What are the best practices for testing new marketing initiatives and innovations on a budget?

1 Define your goals and metrics

Before you launch any new marketing initiative or innovation, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure it. This will help you prioritize your efforts, allocate your budget, and evaluate your results. Start by defining your SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) and aligning them with your overall marketing objectives. Then, choose the most relevant metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you track your progress and impact. For example, if your goal is to increase conversions, you might use metrics such as conversion rate, cost per acquisition, and return on ad spend.

2 Choose the right testing method

Depending on your goals, metrics, and budget, you can choose from different testing methods to experiment with new marketing initiatives and innovations. A/B testing involves creating two versions of the same element (such as a landing page, an email, or an ad) and comparing their performance on a specific metric. Multivariate testing requires testing multiple variations of multiple elements (such as headlines, images, or colors) at the same time and finding the optimal combination. Beta testing entails releasing a new product, feature, or service to a selected group of users and collecting their feedback before launching it to the wider market. To run these tests and analyze the results, you can use tools such as Google Optimize, Optimizely, Unbounce, VWO, Adobe Target, UserTesting, BetaTesting, or Launchrock.

3 Segment and target your audience

One of the key factors that can affect the outcome of your testing is the audience you choose to test with. You want to make sure that you test with the right people who represent your ideal customers and who are likely to respond to your new marketing initiative or innovation. To do this, you need to segment and target your audience based on criteria such as demographics, behavior, interests, needs, and preferences. You can use tools such as Google Analytics, HubSpot, or Mailchimp to segment and target your audience and personalize your marketing messages.

4 Start small and scale up

When you test new marketing initiatives and innovations on a budget, you want to minimize the risk of wasting money and time on something that doesn't work. That's why it's advisable to start small and scale up gradually. This means that you should test with a small sample size of your audience, a low budget, and a short duration, and then increase them as you see positive results and learn from your data. You can use tools such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or LinkedIn Ads to set your budget, duration, and frequency for your tests and optimize them as you go.

5 Learn and iterate

The final and most important best practice for testing new marketing initiatives and innovations on a budget is to learn and iterate. This means that you should analyze your data, draw insights, and make changes based on your findings. You should also document your learnings, share them with your team, and apply them to your future tests. You can use tools such as Google Data Studio, Tableau, or Databox to visualize and communicate your data and insights and make data-driven 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?