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Testing And Tracking Your Business

Testing And Tracking Your Business

Before you run your first ad, before you send out your first

email, there are two important questions you need to answer.

1. Who is your target market? 2. What makes them buy or sign up

with an organization?

The easiest and cheapest way for you to find the answer to these

two questions is through testing and tracking. These methods

will highlight your advertising strengths and weaknesses and

allow you to maximize your marketing dollar. Testing:

The purpose of testing is to increase the response rate to your

ad or offer. For instance, you could write a sales letter and

test out different headlines for the ad. Often a headline can

make all the difference in your response. Many marketers have

increased sales by as much as 200% simply by changing their

headline. Remember, even if your ad is producing steady sales,

you should always test. A small change could move your sales

from steady to overflowing!

advertising campaigns....

Tracking:

You should keep track of everything you do in your business. Not

just your profit and expenses, but also your promotional and

advertising campaigns.

Let's say, for example, you're running an ezine ad. What kind of

information should you keep track of? The most essential are:

Where you placed the ad including the name of the ezine and date

the ad was run How many subscribers to the ezine The cost to you

The number of responses generated by the ad - Dividing this into

your cost will show you how much you paid for each response The

number of sign ups you got as a result Contact person and email

address for ezine The URL of the ad you used. This is especially

important if you promote more than one program Any comments or

notes you'd like to keep Headline used in the ad You could also

keep track of other items, depending on how detailed you would

like to be. The important thing is to study the numbers. Some

ads may produce great interest but if no one buys, your profit

is zero. Other ads may produce only a few click throughs but

generate more sign ups. Which ad was worth the most to you?

Obviously, the second one.

You will also probably use other forms of advertising, such as

maybe a pay per click program, and it is just as essential that

you keep track of these numbers as well. Set up a spreadsheet in

Excel or keep one on paper. Every dollar you spend on marketing

should be tracked so you don't waste precious money on things

that aren't working.

Also, don't forget, if you have a prospect and you're not sure

how they found you, ask them! You must keep track of all your

leads.

Do not underestimate the power of testing and tracking! By

following these techniques, you'll know exactly where you're

making money online.

About the author:

By: Anne Ahira Editor The BEST Affiliate Newsletter

http://www.thebestaffiliate.com