Discover Marketing

When you apply the scientific method to selling, you are a scientist performing experiments in order to prove a theory. What’s your theory? The best way to more your products, of course. The method is shown below step-by-step. First outlined in general terms; then in marketing specific terms.

1. Ask a Question
2. Do Background Research
3. Construct a Hypothesis
4. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
6. Communicate Your Results

At step 5, if your data does not support you hypothesis, you must go back and rebuild it and test again. It the same with a marketing campaign.

1. Who’s your target.

The question becomes more specific. I can even change if you chose to start your research in other areas.

2. Research your target and your product.

Who buys your product? Why do they buy it? When do they buy it? What else to they buy? Where and how do they buy it?

3. Build your ads

Formulate your approach. This is where imagination come in handy. You may also have found in your research some techniques or methods of building ads. Don’t ignore them. Other marketers have performed their experiments and derived results that worked. Their results probably won’t work for you a well as for them. But its a good place to start. Build a number of ads with different approaches you think customer are likely to respond well to.

4. Run a campaign

This is your experiment. When you experiment you need to keep good records. This takes foresight when building your ads. You have to include a way of tracking results with your ads. You don’t really have a control in this scenario. Its more like a race to see who wins. You are testing the ad against one another.

Examples of tracking methods: If you distribute a coupon, put a code in the corner. Count the number of coupons with certain codes. Request they mention the ad and count how many mention it. A link from a website is easy to track. Slightly altered pricing for separate ads. There plenty of way to track an ad. Research will aid you as well as your imagination.

5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion

Now that your campaign has run its course, you have a pile of data. The data will show, according to your tracking method, which ads did the best and which did the worst. Draw conclusions as to what made some ads better than others. What made some fail or perform poorly.

6. Return to step 3 and repeat with new data in mind

With your findings in mind, rebuild the ads accordingly. Test out the characteristics you think worked and throw in one or two new ideas. You will continue this cycle. Test ads, scrap the losers and improve the winners, try new ideas, and test again. Continue until you reach a plateau. This will likely be where the most can come of your campaigns. Do what works best.

The results you come up with will have cost you an investment in money and time. It is valuable information; to your business and your competitors’ business. As a trade secret or perhaps even a product.

Apply this method to your ad and you will see improvement.

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