For nearly 100 years, Direct Marketing has been provoking response. Via mailer, infomercial or live at an event, the goal is to get a consumer or business person to react. The same goal we share as affiliates.
So how can we leverage what they have learned?
Test, test and test again. At Daily Conversions, we have always focused on testing, from our ground breaking Homeless Split Test to last week’s post by Brian on how dress (the equivalent of design for a site) can impact response rate. Direct mail was where the concept of split testing was developed, tuning the offer, ad copy and design to see what causes people to react. Good affiliates do the same.
It amazes me that many people I consult with are still unaware of technology that makes this testing easier. Last week I met with a CMO that was unaware of simple analytics reporting average time on the site, as well as the percentage of click per visitor. How can you test without measurement?
Plus offers get stale. There is a great story about Henry Ford cancelling a print ad campaign because he was “tired” of it. Turns out, the ad had never been seen in public – it was just internal testing that bored Henry. Readers don’t cancel campaigns – they just tune out.
To increase the yield from your site, keep testing and keep it fresh. Work with design, text and color to see what gets higher responses. Then do it again.
Great information through this blog on Direct mail.