How do you learn from testing digital and social media marketing?

1 Define your objectives

Before you start testing, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you'll measure it. Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive sales, or improve customer loyalty? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will show you if you're on track? For example, you might use impressions, clicks, conversions, or retention rates as your KPIs. Having well-defined objectives will help you design your tests, choose your platforms, and analyze your data.

2 Choose your platforms and channels

Depending on your objectives, you might want to test different platforms and channels for your digital and social media marketing. For example, you might want to compare the effectiveness of email, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube for reaching your target audience. Or you might want to test different features within the same platform, such as stories, reels, or live videos on Instagram. You should also consider the costs, benefits, and limitations of each platform and channel, and how they fit with your brand identity and message.

3 Create your hypotheses and variables

A hypothesis is a statement that predicts the outcome of your test based on a specific variable. A variable is a factor that you can change or control in your test, such as the headline, image, call to action, or timing of your marketing message. For example, you might have a hypothesis that says "Using emojis in the headline will increase the click-through rate of our email campaign". To test this hypothesis, you would need to create two versions of your email, one with emojis and one without, and send them to different segments of your audience.

4 Run your tests and collect your data

To run your tests, you need to have a reliable and consistent method of delivering your marketing messages to your audience and collecting your data. You should use tools that allow you to track and measure your KPIs, such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or email marketing software. You should also make sure that you have a large enough sample size and a long enough duration for your tests to produce valid and reliable results. You should also avoid running multiple tests at the same time or changing other factors that might affect your results.

5 Analyze your data and draw conclusions

Once you have collected your data, you need to analyze it and draw conclusions based on your hypotheses and objectives. You should use statistical methods and tools to compare the results of your different versions and see if there are any significant differences or trends. You should also look for any unexpected or surprising results that might reveal new insights or opportunities. You should summarize your findings and report them clearly and concisely, using charts, graphs, or tables to illustrate your data.

6 Apply your learnings and optimize your strategy

The final step is to apply your learnings from your tests and optimize your digital and social media marketing strategy accordingly. You should use your data and conclusions to identify what works best for your audience, goals, and budget, and what needs improvement or adjustment. You should also use your learnings to generate new hypotheses and variables for future tests, and to refine your objectives and KPIs. You should also monitor and evaluate your strategy regularly and keep testing and learning from your digital and social media marketing.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?