Big Gains From Small Edits

In the world of Email marketing, there is always room for improvement.  Sometimes, the biggest improvement can come from the smallest of edits.

The most minor adjustments to your email template have the potential to cause click-through (the % of people who actually click on a link) and open rates (the % of people who open and view an email instead of just ignoring or deleting it) to suddenly skyrocket, and in turn, drive large amounts of sales, traffic, sign ups, or conversions. However, the only way to truly learn from your template adjustments is to implement them one at a time utilizing classic scientific procedure. By isolating your adjustments, you can learn which varying factors improve your campaigns and which hurt them.

A/B Split Testing for Email

The best approach for this experimental improvement is commonly referred to as A/B Split Testing: a function available within most email marketing services.

The actual process for Newsletter A/B Split Testing  involves splitting a small, randomally selected subset of your mailing list subscribers into two groups. Then, each groups receivs an email that is nearly identical, save a small tweak that you are testing. For example, you might test different subject lines to see how that affects open rate. Once the results are measured, you then send out the “winning” variation to the all the users who didn’t receive  one of the original test emails.

To reiterate, the only difference between the two emails going to the two small test groups should be the single factor that you are testing.

An Example

Acme, Inc. would like find out which color link attracts the most clicks. In the current version of their newsletter, link is displayed in a big red font with no special decoration.

In order to find out if this is the optimal presentation for clicks, they up an A/B test that includes two identical newsletters except for this big red link. Email #1 would include the standard big red link link with no special decoration while Email #2 would include a blue link with no special decoration.  While it may tempting to experiment with decorating the link or creating a special button, that should be saved for the next test in order to keep the currently tested color variable completely isolated.  The reason for only testing one tweak at a time is so that there is no doubt about what caused the increase.  To continue testing ways to improve click-through rates, further A/B tests could be done.

But links are not the only thing that can be tested in newsletters.  Other potential variables include:

• Subject-Line: Test subject lines to increase open rates.
• From-Line: Test which “from” address results in the highest open rate.
• Landing Page: Find out which landing page to link to by seeing which one results in a higher conversion rate
• Time of Delivery: The time of day that email is sent could have a significant impact on open rates and recipient activity across all metrics.
• Presentation of Calls to Action: Not getting enough clicks? Try testing the color of and style of buttons.
• Just About Every Aspect of A Newsletter: Almost anything in a newsletters can be tested for improvement.

Remember: scientific testing is the only true path to improvement in your campaigns.  While there are many preachers of best practices out there, what works for most may not work for your list. The only way to be sure is to test test test.

For some marketers, especially B2B companies, the holidays may be a time of year when things slow down, which can be the perfect opportunity to thoroughly cleanse your PPC account and get it to deliver more bang for your buck. On the heels of my blog post on landing page optimization, here are 10 ways to make your PPC campaign more profitable.

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1. Make changes that matter.


Don’t just look for what is not performing well in your campaign, look for areas that would have a big impact on your ROI if it were working better. See what campaigns and ad groups within each campaign represent the greatest share of your overall paid search budget.

Once you’ve identified the most critical areas of your campaign to optimize, start by taking a look at your Quality Score. Improving it will help you reduce your cost-per-click in relation to the position of your ads. This involves looking at each keyword’s CTR, associated ads and taking some of the following steps:

2. Create better targeted ad groups.


Look through your ad groups to find keywords with low Quality Score or low CTR and see what ads are showing up for them. Consider placing these keywords in another ad group with ads that are more relevant. In the case of broad match keywords, use the “See Search Terms” report to find some common queries you are getting clicks for. If some of the keywords that often get clicks are relevant to you, consider using them as a phrase or exact match in the same or new ad group.

Besides using the “See Search Terms” report to better target relevant keywords, use it also add to list of keywords that you do not want to target.

3. Curate your negative keyword lists.


Add negative keywords to your list so that your ads show for more relevant searches. You can find these in the “See Search Terms” report.

4. Use broad match modifiers.

If you have not done so already, add the new broad match modifier to your ad groups. This type of matching is more flexible than phrase and exact match while doing a better job of targeting than broad match. Bid on this match type higher than you would on broad match, and lower than phrase and exact match.

Your CTR does not only rely on your keywords, so it’s important that your ads get users to click.

5. Test your ads.


Look for ways to make your ads stand-out against your competition and test different ideas. Let ads compete against each other and gather sufficient data before eliminating one or more ads. When you come across a test result in one ad group, consider applying what you learned to other ad groups.

Everything I’ve listed so far is primarily meant to increase your CTR. But what about making sure that each click is the best click you can get?

6. Filter out unwanted clicks.


Provide information in your ad copy that will deter your most common unwanted customers. For example, if your services start at $5,000, consider using that in your ad copy. This may go against our strategy of increasing our CTR, but its benefits may outweigh the loss by increasing the value of each click.

7. Use match types to control bids.

Look at broad match keywords that are consuming a lot of your budget, without delivering the goods in the form of conversions. Consider reducing your bids on some of those broader keywords and increase bids on phrase and exact match keywords that are delivering good results.

8. Show ads at the right time.


After doing some preliminary testing by showing ads throughout the day and days of the week, configure your bidding schedule to get your ads more attention when it counts.

I’ve covered most things leading up to the click. Now let’s look at what to do about what visitors see after they click on your ad.

9. Improve device targeting.

Make sure that if you are targeting mobile devices that you are sending traffic to a mobile-friendly page and that this mobile traffic is in a separate campaign from your desktop computer targeting.

10. Conduct landing page optimization.

Work on continually improving the conversion rate of your landing pages. At the end of the day, no matter how cheaply you can generate traffic to your website by improving Quality Score or how well you can filter out unwanted clicks, if your pages are not focused on turning each visitor into a client, then you will always be spinning your tires in the mud. If you need a few tips to get you started, check out 84 Tips For A Killer Landing Page Design.

Below is a demonstration of the effects of conversion optimization on ROI:

ibibo.com, a social networking site focused to India, has made a tie up with MTS India to offer social networking for MTS MBlaze customers.

ibibo.com has also launched ‘MyVoice’ which enables users to post voice status updates directly from their phones irrespective of GPRS enabled or not. This service is very simple – first register your mobile phone with this service, and to record and upload the voice status SMS ‘RECORD BEEP’ to 58247 or 5676746. Or you can just click one link on web. SMS will cost Rs3/SMS from most of the operators.

After that they will receive an incoming call from ibibo asking to record their message like voice mail. The audio of recorded message will be uploaded as a new ‘beep’ on ibibo immediately with a status of “I have recorded a new voice beep on ibibo. To listen, sms PLAYBEEP <code> to 5676746 or go to link given by ibibo”.</code> [via telecomtalk]

How to Get Traffic? If I look back at the failed web sites I created between 2002 and 2008, and especially those that didn’t profit me in any way, shape or form, I can see one common denominator – traffic.  It’s literally the key to everything online – if you have targeted traffic in abundance then you’re laughing all the way to the bank.

That’s why I’m always looking at ways to siphon traffic from relatively unknown sources; those that haven’t already been exhausted or so competitive that the return on investment (whether that be time or money) isn’t justified.

So, given that I’m pretty much certain that you want more traffic – here’s some lesser known traffic strategies you can use to get a foot up on your competition.

1. Document Sharing Sites and Ebook Directories

Over the last few months, I’ve been taking article marketing to the next level.  Instead of simply writing a 500 word post to directories, I’ve been looking at ways in which I can leverage my article content to get added exposure in a variety of different formats.  One thing that’s worked really well for me is to write short e-books on the subject of my niche and distribute to a variety of e-book web sites.  The statistics show over 2,000 visits and more than 30% opt in over the last 3 months.

At the end of the day, the success of this strategy simply boils down to value.  If you can provide useful material in your book and you add the occasional reference to your opt in page or blog then book writing is a very useful strategy.  I’d also recommend including a note at the beginning of the book to give the reader the rights to give away the book to create that viral capacity.

Not a fast writer?  I write my books with Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.  Simply talk into your headset and the software will transcribe for you.  You can have the book done within the hour.

Here are some great sites to submit to:- changethis.com, ebookjunke.com, getfreeebooks.com, thefreesite.com, ebook88.com, and docstoc.com

2. Video Marketing

YouTube, the search engine with the most searches (even more than Google) yet a thousand times easier to rank for.  Is it about time you started video marketing to the masses?  I like to create videos from my article content to create as far wide reach as possible.

There seems to be this misconception that video marketing is difficult and time consuming.  In a recent case study, I wrote a series of articles and had the video creation outsourced for under $10 at elance.com.  Failing that, you could have your videos created automatically at articlevideorobot.com although the quality is somewhat hit and miss.

Personally I like to create my own videos using Camtasia and the PowerPoint plugin (free version available at camstudio.org).  You can record your screen  from within PowerPoint.  Simply create a slide for each section you make in your article and freestyle the commentary.  It’s wise to have a link back to your site within the video and within the description of the video box too.

When submitting your videos, try a free service called at tubemogul.com to submit your videos to a ton of different video sites – not just YouTube!  This is another little tip to maximise exposure, and of course backlinks.

3. Podcast Directories

By simply taking the audio file of the video you’ve created in part 2, you can get exposure from podcast directories.  Choose your keywords carefully and get in the habit of submitting to the major directories, namely: podcastdirectory.com, podcastalley.com and podfeed.net.

4. Article Marketing to Publishers

One of my favourite ways of driving traffic because it has the added bonus of a strong and varied backlink profile that does wonders for your PageRank and Google search listings.  There are literally thousands of web sites out there that are happy to accept your content.  From ezine newsletters to high profile news web sites.

To find them requires a bit of ingenuity.  I like to download the SEOQuake plugin for Firefox (available from seoquake.com) and then do Google searches such as:  niche + “guest post”

If the SEOQuake bar is on and active, you’ll then be able to sort the men from the boys by ordering the listings by PageRank.  It’s also helpful to have the Alexa toolbar (from alexa.com) installed so you can roughly gauge the popularity of the results.

5. Cheap PPC Methods

Personally, I love driving traffic to my sites through free methods as opposed to paying for my traffic, but when I found out about this little strategy I simply had to check it out and take advantage of it.

Google Adwords is generally pretty expensive, but the big G has recently introduced new ways of advertising on the platform.  By using image ads across the content network you can drastically cut down the cost per click.  In fact, the last time I used it (a few months ago), I was averaging a little over 1 pence per click.

Affiliate marketers be warned – if you’re promoting poor quality sites with the sole purpose of making a buck or two then you’re running the risk of getting your account banned, so be careful.

Over the last couple of years I’ve dedicated my time to figuring out how to drive laser targeted traffic to my web sites and the results are paying dividends.  My advice to you is to concentrate on one traffic strategy (article marketing, pay per click, joint ventures, video marketing etc) and get good at it.  You’re much better off being 90% good at one thing than 10% good at everything.  Once you master one, you can always start to look at another. Here is a list of 16 most powerful traffic sources to drive laser targeted visitors to your web site.