How do you test new marketing ideas?

1 Define your goal

Before you test any new marketing idea, you need to have a clear goal in mind. What are you trying to achieve with your idea? How will you know if it's successful? How will it align with your overall marketing strategy and objectives? A good way to define your goal is to use the SMART framework: make it specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, your goal could be to increase conversions on your landing page by 10% in 30 days.

2 Formulate your hypothesis

Once you have your goal, you need to formulate a hypothesis that explains how your idea will help you achieve it. A hypothesis is a testable statement that predicts the outcome of your experiment. It should include three elements: your idea, your target audience, and your expected result. For example, your hypothesis could be: adding a video testimonial to the landing page will increase conversions by 10% among new visitors.

3 Design your experiment

To test your hypothesis, you need to design an experiment – a method of collecting data and measuring results that can either validate or invalidate your hypothesis. Depending on your idea and goal, there are various types of experiments you can use. For example, A/B testing can be used to compare two versions of a web page, email, ad, or other element to determine which one performs better. Multivariate testing can be used to compare multiple variations of multiple elements to find the best combination. Additionally, landing page testing involves creating a separate web page for a specific offer or campaign to measure its effectiveness. Finally, social media testing is used to test different types of content, formats, platforms, or timings to see which ones generate more engagement, traffic, or conversions.

4 Run your experiment

Once you have designed your experiment, you need to run it and collect data. Depending on the type of experiment, you may need to use different tools and platforms such as Google Analytics, Google Optimize, Unbounce, or Buffer. When running your experiment, it is important to consider best practices such as defining your sample size and duration, segmenting your audience, controlling variables, and monitoring progress. You should also decide how many people and how long you need to run your experiment to get reliable results, target and group your audience based on their characteristics, behaviors or preferences, isolate and test only one variable at a time while keeping everything else constant, and track and report data and results throughout the experiment.

5 Analyze your results

Finally, you need to analyze your results and draw conclusions from your experiment. This is where you compare the actual outcomes with the expected results, and see if your hypothesis was validated or invalidated. To do this, you can use tools like statistical significance, confidence interval, conversion rate, and cost per acquisition. When analyzing your results, ask yourself questions like: did the idea achieve the goal? Was the hypothesis validated or invalidated? What did you learn from the experiment? What can be improved for the next one? Testing new marketing ideas is a continuous and iterative process that can help you improve marketing performance and discover new opportunities. By following these steps, you can test ideas with confidence and data to make smarter marketing decisions.

6 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?