Testing!

An effective testing program can produce a 20 to 30 percent increase in online revenue, often with very little off setting cost. And yet, many ecommerce sites rarely test. They all have some justification for it, such as:

• We never have time to test because we’re so busy getting out promotions that we know work.
• We don’t have any test ideas right now.
• We had an idea for a test, but our engineers/web company said it was too difficult to do.
• We tried a test last year and it didn’t work.

If you recognize your company in any of the above, here’s the good news: most of your competitors think the same way. You can get a great competitive advantage by making testing a critical part of your 2010 marketing plans.

An effective testing program takes:

• Discipline. There will always be something more pressing to take care of. Create a test calendar, just like your email calendar, and stick to it.
• Focus. The purpose is to increase online sales. Don’t get distracted with tests that, even if they worked, have no chance of increasing revenue by at least 10 percent.
• An outward view. Look at other sites to come up with test ideas, not just your own.
• Practicality. Test ideas that don’t require significant programming changes. Every site has limits. No matter what your limits are you can find something worthwhile to test.

So now, the only question is what to test…stay tuned for my next blog post.