Be the Man with the Plan

Testing for testing’s sake is all well and good, but to really understand your customer you should have a strategic plan and calendar that creates long lasting lessons you can draw on.

Here’s something I put together for a travel industry client that has a business line selling gift cards. This is a pretty simple plan because the client doesn’t get a lot of traffic and we have to reduce complexity in order to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible.

In December:

Q: Does holiday gift giving content convert at a higher rate over adventure travel?

Plan: do a 2×2 copy and image test MVT Surfing Girl image vs. Xmas tree image and copy “I’m sending ____to_____” vs. “Travel is under the tree this year”. Then do a second confirmation test with similar but slightly different content. By having this be an MVT test you can see if the holiday themed copy with the surfing image converts better than the surfing image with “I’m sending” copy, thus giving further confirmation of your findings.

Result: You find out if a holiday theme is the right one for this product. You now have a strategic understanding you can carry over to next year.

In January:

Q: Are cold weather escape images (beach) better at converting vs. winter sports (skiing) and for which region of the country?

Plan: hero image A/B test with generic copy around “getting away” that would apply equally to both. Create geolocation personas by region (New England, Southeast, etc.). Do second confirmation wave with similar but slightly different hero images.

Result: You now know what kind of content appeals to which regional segment. You can carry this learning over to the next year.

In February:

Q: Now that we’ve figured out which kind of vacation appeals to which region how can we optimize that?

Plan: using the regional segments and the winning hero image for each segment, do copy tests to determine the best approach.

Result: You have leveraged the last test to further refine and understand your customer on a much deeper level. Example: You now know that Midwesterners want to see images of the beach and copy that reflects family fun.