesterday spent at a really interesting little "theme park" called the Holy Land Experience. No rides or anything, but a bunch of really neat presentations, archaeological artifacts, and some amazing replicas of areas in Israel.

Below are some pics:

This is a miniaturized display of Israel back in biblical times. You actually can't even see the whole display in this picture. It was that big!

This is supposedly a 1/3 model of the old temple that used to be in Jerusalem.

This was supposed to be what the tomb looked like that Jesus came out of in the Bible. Later, we actually went inside it. Pretty wild!

Here's my dad getting ready to go toe-to-toe with one of the actors there playing a Roman soldier. Dude was pretty intimidating.

Who's this yutz?! Yikes! I look like a Roman soldier from a Mel Brooks movie.

Anyway, what does my trip to the Holy Land Experience have to do with this blog post and the answer to the 4 questions above?

Not much really, other than just that my post and answer to those questions will be somewhat brief and to the point, so I can get back to the fam and my breakfast biscuit.

So, here goes:

The answer to each of the 4 questions above is...

TESTING!

In other words, savvy marketers understand and recognize that their opinion is worth very little when it comes to their on-going marketing.

The beauty of marketing... specifically direct-response... is that it's mathematical.

It's numbers-driven.

So, everything you do can and should be quantified.

And, ANY and EVERY change you make to ANYTHING you do should be tracked and measured.

This is how you continually improve your marketing.

Measure your results. Test something new against it. Measure those results. Compare the two. Continue with the one that got the better results. Then, start the process over with a new test. And so on, and so on, and so on.

For instance, how do you know if 3 links in your email promotions will get you better results than just having 2 links? You won't unless you test.

How will you know if the 21% opt-in rate you're getting right now on your opt-in page is the best you can do? Maybe with a headline change or graphic change or color change or formatting change you can increase that number to 31% - having a massive impact on your sales.

How will know if the current price you're charging for your product is the optimal price-point? You won't unless you test new prices. For all you know, increasing your price-point by 20% could actually increase your sales. How do you know unless you test?

Once you really grasp this idea of testing and tracking, you should realize that the only thing stopping you from continually improving your marketing and web results is just regularly testing new versions of what you're doing right now. That's it. Period.

And, until you no longer want to improve your marketing, results, business, etc., you should never stop testing. It's the on-going testing of your website elements (i.e. headline, offer, testimonials, guarantee, price, images, captions, etc.) that will allow you to continually get better and better and better.

If you're not testing regularly right now, here's what I would advise you to do:

Using Google Website Optimizer (free with an Adwords account) I would begin doing an A/B split test of your landing page and sales page every month.

Try a different headline on the opt-in page and a different price-point on the sales page.

At the end of the month, using the simple reporting feature in Google's Website Optimizer, analyze which version did better - the original opt-in or the new version, the original sales letter or the new version - then, going forward, make the winner the control that you test against.

Again, this process of on-going testing and tracking to continually find the best performing elements of your marketing and website is what will allow you take a site barely converting and turn it into a machine. Seriously. And, as I previously mentioned, EVERYTHING you do with your marketing should be driven and determined by the data and results you get from tests, not by opinion or feeling.

Which headline do you use? The one proven most effective by your testing and tracking.

Which price-point do you go with? The one proven most effective by your testing and tracking.

How many links do you use in your email promotions? The amount proven most effective by your testing and tracking.

Get the point?

The money is in the testing and tracking.

Talk to you soon.