Split Testing
Was talking to a client and graphic designer yesterday about split testing. Here is a great example of something to test and the reson for it from a newsletter I received this morning.
Dear Direct Response Letter Subscriber:
I have dealt with this complaint before, but it comes up every now and then, and recently, I heard it from a potential client
who wanted to sell Web services to marketing managers at Fortune 500 and middle market corporations.
“Our copy is too simple,” the client said of his web site. “This sounds as if we are talking to small business owners. Our
audience is senior managers at Fortune 500 companies. The tone needs to be much more professional and sophisticated.”
Oh, really? Says who?
One of the biggest misconceptions about writing to CEOs, CFOs, and other senior executives is that they speak some alien language that has only a passing resemblance to the conversational or written English you and I use every day … and that, to sell to this special audience, you have to emulate or copy this special language.
But the reality is: C-level executives put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else. They read the same blogs you do … go to the same movies … listen to the same radio stations … watch the same TV shows.
Yes, it’s smart marketing to understand your audience and then write copy that speaks to their specific needs, fears, concerns, problems, and desires.
And you want to tailor the tone and style of your language to your audience to a reasonable degree. For instance, you wouldn’t use off-color language when writing to ministers. Or use equations in differential calculus when writing to factory
workers.
But ministers, chemists, accountants, engineers, computer programmers, while they all may speak the specialized language of their trade, also speak a common language: the English language. And that’s the language you should use when writing your copy.
How do I know I am right? The same way we know anything about direct marketing: through testing.
I have tested “plain English” copy against “high-falutin” copy numerous times over the span of my 34-year career in direct marketing … and 99 times out of 100, the same language that works for “ordinary folks” sells just as effectively to CEOs, Ph.D.s, and yes, even rocket scientists.
It is easy enough to see this for yourself. Study the controls in any market, for any kind of product. Collect as many e-mails and direct mail pieces as you can that you know to be strong controls, because they have been mailed repeatedly.
Now divide them into two piles: those written in plain English vs. those written in jargon, big words, or “high falutin” language. If you have collected a dozen samples, I guarantee that the number in the “plain English” pile will be 12 or 11 … no fewer than that … proving my point.
I once interviewed more than a hundred CEOs, including those at many Fortune 500 companies, to ghostwrite a book
Leadership Secrets of the World’s Most Successful CEOs (Dearborn). Without exception, they were all plain-speaking men and women, using direct, straightforward, conversational language in their written and oral communication – even those in computers and IT.
The world’s most respected writing authorities all agree that good writing is clear, simple, and direct.
“Clutter is the disease of American writing,” writes William Zinsser in On Writing Well (HarperCollins). “We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.”
And what about my claim that good writing is “conversational”?
“You can’t actually write the way you talk,” writes Rudolph Flesch in The Art of Readable Writing (Harper & Row). “You can, however, put a reasonable facsimile of your ordinary talking self on paper. You can purposely put into your writing certain things that will make it sound like talk.” (He cites contractions as one example.)
One other point: as a chemical engineer myself, I have been writing copy aimed at engineers, scientists, mathematicians, systems analysts, and other “techies” for 34 years. And in all that time, I’ve never been told that the simple, plain English copy I wrote was “too easy to read.”
Of course, you can always test my claim that plain English outpulls “high falutin” language for yourself. Here’s how….
The next time a marketing manager says of your conversational copy, “It’s not professional enough,” offer to do a split test: your version against his.
Then you’ll know definitely what works best for your audience … rather than relying on his (or yours, or my) opinion.
(RG, a colleague, did this with a direct mail package aimed at executives, and his conversational version beat the “professional package” 3 to 1.)
Make sense? Of course. Doing an A/B split test always does, right?
Sincerely,
Bob Bly
P.S. For more information on how to write clear, conversational
copy, visit:
www.writebetterandfaster.com
Bob Bly
Copywriter / Consultant
590 Delcina Drive
River Vale, NJ 07675
Phone 201-505-9451
Fax 201-573-4094
www.bly.com
56 Million Exterminated After Gun Control Implemented
5 stars for this one stolen from the Other Place!
What struck me as interesting was that over 33 million, more than half, of those disarmed citizens started dying within a year of gun control being implemented by their government. Ass soon as gun control came in the government started exterminating them.
Would lead one to suspect a causal relationship between the desire to implement gun control and the intention to commit mass murder.
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A LITTLE GUN HISTORY
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
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China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
—- ————- ————-
Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
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Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.
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You won’t see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.
Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.
Take note my fellow Americans, before it’s too late!
The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.
With guns, we are ‘citizens’. Without them, we are ‘subjects’.
During WW II the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!
If you value your freedom, please spread this anti gun -control message to all of your friends.
The purpose of fighting is to win.
There is no possible victory in defense.
The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.
The final weapon is the brain.
All else is supplemental.
SWITZERLAND ISSUES EVERY HOUSEHOLD A GUN!
SWITZERLAND’S GOVERNMENT TRAINS EVERY ADULT THEY ISSUE A RIFLE.
SWITZERLAND HAS THE LOWEST GUN RELATED CRIME RATE OF ANYCIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!
IT’S A NO BRAINER!
DON’T LET OUR GOVERNMENT WASTE MILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE ALL LAW ABIDING CITIZENS AN EASY TARGET.
I’m a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment!
Intel Did It!
They created a physical version of the animated muscial machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLdB0WEixjM
$9,000,000,000,000 MISSING From The Federal Reserve SHOCKING FOOTAGE
Rep. Alan Grayson questions the FED inspector General where $9 TRillion dollars went… and Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman hasn’t a clue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QK4bblyfsc
Move On
New Research Confirms Wheat Gluten Promotes Weight Gain
New research confirms some of the basic tenets of the Wheat Belly, a book by Dr. William Davis, which argues that wheat avoidance results in healthy weight loss.
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/wheat-gluten-newly-confirmed-promote-weight-gain
The Body Heals With Play…
Too simple but a good start.
You Won’t Hear About This On The News
On Sunday December 17, 2012, 2 days after the CT shooting, a man went to a restaurant in San Antonio to kill his X-girlfriend. After he shot her, most of the people in the restaurant fled next door to a theater. The gunman followed them and entered the theater so he could shoot more people. He started shooting and people in the theater started running and screaming. It’s like the Aurora, CO theater story plus a restaurant!
Now aren’t you wondering why this isn’t a lead story in the national media along with the school shooting?
There was an off duty county deputy at the theater. SHE pulled out her gun and shot the man 4 times before he had a chance to kill anyone. So since this story makes the point that the best thing to stop a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun, the media is treating it like it never happened.
Only the local media covered it. The city is giving her a medal next week.