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How to Create Reality Tests in Your Marketing
It’s a little frightening to talk about my mom so soon after her passing, but I’m sharing this blog with you because she played such a pivotal role: My “Mom Reviewer.” This is a term I created for having an OUTSIDER review your stuff before you send it. She’s the one who’ll catch your industry terms, misspellings, or over-reaching assumptions in your blogs, articles, white papers, or ethical bribes.* (Wait! My mom would have caught “ethical bribes” and told me she has no idea what it means!).
Stop Inhaling Your Fumes!
Now is the time to institute a reality test. Well-written communication earns you raving fans, kudos, and customers. And, more importantly, it saves you from embarrassment.
Create a “Mom” Reviewer Now! –You can designate anyone outside of your industry to act as your reviewer. In fact, I have my clients team up with each other to act as reviewers.
Use Networking as Your Test – Before committing to a tagline, for example, designate one event for Tagline A and another event for Tagline B. Use one exclusively throughout the mixer and gauge the reaction. Feel free to ask questions as this is part of your marketing research! Note if one outperforms the other in terms of recall, understanding, or creativity.
Test Subject Lines – If, like me, you wonder which subject line will bring in the best results, split your email list in two subsets; keep everything exactly the same except the subject line. Track your metrics to determine the winner for your list.
Stop questioning yourself and start asking others. Have questions? Fire away! me know what you think by dropping me a quick note. Or, post comments below.
PS: *An ethical bribe is the device you used on your website as a lead generator; you gave them great content, they give you their email address.