Brent Hodgson, Copywriter

When you think about it, it’s SUCH an obvious concept…

But at the time, it’s also SO valuable.

When you’re testing, you want to test EVERYTHING at the largest part of your sales funnel. That means you shouldn’t necessary test sales copy on your sales page.

This one concept will make a zillion percent difference to your efficiency as an internet marketer.

If you just said “ah”, scroll down to the bottom now and show your appreciation

But if you said “huh?”

Then let me explain what I mean… Because if you’re split testing, or if you want to improve your conversions, this is going to make a WORLD of difference to your effectiveness.

When you’re split testing the conversion rates of a sales letter, the faster you can collect a large number of “responses” (clicks, sign-ups, buys, sales leads, whatever), the faster you can optimise the sales letter.

You need “responses”.

And you need as many of them as possible.

It’s the reason a page that gets a lot of traffic (or, has a high conversion rate), can split test faster than a low-traffic page (or, a page with a low conversion rate).

So the more traffic you’re getting, and the “easier” it is for people to say “YES!”, the more results you’ll get, and the faster you can optimise.

Simple!

Consider this model…

You have a fairly standard internet marketing website - you have a simple squeeze-for-email that signs people up to an autoresponder on the homepage. This then leads to a longform sales letter. If people choose to buy, they’re asked if they want to upgrade to a premium version of your product (an upsell). And you’re driving traffic through Google Adwords to your site.

Have you been paying attention?

Good!

Let’s test your lateral thinking skills… Grab a piece of paper and write down the answers to these 4 questions:

Question 1: What’s the most effective and efficient way to test the headline of your Upsell page?

Question 2: What’s the most effective and efficient way to test the appeal of your sales page?

Question 3: What’s the most effective and efficient way to test what you should be offering people in exchange for their email addresses on your squeeze page?

Question 4: Where should you be testing different Adwords ad variations to work out what your market will respond to?

Have you completed the quiz?

What were your answers?

Upsell pages get the fewest hits of any page. They usually have phenomenal conversion rates, but with the fewest visitors of any of these pages, they’re the hardest to test. Although you might want to test the sales copy for this page ON this page, it’s going to take FOREVER to optimise.

Sales pages require a big buy-in. If the conversion rate of your sales page is 10% (like one of my clients), you’re killing them - do whatever… But if you’re like most people and in the 0.5-2.0% range… then you’re going to be waiting forever for a result here too.

Squeeze pages, you have a much higher result - a lot of my clients run squeeze pages that convert between 10%-50%. This is a good place to test.

HOWEVER…

In the example above, the answers to Questions 1, 2, 3 AND 4 is “With different Adwords Ad Variations”.

This is at the very “opening” of your sales funnel - it’s where you’re going to get the biggest data set, fastest.

By testing your appeals, headlines and everything else at the highest point in your sales funnel, you’re able to optimise everything faster and more effectively.

“But, Brent! Adwords is different to a sales letter, or a squeeze page, or an upsell… You’re testing on two different mediums.”

You’re correct - however there’s an important distinction you’re probably missing…

The same person who responded to your upsell - they were the same person who responded to your salesletter, the same person who responded to your squeeze page, the same person who responded to your salesletter.

Any “appeal” you’re testing, it doesn’t matter where you test it in your sales funnel, you’re essentially testing it on the same person each time.

That’s why you should test it at the “widest” point of your conversion funnel, on a call-to-action that’s incredibly easy to respond to (like a click), in order to test to the biggest data set and get the best response rate so that you can get results as fast as possible.

…In essence, you’re optimising your optimisation!

It’s so freakin’ obvious… but so powerful!

Brent

P.S. - There’s huge value in surrounding yourself with other smart marketers.

I wouldn’t be a fraction of who I am today as a marketer if I didn’t have people around me like Eugene Ware, Pete Williams and other smart dudes.

All the credit for this idea goes to Eugene Ware.

If you want to show your appreciation to Eugene, leave a comment below.

P.P.S. - If you want to network with other smart marketers, also leave a comment. You’ll receive an email from me that includes my email address. Use it!

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