If It Ain't Broke...Leave It Alone!
One of the biggest mistakes I see both veteran and newbie marketers alike make is switching up and changing marketing campaigns that still work.
The question is why? If a marketing campaign is working and making money why not just leave it alone?
I think there are four good answers to that question:
1. BOREDOM. We marketers tend to get bored easily. Sometimes we screw around with perfectly good marketing campaigns simply because we're tired of them, and we're trying to break up the monotony a little bit.
2. Challenge. I also think we do it as a challenge to ourselves - to see if we can improve what's working to make it work even better.
3. Monkey See, Monkey Do. We see other marketers changing their campaigns, so we do the same thing too (i.e., "Who Else" headlines.)
4. Bad Advice. Some expert suggested that we gut our entire ad or salesletter.
Okay, excuse me while I yell at you for a moment...
IF IT AIN'T BROKE...LEAVE IT ALONE! DON"T EVER CHANGE SOMETHING THATS WORKING, JUST FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE!
Sorry for yelling. I just wanted to make sure I got my point across.
You need to keep in mind, just because you're sick and tired of looking at your ad or salesletter doesn't necessarily mean your prospects are, and they're the only ones who count in this equation.
I want to go back to the aforementioned point number two, where I said:
"I also think we do it as a challenge to ourselves - to see if we can improve what's working to make it work even better."
That's perfectly acceptable, as long as you do it the right way. I'll touch on that in a moment.
In the meantime, remember these words:
"A change is only a good change, if it actually improves the situation. Otherwise it's just a change for the sake of change, and that can be fatal to your business."
Let me give you a few examples to illustrate what I'm talking about:
Legendary marketer and copywriter Joe Karbo's famous Lazy Man's Way to Riches ad ran for many years in tabloids and newspapers worldwide. Karbo never changed a word.
A company in Florida ran an ad in the popular children's magazine, Highlights giving away a "free" salamander to each customer. They ran the same exact ad for over a decade.
The famous Dale Carnegie ad, "How to Win Friends & Influence People" also ran in publications worldwide for years without any changes.
But don't people get tired of seeing the same old ads over and over again?
Not necessarily because your ad is constantly being exposed to new audiences.
Prospects who have never seen your ad before will suddenly see it for the first time.
In addition, while people may change, for the most part, their wants, needs and desires pretty much remain the same. That's why generally speaking, a campaign that worked last month will work again next month.
It's also important to bear in mind that not everyone is an impulse buyer. Most prospects need to see your ad several times before they decide to take action.
That's why, if it ain't broke you should leave it alone.
Does that mean you shouldn't attempt to test your ad or salesletter to see if you can improve it?
Absolutely not. Just test on a small scale.
Now I know that's a 360 degree turn from everything I've just told you, so let me explain.
It's necessary to test your ad or salesletter to make sure it's performing at
it's optimum level - sort of like changing the oil in your car, so to speak.
But again, I want to emphasize that you want to test on a small scale only.
For example, change your headline and run a split-test against your current headline.
If the results of the split-test show that the new headline out-performed the old headline, you know it's time to change.
You should also test your opening sentence or paragraph. If the results of the split-test show that the new opening out-performed the old opening, you know it's time to change.
Following are twelve important elements of your ad or salesletter that you should test:
1. Above-the-fold elements (this anything you see on your computer screen without scrolling down)
2. Pre-Headline
3. Headline
4. Sub-Headline
5. Opening sentence or paragraph
6. Hook
7. Testimonials
8. Price
9. Bonuses
10. Guarantee
11. Close
12. P.S.
In addition, you should also test other elements as well including fonts, graphics, USP, mailing list, etc.
And I can't emphasize this point enough:
When testing, only test one element at a time.
Don't test multiple elements at the same time, and don't gut your entire ad or salesletter, otherwise your results will be skewed.
In other words, you won't know which changes worked and which ones didn't.
Why is this so important?
Because testing one element at a time allows you to isolate what works and what doesn't.
In closing, there’s nearly always room for improvement in ALL copy. Just make sure you're not changing anything just for the sake of change.
|
Linear Mode
