Know-How Exchange : E-Marketing

Hot Times Start With Cool Drinks

1) Go to Google´s Website Optimizer and look at its split testing service. If your database is small, just play around with the suggestions you will receive from others, trying them out.

2) If your database is large, you might want to get a little more sophisticated. Send out multiple test versions to sample groups. If you like math, go to the library and look up in a basic statistics book how to calculate "optimum sample size." Actually, come to think of it, you can probably just google the phrase.

3) There is (or used to be) a good free download on "how to write a headline" at www.psychotactics.com. The website is that of Sean d´Souza, a former cartoonist and copywriter from India, now Internet entrepreneur in New Zealand. He is keen on the power of asking a question as a lead in.

4) With your split testing, I would include versions with cartoons, others with "sex appeal." One really is best off letting the customers decide. Decades ago as an adolesent at a New England prep school, and quite the intellectual snob, I was horrified at a proposed summer party campaign featuring fireworks with the slogan: "Start the summer off with a bang!" That was inane and would put the girls off.

Not only did the slogan lead to tremendous "buzz," but it has stayed in my memory all these years. No, no, what worked in that peculiar enviroment so long ago is hardly likely to be relevant today. I´m just relating the anecdote to emphasize the importance of split testing. You just never know what will really work.

Regards, JH