Most do too little of this.

We're all in a hurry. We all think we know a heck of a lot more than we do and all too often, we're not intelligently doing one of the most important things in marketing.

Testing.

Now sometimes you can do well without it - and what has to be present is huge margins, a lot of talent, and some luck.

The very first full-page ad I ever created for a client, we bought $220,000 worth of media without ever testing the ad. We got lucky more than anything else. But you know, I got a lot of talent.

The product had a huge margin and we got lucky, but it's no way to buy media. What you want to do is you want to get is what's called a ‘control’ in direct response?

A ‘control’ is whatever it is that works for you reliably at a level that’s acceptable to you, be that a sales letter, a postcard, a broadcast fax. You’re gonna have that control for a long period of time. Then you test one variable at a time to try and improve its performance. Only one. So if you test more than one, you don't what worked and what didn't.

Now if you're gonna test and change the headline, you can't change anything else. If you change the headline, and the price of the photograph, you've accomplished nothing, because now you don't know which worked. So you always test one thing at a time.

The reason very few people do this is because it's painful, it takes time, and it requires discipline (meaning somebody's gotta track the numbers), and so very little of this gets done. But if you are concerned with maximum profitability in a business, you will discipline yourself to do it.

The same thing is true with race horses. You can only change one piece of equipment at a time and then you gotta race them a couple of times and go change another piece of equipment.

This requires enormous patience, but if the payoff justifies the patience, then one variable at a time can make a difference.

And always remember the dinky little things can make a difference.

Now, this is number 10 in my list of 10 ways to get better responses in your marketing. If you’re a member of my NO B.S. Newsletter, you can listen to the other 9 instantly in “Brass Balls“ starting on CD 6 in your members area. If you’re not a member yet, get the full Brass Balls course and more, including 3 courses and my book ‘Magnetic Marketing’ for free when you try my NO B.S. Newsletter today.