Brief Overview

Some of your biggest discoveries as a business owner are going to come from your willingness to experiment and to try new things. In this episode, I am going to tell you a few of the things that I have tried that have led to massive results.

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Big Ideas

Marketing is Nothing But an Experiment [0:35]

One of the things that took me a long time to wrap my head around is that marketing is nothing more than one big experiment. I used to be a perfectionist and it would take me forever to get stuff out, but I finally realized that I always ended up making changes anyway once I started seeing what’s working and what’s not.

In 2004, I heard a very powerful quote from a friend of mine Mike Lipman, who said “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.” This quote pushed me to finally go, try stuff and experiment.

What Pushed Me to Get Started [1:36]

In my early career, I was a part of a mastermind and at one point I shared my big master plan with the person running this group. As I was enthusiastically explaining all the details to him, he stopped me and said, “Stu, you don’t need any more ideas. You just need to take action on one idea. That one idea is going to start teaching you what to do next. Until you get started, no momentum can be created for you. Doesn’t matter how big and elaborate your plan is, it’s not going to matter unless you get going.” I want you to give yourself permission to experiment and realize that business is nothing more than a big experiment.

All the Experiments That Successfully Worked [3:39]

There are a couple of things that we have tried that worked really well, but had we not tried, we would have never known. This is why no matter what type of campaign or promotion we’re going into, I am always looking to try a few new things and variables to see if something hits. And when we discover something that works, we do more of it.

You heard me talk about this before in Episode 064 when I shared how one innovation with our Facebook ads led us to a single ad that we spent less than $100 on, and that produced over $73,000 in sales. Or in Episode 059, I talked about an experiment that James Wedmore has done with his audience with a series of emails that produced over $50,000 in sales through a group of people who initially said no. And then in Episode 101, I talked about an idea that you and I can implement immediately on our thank you pages, instantly generating more revenue.

A Few Things That Worked Well For Us [5:52]

We took one of the ideas from last year that worked really well – a Facebook ad that we ran to people who came to our check out but didn’t buy. We decided to double down and experiment not just with the abandonment from the people who were right on the verge of buying, but also with people who landed on our free TRIBE workshop page but didn’t register. And it worked!

Another experiment is playing with the opt-in page. We had done some small split testing in the past, but this year we decided to get obsessive about it, and it’s making a massive difference. When it comes to split testing, start with the big rocks first. Here are a couple of areas that we focus on:

1. Headlines – the first thing that pops up and turns people on or off right away. By testing different headlines, we found out pretty quickly the one that works best to help us increase our conversions.  
2. Hero image – the image that is above the fold. We swapped out a bunch of images, and could instantly see the one that was out polling the others.
3. Call-To-Action – what you actually have on your button. The CTA massively influences whether people are going to opt-in or not.

What Helped Us Boost Conversions by Over 10% [8:53]

This year, we also started using the concept that allows us to tailor our messages to a specific person who visits our page based on where he/she is on their journey. The follow-up message for the person who is somewhere earlier in their stage of growing their business would be totally different than it would be for somebody who already has an established membership site.

We asked people directly where they are on their journey, and they could choose from four different options. In the past, we have done that survey on the front-end, meaning they’d select the option first and then put their email in.  This year, we did a split test – asked people for their email first, and then did the survey second. And just swapping those two steps boosted our conversions up to 12%.

Keep an Experiment Mindset and Get Going [10:35]

The crazy part is, you never know these things unless you try and test. These things happen all the time if you’re willing to experiment. I want to encourage you to experiment, try new things in your next campaign and see what sticks with your audience. So remember, you have to have an experiment mindset, and you have to get going. If you don’t do this you’re never going to learn what works, and you’ll never fully be able to realize your potential as a business owner and as somebody in marketing.

When you discover things that work, keep them and double down on them. Then each time, add a few more things to experiment with, and you’ll continue to discover more and more winners.  

Resources

TRIBE Workshop
MYB 059 – The $50,000 Emails
MYB 064 – Our $73k Facebook Ad
MYB 101 – An Awesome Idea For Thank You Pages

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