In the direct response marketing world you often hear advice to test - test - test reiterated so  many times it’s easy to discount or makeup some excuse as to why you know better.  You say to yourself…“We have done this in the past and it worked”…or…”I know this market I understand what they want.” But, conversions are a tricky thing, and now because you have assumed too much,  that sales page you had that was converting at 1.5% after a few of the improvements you made is now converting at less than 1%.

Every market is different, and the truth, as cliche as it sounds, is that everything must be tested.  Testing can be  a frustrating and tedious process, but it can also be incredibly enlightening as well as profitable.  Despite being a pain in the ass sometimes, the good news is that once you have tested and found that magical combination of page elements resulting in the highest conversions, you can likely keep that page converting at that level for a long time.

Here are some things I am constantly reminded of whenever I test:

• Never assume that what works for someone else will work for you.  Here I am thinking of graphics. On our last round of tests we tested two sales pages, one with fancy graphics and one without. Guess which won? The one without the high end graphics.
• Remember, if we are testing sales pages, the goal is only about conversion. If you can convert with a short page do it. Copywriter’s will lead you to believe you need a bunch of sales copy on your page. This is not true for every sales page. If you dispute this take a look at some of the highest converting CPA offers. Many have very little ad copy. In a recent test we found that removing all the copy except for a the headline, some bullets, and a few testimonials improved conversions on by 400%.
• The offer…I see pages all the time that have dozens of bonuses, and bonuses can improve conversions, but it depends on the bonus. It is also possible to drive people away or cheapen a product with bonuses.Think beyond bonuses and go for creating an irresistible offer. I’ll tell you a personal favorite, forced continuity or installment payments and a $1 puppy dog close.
  What makes this an irresistible offer is that you are allowing people to take your product and try it for only a dollar. If you are selling digital products it’s true that some people will get the product and cancel right away but many more people are honest and if they find your product useful will be happy to pay the next three installments of $29.95 or whatever.
• Consider payment options. Here’s an example for a product we recently tested.
  • Option 1. Buy the digital version report for only $24 dollars.
  • Option 2. Get the digital report and audio version for $1 dollar now and two payments of $29.95
  • Option 3. Get the digital report plus audio and video for only $1 dollar and three payments of $29.95
  • Option 4. Buy the full home study course shipped to your door for a one-time payment of $149
• Create multiple landing/sales pages for different segments of your market. Don’t make the mistake of assuming one page is right for all segments of your market. For instance, one could be tailored for women, another for men, one for younger women/men, one for older women/men, you get the idea.

The point is that you really must test. There are just so many variables  that it is foolhardy to think (even with years of experience) you can get everything right the first time. It is also totally worth it. Think about it, a couple of percent change in conversion can mean hundreds of percent change in profit. For instance, if you were converting at 1% on a $50 dollar product and it cost you $30 to drive 100 visitors to the page you would make $20 for each $30 you spent. If you improved conversions by 2% you would still be paying $30 to drive the same amount of traffic, but now you are making $120 for every $30 you spend. It pays to test.

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